Two metres decides whether it lives
Light falls away fast — the far side of a room can get a fraction of what the windowsill does. LeafRanger maps where your plants actually stand, measures what each spot gives, and tells you which ones are in the wrong place.
“Bright indirect light” is not an instruction
It’s the most repeated phrase in plant care and it tells you almost nothing about your own flat. Here’s what these phrases mean once you put them in a real room.
This is what the home map is for. Once the app knows which corner a plant stands in and what that corner actually gives, the advice stops being a phrase and starts being about your room.
Six levels — and they rename themselves for a farm
A plant doesn’t live in a list, it lives somewhere. The same six levels describe a studio flat and a commercial nursery — only the words change, and the app changes them for you.
- Home
The place itself — a flat, an office, a farm, a greenhouse. You always have at least one, and it can never be deleted. - Floor
A storey, a greenhouse, a field or a building. What it physically is decides both its name and how its light is modelled. - Room
Living room, area, section — the space inside. This is where light starts to differ dramatically. - Spot
The shelf, sill, bed or bench a plant stands on. This is the thing that gets photographed and scored. - Placement & Plant
Exactly where in that spot it stands — and finally the plant itself, with its own history and schedule.
A flat or a house uses the everyday words. One Home comes with every plan.
| Level | Flat | Office | Farm | Greenhouse |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | Home | Office | Farm | Greenhouse |
| Floor | Floor | Floor | Greenhouse | Greenhouse |
| Room | Room | Area | Section | Section |
| Spot | Spot | Spot | Bed | Bench |
| Placement | Placement | Placement | Row spot | Bench spot |
| Plant | Plant | Plant | Plant | Plant |
A photo of the corner becomes a number you can act on
You already own the sensor. Point the camera where the plant would stand and the app classifies what that position actually gets.
It’s an estimate, and we call it one. A phone camera isn’t a lux meter — but “this corner is bright indirect” from a photo of your actual wall beats “bright indirect light” printed on a label in a shop.
Every spot gets a verdict, per plant
The same windowsill is perfect for one plant and lethal for another. Each species carries its own three bands, so a spot is never scored in the abstract.
Monstera deliciosa
Verdict: ideal. The shelf’s measured light sits inside this species’ own preferred band — so no warning, no nagging, and the watering cadence is calculated for a plant that’s actually growing.
Ask before you carry it across the room
Moving a plant is the cheapest fix in plant care and the one people put off longest, because you can’t tell if it’ll help until weeks later. Move it on the map first and the answer is immediate.
drag the plant to the other spotYour best spot in July isn’t your best spot in January
The sun’s angle changes by tens of degrees between seasons — which is why plants that sailed through summer suddenly sulk in winter, in exactly the same corner.
The sun is high, so it barely reaches past the sill — deeper corners get less than you'd think.
The sun sits low and drives much deeper into the room — a corner that was dim in July can be the brightest spot in January.
The map isn’t a drawing. It’s an input.
Plenty of apps let you tag a plant with a room name. Here, where a plant stands feeds four other things — which is the whole reason it’s worth the two minutes it takes to set up.
A darker spot dries slower, so the interval stretches. The map is what makes that automatic.
“Vinny's on the bright shelf” is context he reads before replying — that's why his advice is about your room.
Leggy growth and pale leaves make sense once the app knows the plant sits three metres from a window.
A grow light is only worth suggesting to someone whose corner actually measures too dark.
The practical questions
Do I have to draw my whole flat?
No. Add one spot where a plant actually stands and you already get placement scoring. The rooms and floors are there for people who want them — most start with a couple of windowsills and never go further.
How accurate is the light reading?
It's an estimate from a photo, and we call it that. A phone isn't a lux meter — but a reading taken where the plant actually stands beats a phrase printed on a nursery label, and it's expressed in the same five light classes the catalogue uses.
Can I have more than one home?
Yes, on the Gardener and Botanist plans — useful if you keep plants at a partner's place, an office or an allotment. The free plan covers one home, which is all most people need.
What's a “spot” exactly?
The specific place a plant lives: a shelf, a windowsill, a corner of the balcony. It's the level everything is measured at, because two spots in the same room can differ more than two rooms.
Does it work for outdoor plants and balconies?
Yes — a balcony is just another room in the map, and greenhouses sit at the floor level because a garden can have several. Outdoor spots also pick up your live weather, which is where the watering adjustments come from.
Will it tell me to move a plant?
It'll tell you when a spot is outside a plant's acceptable range and what would suit it better. Whether you carry it across the room is up to you — the app doesn't nag about placement.
Map one windowsill and see
You don’t have to draw the whole flat. Add the spot your most troublesome plant stands in, photograph the light, and find out whether the corner was the problem all along.