MANY gardeners may prefer digging in the dirt to fiddling with a mobile device. But an increasing number of gardening apps now available might change that attitude, by helping with tasks like designing plots and choosing crops, and perhaps improving yields. The apps range in price from free to about $10 — although a higher price doesn’t guarantee a better or more sophisticated program. Here are 10 of the freshest picks for iOS and Android devices.

GARDEN TRACKER FOR IPAD ($3.99) AND IPHONE (99 CENTS)

This app allows you to design rectangular gardens of up to 2,500 square feet: enter the desired number of rows and columns to create a grid with a series of boxes, each one representing a square foot. Click inside each box and choose the crop you’ll plant there from a list of about 65 plants typically found in kitchen gardens.

Image Home Outside for iPhone and iPad.

The program tells you how many of your chosen plants each square foot of your garden will accommodate. It also gives general care information including watering needs, ideal soil temperature and planting depth, and tells which plants are incompatible — say, pole beans and cabbage.