Getting Started with PatternBase

Your First Week

PatternBase helps you design, observe, and refine your garden using permaculture principles. This guide walks you through the essential first steps. By the end, you'll have a garden mapped, plants added, and your first observation recorded.

Day 1: Set Up Your Profile

Head to Settings and fill in your growing conditions:

USDA Hardiness Zone: Click "Detect" to auto-fill from your location, or enter manually. This determines frost dates, plant compatibility, and climate matching
Soil type: Your predominant soil texture (sandy, loam, clay, etc.)
Annual rainfall: A rough estimate is fine. This feeds into water system calculations

These three pieces of data power everything from plant recommendations to climate twin matching. Without them, PatternBase can't personalize your experience.

Day 2: Create Your First Garden

Go to Gardens and click "Add Garden." Every garden needs:

A name: Whatever you call this growing space ("Backyard Food Forest", "Front Yard Beds", "Community Plot")
A description: A sentence about your goals for this space
Location: Approximate coordinates for weather data and zone verification

You can create multiple gardens for different areas of your property, or a single garden that encompasses everything. Start with one.

Day 3: Add Your Plants

Open your garden and go to the Plants section. Add the plants you're currently growing or planning to grow. For each plant, you can:

Search the Plant Library (2,000+ species with companion data)
Set the planting date and quantity
Note the plant's current status (planted, germinated, producing, dormant)

Even if your garden already exists, adding your current plants is valuable. It enables companion analysis, yield projections, and guild recommendations.

The Resource Flows feature lets you tag what each plant produces (mulch, nitrogen, shade, food) and what it needs (support, pollination, specific nutrients). This powers the garden-level flow analysis.

Day 4: Record Your First Observation

Observations are the core practice. Go to Observations and create a new entry:

Select your garden: which space are you observing?
Title: A quick summary ("First spring growth", "Aphids on kale", "Soil looks compacted in south bed")
Notes: What you noticed. Be specific: weather, plant health, wildlife, problems, wins
Photos: A photo with a note is worth more than a paragraph. The AI photo analysis can identify plant health issues

You can also use the Quick Observation button on the dashboard. It's a simplified form designed for fast daily captures.

Aim for at least one observation per week. More is better. Over time, patterns emerge that no amount of planning can predict.

Day 5: Explore the Plant Library

Browse the Plant Library to discover new species for your garden. Each plant page shows:

Growing requirements (sun, water, soil, zones)
Companion relationships (good pairings and plants to avoid)
Which layer it occupies in a food forest
A per-plant calendar showing when to start seeds, transplant, and harvest

Use the Companion Explorer to find proven plant pairings. Filter by your growing zone to see what works in your climate.

Day 6: Try a Guild Template

A guild is a community of plants designed to support each other. Go to Guilds and browse the 30 curated templates, organized by climate zone and type.

Find one that matches your zone and interests, then apply it to your garden. The guild designer shows:

Which functional roles each plant fills (nitrogen fixer, pollinator attractor, pest confuser)
The overlay view highlighting different ecological functions
Yield projections showing expected output as the guild matures

You can modify any template or create your own from scratch.

Day 7: Review and Plan

After a week, you've built the foundation:

A garden with plants mapped
At least one observation recorded
Familiarity with the plant library and guild system

Now look at your Dashboard. The Garden Journey progress tracker shows your next recommended steps. The climate-matched community feed shows what gardeners in similar conditions are doing.

What Comes Next

As you use PatternBase, deeper tools unlock:

Sector Analysis: Map sun, wind, water flow, and views around your site
Zone Planning: Organize your property by permaculture zones (1-5)
Soil Testing: Record lab results and track soil health trends
Water Systems: Design catchment, swales, and rain gardens
Calendar: Multi-garden planting schedule with frost-date awareness
Harvest Tracking: Record yields and estimated value over time
Succession Planning: Model how your garden evolves over 5-20 years

Each of these features connects to the others. Soil data informs plant recommendations. Water flow shapes zone design. Harvest records validate guild choices. The more data you add, the smarter the system becomes.

One Principle

Permaculture starts with observation. Don't rush to redesign everything at once. Watch your site through one full season before making major changes. Record what you see. Let the patterns reveal themselves.

PatternBase is designed to reward this patience. Every observation you record becomes data that improves your future decisions.