Unplanted-plot nudger for community gardens
Helps volunteer garden coordinators spot neglected plots early, send reminders automatically, and offer the plot to the next person on the waitlist.
The problem
A volunteer at a community garden described the usual cycle. Plots are assigned and paid for, but nobody checks whether they get planted. Unpaid volunteers were two months into the season before they first emailed the people with empty plots. There was a long waitlist at the same time. Gardens usually run on a plot spreadsheet, a separate waitlist spreadsheet, and a BCC email list.
Who has it: Volunteer coordinators of neighborhood community gardens, school gardens and allotment groups with 20-100 plots.
Who pays
The garden's treasury (the coordinator expenses it) or a sponsoring church, school or HOA. It pays to fill every plot and cut coordinator workload. · $12-20/month per garden, or $99-149/year
Offer a free first season for one garden, then charge $99-149/year per garden. Find first users through city parks and extension-program garden networks, and by emailing individual garden coordinators listed on local garden directories.
What to build first
- Plot list with holder, fee paid, and planted/not planted status
- Seasonal rules (for example, must be planted by May 31) that trigger reminder emails at set days
- Plot monitors tick plots as planted or neglected from their phones
- Waitlist with auto-offer: next person gets an email with a 72-hour claim link
- Fee-refund note and plot history log
- One-click CSV export for the treasurer
Suggested stack
Next.js Supabase Resend Stripe Vercel Cron
Starter prompt
Paste it into Cursor, Claude Code, Lovable or Bolt and iterate from there.
Build a web app called PlotWatch for volunteer community garden coordinators. Stack: Next.js, Supabase (auth, Postgres, row-level security), Resend for email, Vercel Cron, Tailwind. Entities: gardens, plots (number, size, status), gardeners (name, email), assignments (plot, gardener, season, fee_paid), waitlist entries (ordered), plot_checks (date, planted yes/no, note, checked_by). Features: coordinator creates a garden and imports plots/gardeners from CSV; sets a planting deadline and reminder schedule; daily cron emails gardeners whose plots are flagged unplanted after the deadline (reminder 1 at day 0, reminder 2 at day +14, final notice at day +28); plot monitors use a mobile checklist view to mark plots; when a plot is released, the app emails the next waitlisted person a claim link that expires in 72 hours and then rolls to the next person. Add a public waitlist signup form. Include a simple audit log.What could go wrong
A dedicated competitor (PlotBase) already sells plot maps, waitlists and waivers, so the niche angle must be compliance and vacancy-filling, not generic management. Many gardens have almost no budget and may want it free.
Where we found it
- Community garden volunteer story — A volunteer says unpaid organizers were slow to chase unplanted plots, waiting nearly two months to send the first email, despite a long waitlist.
- PlotBase landing page — A competitor describes the typical stack as a plot spreadsheet, a separate waitlist spreadsheet, paper waivers, and a BCC list. This confirms the workflow, and also that competition exists.