What does this tool do?
This tool matches the plants in the library to the conditions you describe. Rather than ranking plants by popularity, it filters and scores them against three constraints that decide success or failure more than anything else: light, space, and whether the plant is the kind of thing you want to grow.
Each match shows its reasons, so you can see why a plant appeared. If you set your location in the header, plants currently inside a planting window for your freeze dates get flagged, which separates "this grows here" from "this can go in now."
The three questions
How much sun does the spot get?
Light is the constraint you cannot fix. Fruiting crops like tomatoes, peppers, squash, and most herbs want at least 6 hours of direct sun. Leafy greens and roots manage on 4 to 6. Under 4 hours, the honest options are shade-tolerant ornamentals and a short list of greens, not vegetables.
If you have not measured, the number you guess is usually high. Track the spot hourly on a clear day after trees have leafed out, or run the sun calculator first and use its classification here.
Where will it grow?
Containers exclude anything that needs room to run: sprawling squash, melons, corn, and woody fruit. Compact vegetables, herbs, and small flowers suit pots. A raised bed handles everything up to large single plants like broccoli and cabbage. A full plot takes the whole library, including the spreaders that stay out of the other lists.
What do you want to grow?
Vegetables, herbs, flowers, and fruit each draw from the matching category in the plant library. Choosing "anything" gives the widest view, which is useful when a spot's conditions matter more than a specific harvest.
How the matching works
Every plant in the library carries a sun requirement, a spacing range, and a category. The tool scores each plant on how well its requirements overlap your answers, drops anything that conflicts, and returns the best fits first. A plant is never recommended without reasons attached, because an unexplained list is no better than guessing at a seed rack.
The scoring is deliberately simple and transparent. It does not account for water, soil pH, or your climate beyond the optional timing flag, so treat the matches as a shortlist to confirm on each plant's page rather than a final verdict.
Reading the results
The reason chips tell you the fit story at a glance. "Compact enough for containers" means the spacing data fits pots; "suited to part shade" means the plant tolerates your light. "In a planting window this week" only appears when your location is set and the crop is in season, which makes it the strongest reason on the card.
A match that lists a compromise, like a fruiting crop in part sun, will grow but expect lighter yields. When the list is thin, your conditions are the constraint, and the honest fix is usually more light or more room rather than a different plant.
Common mistakes
Buying for appetite instead of conditions
The most common gardening failure is loving tomatoes and growing shade. Let the match list surprise you; part shade grows excellent lettuce, and containers grow real food when the right plants are chosen.
Ignoring mature size
A seed packet and a young seedling both look small. The spacing data behind this tool is mature plant spacing, which is why melons drop out of container results even though their seeds fit in a pot.
Treating "easy" lists as universal
Lists of easiest plants assume full sun and a bed. Mint is easy in a pot and a problem in a bed. Match the plant to the spot first, then worry about difficulty.
When this tool may not be the right choice
The tool narrows a library of common garden plants by the big three constraints. It does not replace crop-specific timing; for that, the what-can-I-plant-this-week tool reads your freeze dates directly. It also does not cover native plant selection by ecoregion, lawn alternatives, or indoor houseplant care, which follow different rules.
Where our data comes from
Matches come from the same plant library that powers the plant pages: sun requirements, spacing ranges, and categories are taken from each plant's record. The planting-window flag uses NOAA freeze date normals for your ZIP code. Sun thresholds follow the standard definitions used by extension services: full sun at 6 or more hours, part sun at 4 to 6, and shade below 4.
Frequently asked questions
Why is a crop missing from my results? It failed one of your three answers, usually sun or space. Loosen an input, containers instead of a bed for example, and the list reshuffles.
Can I really grow vegetables in shade? The tool is honest about it: no fruiting crop makes the shade list. What you get is the short set of plants that genuinely tolerate low light, mostly leafy and root crops, with the trade-offs noted.
Does the tool know my climate? It matches conditions, not dates. For timing, pair the result with the planting calendar or the what can I plant this week tool, both of which work from your ZIP code's freeze dates.
