Tried using AI to plan my garden layout in Seattle last week and it was a mess

I was messing around with one of those AI garden planners for my tiny backyard here in Seattle. Told it I wanted tomatoes, basil, and peppers in a 10x8 space with partial shade. It gave me a layout that looked great on screen but totally ignored that my neighbor's maple tree blocks the sun after 2pm. Everything was spaced like I had a farm. Has anyone else had AI miss obvious real-world stuff like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_susan1mo ago

Read an article that said AI garden planners pull data from textbooks for ideal conditions, not from actual yards with trees and weird shade patterns. Makes sense why mine ignored my neighbor's maple tree like it wasn't there. They probably need to add real world variables like afternoon shadows and small spaces to be useful.

casey8431mo ago

Tried a meal planning AI once and it told me to roast veggies at 450 for an hour. My apartment's fire alarm is still holding a grudge. Sometimes these things forget kitchens and gardens exist in the real world with actual limits.

uma_baker881mo agoTop Commenter

I read somewhere that those AI models are trained on commercial kitchen data where they've got industrial ovens that run way hotter... but yeah, don't they check what normal people have at home? My friend tried one for garden planning and it told her to plant tomatoes in July in Minnesota, which is just silly. The veggies charred to hockey pucks and she almost set off the sprinkler system. It's like they've never actually lived in an apartment with thin walls and a sensitive smoke detector. The whole thing feels half-baked, pun intended.