Grow Together, share a garden with your neighbours
Nobody needs a big garden to grow real food. If a few people near you each grow something different, and swap what they have spare, everyone eats better off the same patch of dirt. A Grow Together group is how you organise that without anyone giving up control of their own garden.
The idea
One neighbour grows potatoes. Another grows lettuce. Someone down the street takes the beans because they have the fence for it. Come harvest, everybody swaps.
Five households each growing five things beats five households all growing zucchini in January. The size of any one garden stops mattering, because what you are spreading is the variety, not the area. It works on a suburban block the same way it works on acreage.
The part that usually stops people is trust. You do not want to publish your address, your notes, or what you spent. So Grow Together is built the other way around: nothing of yours is visible to anyone until you pick the bed and tick the detail.
What the group sees, and what it never sees
This is the part worth reading properly.
| Detail | Shared? |
|---|---|
| The bed name, and what is growing in it | Yes, once you share that bed |
| Your suburb | Yes, at suburb level only |
| Variety, how many plants, when it will be ready | Only if you tick each one |
| Your notes on the plants | Only if you tick it. Read them first |
| The exact position of the bed | Off unless you deliberately turn it on |
| Your care log and watering history | Never. There is no setting for it |
| Your pest records | Never. There is no setting for it |
| Any value you recorded against a harvest | Never. There is no setting for it |
| Your email address | Never shown to other members |
Beds you have not shared do not appear to the group at all, not even as a name. If you stop sharing a bed, the group stops seeing it from that moment. It cannot un-see what somebody already looked at, which is worth remembering before you tick the notes box.
Start a group, step by step
- Open Grow Together. It is also linked from your Garden dashboard.
- Click “Start a group”. If you are on the free tier you will see a note instead. Starting a group is part of a paid plan, joining one is always free.
- Name it after the place, not the produce. “Wattlebrae Street growers” tells a new neighbour what it is. “Veggie swap” does not.
- Add your suburb. This is what other members see as your location. Your bed positions stay private.
- Click “Create group”. You are the owner. Nothing is shared yet, and the group is empty until you invite somebody.
Inviting a neighbour
Open the group, go to Members, and put in their email address.
They do not need a Garden Buddy account. The link creates a free one and drops them straight into the group. That is deliberate, because the person three doors down who grows excellent silverbeet is not going to sign up for a gardening website first and join your group second.
The link works for 14 days and only from the address you sent it to, so forwarding it to somebody else does not let them in. If you invite the wrong address, cancel it from the same screen.
A group of one does nothing. Two people is enough to be useful, four or five is where it starts paying off. If you are the only member, there is nothing to see and nothing to swap.
Choosing which beds to share
Open the group and go to I share. Every bed you own is listed, all of them private to start with.
For each bed you want to share, tick the details you are happy for the group to see, then save. The sensible starting point is variety, how many plants, and when it will be ready, which is enough for somebody to plan a swap around. Leave notes and exact location off unless you have a reason.
You can change any of it later, or stop sharing a bed entirely, without leaving the group.
The swap board
The Swap tab is where you say you have spare pumpkins, or that you are after garlic. Post a listing, and other members can register interest.
Garden Buddy puts the two of you in touch and stops there. It does not take payment, set a price, or handle the handover. What you swap, what you charge if you charge anything, and where you meet, is between you and the other grower.
The season plan
Once somebody on a Pro plan switches it on for the group, a Season tab appears. Every member can use it, whatever plan they are on.
Anyone can propose a crop for the coming season. Members vote for what they actually want, which is how a street works out whether it wants potatoes and silverbeet or chillies and coriander, rather than somebody guessing. Then people claim the crop they will grow, and a claimed crop shows as taken so two of you do not both plant beans and nobody plants onions.
Common questions
Do I have to share anything to join?
No. You can join, see what the group is growing, and share nothing at all.
Can the group see my whole garden?
No. Only the beds you picked, and only the details you ticked on each one.
What happens if I leave?
Everything you were sharing with that group stops being visible straight away.
Does it cost my neighbours anything?
No. Joining is free and stays free.
Can I be in more than one group?
Yes, and you choose the beds separately for each one. The street group and the community garden group do not have to see the same things.