Hi folks,

I started this gardening community about a year ago in an attempt to combine my two main interests thus far in my life. I love to grow plants and I like building web sites and tools. I'm proud of the gadget that I have created and how many people it has connected throughout the world. It amazes me still!

I want very much to grow this site into a major online site with a thriving community of gardeners. I envision a site with daily/weekly gardening articles, very active forums, maybe even a few gardeners blogging and of course more useful tools.

The trouble is that I think that I have fallen way short with the usefulness of the plant database and besides the vista/google gadget, not much else seems to be growing here. I would like to open up a forum here and get some feedback from y'all about what you think would be useful improvements or additions to the site. I know that a few sites such as Dave's Garden are just too huge to compete with, but I would like to offer something else, something different to the gardening world.

One thought I have is to build a web tool which allows people to show how THEY group their favorite plants together; To show that for example they like to plant mediterranean herbs with lavender and other drought tolerant plants.

Another thought I have is to change the plant database into a fully collaborative web tool so that anyone can add to it or change things around; kind of like Wikipedia.

Your thoughts and opinions are much appreciated.

Thanks - Patrick

Patrick~ What you have created is not only an enormous project, it is also in a fiercely competitive environment.  There are innumerable forums, blogs, and websites vying for the attention of your members. Growing will be a continual challenge, but not an impossible one. You have a great site, easy to use, friendly, interesting input from members in many parts of the world.

I think the Wikipedia format is intriguing, and would differentiate you from other gardening forums. It's a natural for gardeners, who have always learned from each other, and could make you THE destination for researching a problem or question, which is what your vision seems to be.

 Also, remember that it has been winter. I hope you are starting to see traffic pick up now that spring is (hopefully!) arriving, and people have more to say about plants and growing.

 

 

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Anne, A YardLover from Virginia
Read my Blog

Thanks Anne. I agree with your points. I think that the community will slowly grow if I have some other thing(s) which people find valuable. The gadget is one of them. I plan to work on a new wiki type plant tool which makes classification a secondary part and concentrates more on:

1. What plants to put together
2. What to do with the plants during all 4 seasons
3. Associated plants and groupings that others have tried

I think that this could be a great idea and would allow each gardener to show what they have tried with pictures and advice. They get to group, tag and associate.

Patrick

I also agree with you and your up and coming ideas. I would ask that you keep some things the same such as plant identification and comments. I find this extremely useful and fun. I don't know about any of your other guests but I am what you might call "plant and flower" inept. I enjoy what others may call the simplicities. Don't get me wrong, the other tools you are talking about implementing sound very curious and useful. I can't wait to see if I will be able to make sense of them. Just don't forget the simple ones like me who enjoy dicovering new plants and helping to discover their names and other info on them. I think your site is wonderful and find some of the otherones overwhelming. I tell many people about your site and gadget. Keep up the good work!!!!

Sherryl

Hi, just found your site and like it already.I really like your idea.I would love to have a place to go to find which plants to group together.Hope you get it going....velvet

Hi....found your site thru the gaget.......which is alot of fun really!!   Have tried to add some photos to the plants section for ya......am slowly adding pics to my gallery and trying to figure it all out........but it seems to take a long time........

Dave's place is ok and I refer to the plant database.......but alot of his stuff that I would like to read.......you have to pay for........I applaude you for giving of your time and website building skills to help all us gardeners out!!!!!!!!!!

 

Thank you Thank you!

I'm really glad to see people enjoying the site! I'll work on the plant grouping idea soon.

Patrick

Hi Patrick:

     I stop at this site almost every day.  I don't like the fees at Dave's Garden, and many plant sites don't seem to have anything to do.  I'm like a kid in school with the Plant Identification and Questions.  "Ooo, Ooo I know that one!" Or, " I hope no one asks about that- I haven't a clue!"    laelialee

I love this site! Just found it! I am so grateful for the advice I get from you guys. (free advice is worth every penny.) Plant identification is fantastic. Got it on my igoogle homepage. Can't wait until someone finds the man eating poison sumac/ Ivy/ whatever. I got sumac this winter in New Hampshire, while breaking down some brush for a campfire for my three year old son. Horrible Plant to mess with.  Both eyes swelled shut, and had it in every possible place you don't want it. Anyways, Patrick! Keep up the great website! The guy who could possibly put poison ivy in his salad is counting on you. Have a great weekend, Billy

I  have the Vista gadget, and I really enjoy reading the comments on identifying the plants.  But most of all, I love taking pictures of plants and flowers everywhere I go.  I  have many that I finally have some time to start uploading for ID.  Thanks for the site, because I wouldn't know where to start looking to find out what they are with only a photo. 

i would participate in a seed saving exchange program if there was any interest... also would love to be able to upload relevant pics to a thread if that was possible...  love the site, by the way.

 

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13013... overthrowing the world one small step at a time.

I like that idea. Would you like to post a new topic with the details of the idea? I would certainly build a new piece of the web site if we need a clever widget or something.

Patrick

yeah i'd love to Patrick, will do it this evening as soon as i get home... I'm moving my shop!!! wooohooooo!!!

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13013... overthrowing the world one small step at a time.

i guess i really should have explored the forums better first... didn't realize there was already a seed swap area... sorry about that. cheers!

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13013... overthrowing the world one small step at a time.

I really like this site...I think Wikipedia is intriguing too but the problem with anyone being able to change things around is what you read loses credibility as you don't know if information is fact or fiction written by the original poster or not !! some of the people who post on this site seem to know what they are talking about which is good news for less experienced gardeners.