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The gardening app for your neighbourhood.
Gardening is something most people do alone. You plant things, you learn by trial and error, and you have no idea what's growing three houses over. But your backyard doesn't exist in isolation — it sits in a neighbourhood full of other gardens, other gardeners, and potential you can't see yet.
Hortus makes that invisible layer visible. See what your neighbours grow, find out what works in your area, swap seeds with people nearby, and learn exactly where your garden fits in the bigger picture. Gardening gets better when it's not a solo project.
Know what you're growing, what wildlife it supports, and where your next planting can make the biggest difference in your neighbourhood.
Find gardeners nearby, exchange seeds, attend local events, and share what's working. Gardening is better when it's not a solo project.
See your neighbourhood's living landscape come into focus — bloom corridors forming, wildlife returning, and the collective impact of gardens growing together.
As a byproduct of gardeners using Hortus, we're building the first residential biodiversity dataset in Canada — evidence that drives real conservation action.
We kept meeting gardeners who were doing the same thing independently — planting native, trying to support pollinators, sharing seeds over the fence — but none of them knew what was growing three streets over. Everyone was gardening blind.
So we built the tool we wished existed: a map of what's actually growing around you, a way to find and message nearby gardeners, a seed exchange, bloom charts that show you what to plant next, and wildlife tracking that shows you what your garden actually supports. Gardening is better when you can see the full picture.
Community-First: Hortus is free for gardeners and always will be. Everything we build starts with one question: does this help someone grow, connect, or discover?
Local by Design: Your neighbourhood is the unit that matters. We help you find gardeners nearby, see what's working in your area, and coordinate efforts where they'll have the most impact.
Science-Backed: Our 187-plant native catalog is curated from authoritative sources. Wildlife data, bloom charts, and corridor analysis are grounded in pollinator ecology research.
Data as Byproduct: When gardeners track their gardens, they naturally create the first residential biodiversity dataset in Canada. That data supports researchers and conservation — but it's a byproduct of people using a tool they genuinely want to use.
Our native plant catalog and wildlife support data are sourced from Native Plants in Claremont, a trusted Ontario native plant nursery. Wildlife tags — which species attract bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and songbirds — are derived from their plant descriptions and habitat information. We're grateful for their comprehensive database of native species information that helps gardeners make informed choices.
When gardeners use Hortus to track their gardens, they're also creating something that's never existed: a picture of what's growing in residential properties. That data turns out to be enormously valuable to the people working on conservation at a larger scale.
See which residential corridors already connect your protected areas — and where the gaps are. Target stewardship programs at the neighbourhoods where a few more native gardens would close a real habitat link, instead of distributing resources evenly and hoping for the best.
Measure the actual outcomes of tree-planting grants, pollinator programs, and community garden funding. Hortus data shows what residents are planting, where adoption is growing, and which wards have the least native plant coverage — evidence you can bring to council.
Access the first crowd-sourced residential biodiversity dataset in Canada. Study urban pollinator corridor formation, native plant adoption patterns, bloom phenology across neighbourhoods, and the relationship between residential habitat density and ecosystem health — all anonymized and export-ready.
We're actively seeking partnerships with:
Live data from Greater Toronto Area communities
Track your plants, find neighbours, swap seeds, and see what's thriving around you.
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