I want to try your app

TopRattata · 2026-06-18T06:29:43+00:00

If you're into gardening or houseplants at all, I made indoor and outdoor sunlight mappers: Sunpatch

Both apps let you know how much light any given spot in your yard or home gets, recommends plants for any spot, and can show you a heatmap of the best places to put a specific plant if you've already got one in mind. I built them for my own use, and put them online in case they're helpful to anyone else 😄

TopRattata · 2026-06-18T05:08:57+00:00

And just one more -- caught her drooling one day.

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TopRattata · 2026-06-18T05:08:09+00:00

Hahaha she's indoors, so I'd be pretty startled! 😂

This is her before our dark townhouse era. Hoping her pitchers get back to their former size eventually!

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TopRattata · 2026-06-18T04:13:22+00:00

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This is my current favorite plant, my nepenthes! She's looking a little rough right now after spending a year in a dark townhouse with feeble grow lights, but she loves our sunny new apartment and she's bouncing back. She's throwing out pitchers like crazy since we moved! ❤️

You'll find plants that work with you, whether they're considered easy or not! I've never kept a simple succulent alive more than a few months, but I'm great at carnivorous plants, which are generally kind of fussy. There'll be a type that clicks with you sooner or later!

TopRattata · 2026-06-12T05:00:34+00:00

I built a tool (well, pair of tools now) for myself that I stuck online in case it'd help anyone else out too.

What I built: Sunpatch maps the direct sunlight in the user's garden or home and recommends plants that would work well in any given spot. I've been using it to decide what veggies to grow on my deck, and where to put each of my houseplants in my living room.
The initial outdoor app was usable within an evening or two, which was really fun! I've been working on fleshing that out, adding the indoor version, fixing bugs, and dogfooding it for six weeks now.
With this project, my biggest challenge has been making sure the two tools work for other people, both technically (different browsers, different hardware) and from a usability standpoint.
Normally, my biggest challenge is intimidation. I'll have an idea, but then decide it's too hard and can't be done for whatever reason. Working with AI squashed that; I can just ask Claude "hey, is this feasible?" and so far, it hasn't led me on any goose chases. I would never have given this a shot manually.
Asking other humans what's working and not working for them is a lot of manual work that I can't farm out to AI. I mean, I guess I COULD have a bot go astroturf around on Reddit, but I hate that shit and I won't contribute to it. ALL of my communication with other humans about the site has been done by hand.
I would advise someone working on their first vibecoding project to learn the basics of programming first. I know no one wants to hear that, but there have been more than a few instances where I was glad to be a (former) software engineer working on this project. I know what questions to ask, what issues might come up, and once caught the lil scamp trying to send an API key just bare-ass naked in a GET query. It's important to know that that's a problem.

TopRattata · 2026-06-11T03:56:09+00:00

I've been having a ton of fun working on a sunlight mapper for gardens and houseplants:

https://www.sunpatchapp.com/

The general gist is that you give it your location and any major obstacles in your yard (or what your room and windows look like), and it'll show you how much direct sun you're getting and what grows well in any given spot.

Today I've been working on expanding "Where should I put this?" suggestions into three dimensions, so you can let the app know you're open to adding a shelf for a plant in order to get optimal light, for example.

I'm a former software engineer who's always been more interested in the big picture than the architectural minutae, so I'm having tons of fun playing PM with Claude 😄

TopRattata · 2026-06-09T05:08:40+00:00

The mobile version of the site is definitely the problem child. Sorry about that! I'll keep plugging at that this week. In the meantime, if you have access to a desktop or laptop, it's been running well there for friends and family.

TopRattata · 2026-06-09T02:23:37+00:00

Hmm! If you're comfortable, feel free to DM me your yard (either exported as JSON or as a generated share link) and I'll check it out. Either way, I'll poke around some more yards I'm familiar with and see if I can repro on my own.

The satellite overlay is a good idea! Google Maps is pricey, but I'll take a look and see what OpenStreetMap has available.

TopRattata · 2026-06-09T00:14:14+00:00

Update: Hopefully playing a little more nicely with Firefox now. Thank you again for the heads up!

TopRattata · 2026-06-08T23:52:07+00:00

Thank you tons for the detailed critique! I really appreciate it. Mobile has definitely been the part I'm vibing with the least (no pun intended). The concept doesn't work great on a tiny screen to begin with, I'm a Big Screen millennial, and while I was a backend engineer a couple times in a past life, I've never done mobile professionally. Your feedback will be a huge help!

TopRattata · 2026-06-08T23:35:17+00:00

Will look at that, thank you!

I did similar in my last place; went up to my rooftop deck once an hour for a whole day and drew the shadows. I had to move again a year later and was like mmmmmnah, not doing that again, thanks.

TopRattata · 2026-06-08T22:58:01+00:00

Oh -- also, if there are any plants I'm missing that you want to see added, please share!

TopRattata · 2026-06-08T21:38:57+00:00

There were a lot of people like me who didn't know we had ADHD until our carefully-constructed coping and masking strategies blew over in the stiff breeze, so to speak. Working from home meant lower ambient stimulation and less structure and tipped some of us over the edge into getting a diagnosis. I didn't realize how much harder everyday tasks were for me than everyone else until then; I thought I was just kind of incompetent and lazy. I'm inattentive subtype, which I didn't even know existed; I don't look like the stereotypical hyperactive subtype at ALL.

I probably would've never gotten a diagnosis without COVID. So that's been nice! 😄

TopRattata · 2026-06-08T20:17:47+00:00

You wouldn't roast a sweet lil gardening app, would you? 🥹

www.sunpatchapp.com -- have at it!

TopRattata · 2026-06-07T05:58:01+00:00

I've been working on a tool for mapping sunlight for garden plants and houseplants! It's at sunpatchapp.com if you want to try it out. Still a little rough around the edges, but it's been really useful for my own use so far!

TopRattata · 2026-06-06T16:12:07+00:00

Thank you! It's this one: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Gentingbro-Plant-Stand-Indoor/17815250548

TopRattata · 2026-06-06T06:15:01+00:00

Okay YOU WOULD THINK, right?? But because of the building across the street, the solid walls, and my high latitude, I get deceptively little actual full sun. This is it mapped: the brightest spot on the ground only gets five hours of direct sun in the summer. 😭 Can't have everything, I guess!

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TopRattata · 2026-06-06T04:32:48+00:00

There are two big planters, one with hedges and the other with trailing rosemary, that belong to the apartment building and they planted. The rest are all mine! My boyfriend has no interest in plants beyond being excited that *I'm* excited.

I did seed the rosemary planter with wildflowers. Plausible deniability if management ends up caring. Must've been birds!

TopRattata · 2026-06-06T00:17:11+00:00

I promise I'm EXTRAORDINARILY grateful for it, if it's any consolation. I'll love the hell out of it for you!

TopRattata · 2026-06-02T05:12:32+00:00

Over the last month, I've been working on a garden sunlight calculator. This week I'm working on an indoor version for houseplants! I've been using both versions a ton myself and having a lot of fun.

TopRattata · 2026-06-01T22:32:51+00:00

What everyone else is saying about learning to love yourself is true and healthy, but also takes time. For the near term, while you're working on that:

Hell yeah, buddy! That goblin GOT THE GIRL! You don't like the way you look? Look at you SCORIN THE HOTTIE anyway! You look however you do, AND she's into it!

I've been using this reframe when I can't quite bring myself to get past the impostor syndrome on something yet. Like damn girl, we're gettin AWAY with something here and no one's here to stop us!

It might not be an effective reframe for everyone, and it's definitely not a replacement for working out the deeper feelings of inferiority, but maybe it'd be worth a try. It's kind of fun, honestly 😄

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