Sure, I grew up on a farm, and have kept a plot of urban earth lush and productive for five or six seasons now. So, I’m an expert, right?

Absolutely not. There’s always something to learn, always a first experience. Take the leaf miners that mined their way through my spinach, chard, and beets last spring. Completely unfamiliar to me. And who can forget the pepper maggots? Apparently those hidden and grotesque larvae have been dining on my peppers ever since I began my community garden plot. And for the longest time I thought my peppers were just water logged or rotting prematurely.

We all can benefit from a little, or a lot, of coaching in the garden. Burpee Home Gardens is ready to help. No, they are not sending out troops of farmers to solve your veggie gardening problems a la the Best Buy Geek Squad, although that is a pretty cool idea. Instead, they are making available a free mobile web tool that is designed to be a veggie gardener’s in-hand helper.

The Burpee Garden Coach

It’s called the Burpee Garden Coach, and it sends text message reminders and allows web-based interactions on a smart phone. And its services are there to support you from the moment you choose your plants right on through to the harvesting and preparation of your veggies.

Here are some of the features of the Burpee Garden Coach:

• Veggie advice via text messaging throughout the gardening season that gives you planting date tips, care reminders, and help in making your gardening adventure a successful one.
• Access to the complete Burpee Home Gardens variety lineup via your mobile phone. That means you can check out your tomato information right there from the garden.
• The My Garden tool lets you record, document, and rate plants in your very own online garden journal.
• Get local weather forecasts
• Find recipes for the veggies you’re growing. Always a good thing in my book.
• Find Burpee Home Gardens plants at local garden centers with the Garden Coach’s Retail Locator.

Even More

Want to learn more about it? The Burpee Garden Coach website includes a video tutorial that shows you how it works.

Full disclosure: One of the many paychecks I receive each month is from the same parent company that operates the Burpee Garden Coach. But that didn’t influence me in the least. This tool seems like a great concept, and although I havent signed up for it yet, I will be doing so as soon as the snow starts to disappear. With each passing year, I need as many electronic reminders as possible about what I need to do and when.