Garden Ledger

A local planting journal for a home garden. It keeps a log of what you planted, checks upcoming nights against each crop’s cold limit, and can talk to Claude through MCP.

Weather comes from Open-Meteo (no API key). The catalog is a small set of kitchen crops, herbs, and companions. Everything about your plot stays on your machine.

Your data stays private

These files are yours. They are gitignored and should not be published:

First-run setup writes config.toml for you. If you fork this project, leave those files out of GitHub.

Related MCP server: opensprinkler-mcp

Requirements

• Python 3.11+

• Optional: Node.js only if you use MCP Inspector

Install

python -m venv .venv
.\.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
pip install -e ".[dev]"

macOS / Linux:

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"

First run (web app)

garden-planner-web

Open http://127.0.0.1:8765/. The app asks:

1. Where is the garden? City, town, or ZIP. Pick the right match so forecast and frost use that point.

2. What is the plot like? Name, aspect, sun, typical last spring frost and first fall frost (US dates are fine). Frost dates are prefilled from latitude if you do not know them.

3. What is growing? Optional rows for plant, variety, bed, date, quantity, and notes.

You can skip plantings and use Log a planting later. Edit (top right) opens fields; Save writes them and returns to the journal view.

First run with Claude

If you use Claude Desktop or another MCP client, attach this server and start from the set_up_my_garden prompt. The same interview lives in prompts/garden-setup.md if you want to paste it.

Claude should:

1. Ask for location (or coordinates)

2. Call search_places and confirm the match

3. Ask about the plot and each bed / planting

4. Call save_garden_setup so config.toml and the SQLite log are written locally

MCP Inspector

From the project directory, with the venv active:

npx.cmd @modelcontextprotocol/inspector python -m garden_planner

On Windows, if PowerShell blocks npx, use npx.cmd. Point Inspector at the venv Python if python is not that interpreter.

Claude Desktop

Edit %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows) or ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS). Use your clone path:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "garden-planner": {
      "command": "C:\\path\\to\\garden-planner\\.venv\\Scripts\\python.exe",
      "args": ["-m", "garden_planner"],
      "cwd": "C:\\path\\to\\garden-planner"
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop after saving.

Tools: search_places, save_garden_setup, log_planting, list_plantings, update_planting, get_forecast, frost_check, planting_window

Temperatures in tools and the web UI are Fahrenheit. Dates accept forms like 2026-05-01, 05-01-2026, and 5/1/26.

Tests

pytest
pytest -m network

The network mark hits Open-Meteo’s archive (used to replay a known freeze).

License

MIT. See LICENSE.