The latest articles on DEV Community by Prachi (@prachimanchandapm_20_c76a). https://dev.to/prachimanchandapm_20_c76a https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4177594%2F05536825-9a1b-46af-a940-dae870eed410.png https://dev.to/prachimanchandapm_20_c76a en Prachi Sun, 11 Oct 2026 21:07:23 +0000 https://dev.to/prachimanchandapm_20_c76a/smart-garden-ai-an-open-source-ai-plant-care-assistant-363n https://dev.to/prachimanchandapm_20_c76a/smart-garden-ai-an-open-source-ai-plant-care-assistant-363n <h1> Smart Garden AI: Your Full-Stack Open-Source Plant Care Assistant 🌿 </h1> <p><em>This is a submission for the <a href="https://dev.to/challenges/hacktoberfest-week1-2026-10-05">Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 1: Touch Grass</a></em></p> <h2> What I Built </h2> <p>Gardening can be challenging for beginners. People often struggle to identify plants, understand plant health, and decide how to care for them.</p> <p><strong>Smart Garden AI</strong> is a full-stack, beginner-friendly web application designed to make plant care easier and encourage people to connect with nature.</p> <p>Our project aims to bring together four useful gardening tools:</p> <ul> <li> <strong>Plant Identification:</strong> Identify plants using uploaded plant or leaf photos.</li> <li> <strong>Leaf Disease and Health Detection:</strong> Help users explore possible leaf health issues and understand recommended next steps, while communicating uncertainty.</li> <li> <strong>AI Care Chatbot:</strong> Explore gardening questions about watering, soil, sunlight, and plant care using a local open-weight AI model.</li> <li> <strong>Smart Care Reminders and Timers:</strong> Help users organize plant-care schedules and keep track of gardening tasks.</li> </ul> <p>We want to make gardening knowledge more accessible to beginners by combining technology with practical, real-world plant care.</p> <h2> Demo </h2> <p>Here are some screenshots of our Smart Garden AI project.</p> <p><a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F88uai5n15cppqweg5jo7.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F88uai5n15cppqweg5jo7.png" alt="Smart Garden AI screenshot" width="800" height="384"></a></p> <p><a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F3dzbvew4sk4dqrz2623k.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2F3dzbvew4sk4dqrz2623k.png" alt="Smart Garden AI screenshot" width="800" height="388"></a></p> <p><a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fkecbl0s5pvz5m9s3cn72.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fkecbl0s5pvz5m9s3cn72.png" alt="Smart Garden AI screenshot" width="800" height="390"></a></p> <p><a href="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fzdthtik01i0a8fk6to8s.png" class="article-body-image-wrapper"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Farticles%2Fzdthtik01i0a8fk6to8s.png" alt="Smart Garden AI screenshot" width="800" height="386"></a></p> <h2> Code </h2> <p><strong>GitHub Repository:</strong> <a href="https://github.com/Smart-Garden-AI/Smart-Garden-AI" rel="noopener noreferrer">Smart Garden AI</a></p> <h2> How I Built It </h2> <p>We are building Smart Garden AI using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Node.js, Express.js, and MongoDB Atlas.</p> <ul> <li> <strong>Frontend:</strong> Responsive HTML and CSS with JavaScript for interactive features and form submissions.</li> <li> <strong>Backend:</strong> Node.js and Express.js, organized using the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture.</li> <li> <strong>Database:</strong> MongoDB Atlas for storing application data.</li> <li> <strong>AI Integration:</strong> Ollama with the Llama model to explore locally run, open-weight AI assistance for gardening-related questions.</li> </ul> <p>We are developing the project collaboratively and aim to improve its functionality, usability, and reliability through testing and feedback.</p> <h2> Why Does Open Innovation Matter? </h2> <p>Open innovation allows developers to learn from existing technologies, collaborate with others, and build solutions that can continue to improve through community contributions.</p> <p>For Smart Garden AI, open-source tools and open-weight AI models give us an opportunity to experiment, learn, and explore more flexible approaches to AI-powered gardening assistance. We hope our project will make plant-care knowledge easier for beginners to access while encouraging other developers to contribute ideas and improvements.</p> <p>The <strong>Touch Grass</strong> theme reminds us that technology can do more than keep us on screens. It can also encourage us to engage with the natural world.</p> <h2> Prize Categories </h2> <ul> <li>Best Use of MongoDB Atlas</li> </ul> <h2> Team Members </h2> <ul> <li> <strong>Mahak:</strong> <a href="https://dev.to/mahak_df3f16062dee3d361da">@mahak_df3f16062dee3d361da</a> </li> <li> <strong>Sanchi:</strong> <a href="https://dev.to/sanchi_bareja_ea7f4891aad">@sanchi_bareja_ea7f4891aad</a> </li> <li> <strong>Khushi:</strong> <a href="https://dev.to/khushi_jangra_70ed76e19fa">@khushi_jangra_70ed76e19fa</a> </li> <li> <strong>Prachi:</strong> <a href="https://dev.to/prachimanchandapm_20_c76a">@prachimanchandapm_20_c76a</a> </li> </ul> <h1> devchallenge #hf26challenge </h1> devchallenge hf26challenge