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Choosing your project location

One point on a map, chosen once at the start of a project, decides what the app knows about your site. It is the single most consequential click in the whole flow, and it takes about thirty seconds to get right.

1. When it happens

Immediately. Press New Garden or New Eco Project and the very next screen is the map picker — before the name, before any settings. You cannot skip past it: Continue to Project Creation stays disabled until a point is selected.

2. What the point actually drives

Climate data. Temperature, rainfall, humidity, frost dates and sunlight hours are estimated for these coordinates when the AI analysis runs.
The weather chip on the project card in My Projects, and the live forecast behind it.
Map layers. Satellite imagery, contour and terrain data for the site map in your Research Hub.
Region-specific advice. Species suitability, seasonal timing, hardiness and local practice all key off where you said the site is.

A wrong pin does not look wrong

Nothing errors if the point lands in the next valley. The agents simply answer confidently about a different climate, a different soil and a different growing season, and there is nothing on screen to tell you they are doing it. Check the satellite view before you continue.

3. Three ways to place the point

Search an address. Type it into Enter an address or coordinates (lat, lng)… and press Search. Good for getting to the right neighbourhood; rarely precise enough on its own.
Paste coordinates. The same box accepts "latitude, longitude" — the instructions on the page use 41.62199, 35.93424 as the example. If you have a GPS reading or a pin dropped in another map app, this is the exact route.
Click the map. The most accurate option. Open the layer control at the top right, switch from Standard Map to Satellite View, zoom to the actual roof, field corner or bed, and click it.

However you place it, the coordinates and the resolved address appear beneath the map: the line that read No location selected is replaced by your point. Only then does Continue to Project Creation light up.

Search first, then click

The reliable sequence is: search the address to fly the map to the area, switch to satellite, then click the site itself. The search gets you within a few hundred metres; the click gets you within a few metres. The address line under the map is only a label — the coordinates are what is stored.

4. Where to put the pin on different sites

Gardens and small sites

Put the pin on the growing area itself, not the front door and not the street address. On a terrace or a green roof, the building footprint is close enough; on a plot, the centre of the beds. A few metres of difference does not change the climate data, but a few hundred can change the sun and wind story a design agent tells you.

Farms and large sites

Put the pin at the centre of the area you intend to work, not at the farmhouse and not at the gate. On land that spans a slope, the centre of the working area gives more representative elevation and aspect estimates than either end of it.

5. Awkward cases

Rural land with no address. Skip the search. Zoom in on satellite from the nearest recognisable road or village, or paste coordinates from a phone GPS reading taken on site.
New builds and recent clearings. Satellite imagery lags reality by months or years. Navigate by what is permanent — roads, watercourses, field boundaries — rather than by buildings that may not be in the picture yet.
The address resolves somewhere else. Common outside dense cities. Ignore the result and click the point yourself; the geocoder's answer does not override your click.
Indoor and greenhouse projects. Use the building's location. The outdoor climate is still the right context: it is what your structure has to buffer against.

6. The point is not the boundary

The picker stores one coordinate. The shape of your site is drawn later, on the Site Map inside your Research Hub, where the sidebar carries Draw Boundary and Import KML alongside Add Point and the Distance and Area measuring tools. Drawing the real boundary is what lets the design tools work to scale, so it is worth doing before you start designing — but it is not something to hold up project creation for.

Getting it wrong is not fatal

If the pin is badly placed, the fastest fix on a young project is to create it again with the right point — a new project consumes one project space, so check your balance first. On a project that already holds research, purchases or farm records, contact support rather than starting over.

EcoDesign