Gardening help in the palm of your hand: 5 apps, phone tips

You’re in your garden and notice that a pretty but unfamiliar flower has popped up somewhere unexpected. Do you pull it or leave it? Or perhaps an unfamiliar garden pest has ravaged your tomato plants. What to do about it? A variety of gardening apps and cellphone features can help. They offer expert garden-planning and planting advice, pest and disease troubleshooting, plant and insect identification, and even integrated artificial intelligence and augmented reality. Among the free apps and features suggested by AP gardening writer Jessica Damiano are Seek by iNaturalist, From Seed to Spoon, PictureThis, Google Lens and Apple Visual Look Up.