Manual › Your garden

Ask the neighbours

Ask a question with a photo ("what is this?", "what’s wrong with my apple tree?"), let people nearby answer, pick the best answer, and find the resolved questions again on the species profile.

Under Questions (in the menu under Nearby) you ask people nearby a question with a photo: What kind of tree is this? What’s wrong with my apple tree? Is this a weed? Others answer, and you pick the best answer. You need an account: without one, you can’t see the questions.

#Asking a question

1. Choose Ask the question.
2. Write your question in one sentence (e.g. What kind of tree is this?) and, if you like, say more: where it is, since when, what you see.
3. Add up to 4 photos. For a plant, these help most: a leaf, a flower or fruit, a piece of bark and the whole plant.
4. If the question is about a particular species, choose it under Is it about a species? (from the guide, the garden plants, or by name). You don’t have to.
5. Enter your town or neighbourhood and choose roughly where: Search, one of your gardens, or My location.
6. Choose Ask the question at the bottom.

You can ask at most 10 questions a day and have at most 10 open at the same time. Once a question is resolved, it no longer counts.

#Browsing questions

• If you have a garden on the map, you see the questions within 30 km of your garden. With Use my location you search from where you are now.
• Choose Open (no best answer yet) or Resolved, or search for a word (e.g. oak). Under My questions you see your own questions.
• Each question shows the photo, the title, the number of answers, whether it is resolved, the town and the distance. Tap it for the photos and the answers. If a species is shown, tap it to open its profile.

#Answering

Do you know what it is? Write your answer below the question, and add a photo if you like (e.g. of a leaf that proves it). The person who asked gets a notification (by email too, if they turned that on). You can write at most 60 answers a day.

The person who asked can add something too (e.g. a better photo). That reply can’t become the best answer.

#Helpful and the best answer

• Think an answer is good? Choose Helpful. You vote once per answer, and not for your own answer. A second tap takes your vote back. The votes are shown with the answer, and the most helpful answers come first.
• The person who asked chooses Best answer under the answer that solves the problem. The question then shows as Resolved in the list, the best answer comes first with a badge, and whoever wrote it gets a notification. You can choose another answer, or open the question again with Reopen.

#Resolved questions on the species profile

A resolved question about a species appears on that species’ profile, under Asked nearby, with the best answer. That way others benefit too. On the profile you can also choose Ask a question about this species yourself. This part only appears if there are resolved questions, and only for logged-in users.

#After identifying with a photo

If the identification with a photo isn’t certain (no species found, or low certainty), you see Not sure? Ask the neighbours below the suggestions. The form then opens with your photos, and with what the identification suggested in the description.

#Editing, reopening and deleting

• Change: edit the title, the description, the photos, the species or the place of your question.
• Delete removes the question, with its photos and all the answers. Whoever wrote an answer can delete it too. If it was the best answer, the question is open again.

#Reporting something

Is a question or an answer inappropriate, advertising or misleading? Choose Report. The administrator will check it, and can hide or delete the question. Only the person who asked and the administrators can still see a hidden question.

Updated on 2026-10-09