Almanac.com Plant Guides Scraper

Scrape plant growing guides from The Old Farmer's Almanac (almanac.com). Extracts structured planting, growing, harvesting, and pest data for 300+ plant guides covering vegetables, herbs, fruits, flowers, shrubs, and houseplants.

What it scrapes

Each record covers one plant guide from almanac.com/plant/*:

Field	Description
slug	URL slug (e.g. tomatoes, bee-balm)
common_name	Common name derived from slug
botanical_name	Scientific / botanical name
plant_type	Category: Vegetables, Herbs, Flowers, etc.
sun_exposure	Sun requirements: Full Sun, Partial Shade, etc.
soil_ph	Soil pH preference: Acidic, Neutral, Alkaline
bloom_time	Season the plant blooms
flower_color	Flower color
hardiness_zones	USDA hardiness zone information
planting_text	Full Planting section text
growing_text	Full Growing / Care section text
harvesting_text	Full Harvesting section text
pests_text	Full Pests and Problems section text
recommended_varieties_text	Recommended varieties / types text
almanac_url	Source URL
scrapedAt	ISO-8601 scrape timestamp

How it works

1. Fetches almanac.com/sitemap.xml and filters to /plant/* URLs (338 guides as of 2026)
2. Crawls each plant guide page using a standard HTTP crawler (server-rendered HTML, no browser needed)
3. Extracts structured attribute fields from the sidebar and long-form section text from the guide body

Input

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
maxItems	integer	10	Maximum plant guides to scrape. Set to 0 to scrape all 300+ guides.

Usage

Scrape 50 plant guides:

{ "maxItems": 50 }

Scrape all plant guides (~338):

{ "maxItems": 0 }

Use cases

• Garden planning apps — populate plant databases with authoritative growing data (Seedtime, Vego, Gardenize)
• AI assistants — ground planting advice in trusted zone and frost data
• Research — build structured datasets from the most-cited US gardening reference
• Hyperlocal content — power garden newsletters with variety-specific planting guides

Data source

The Old Farmer's Almanac (almanac.com) — the most-cited US consumer horticultural reference since 1792. Plant guides cover planting timing, care, harvesting, pest management, and recommended varieties written by the Almanac's gardening editors.