If I build it, will they... er lets make a survey first: Gardening Appeal&Experience
vanmunch
Posts: 568
Hey Everyone,
I'm doing some market research for a gardening robot that I'm developing and I would like to know what your experience with gardening has been. The survey is for all adults whether you have a garden now, use to have one, or if you've never had one and never want one.
If you can, the survey should only take ~5 minutes and will be very helpful to me. Please complete the survey only once per household and please pass it along to your friends and network. All information is completely anonymous.
Thank you very much for your time!
Dave (vanmunch)
Survey Link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Gardening1
I'm doing some market research for a gardening robot that I'm developing and I would like to know what your experience with gardening has been. The survey is for all adults whether you have a garden now, use to have one, or if you've never had one and never want one.
If you can, the survey should only take ~5 minutes and will be very helpful to me. Please complete the survey only once per household and please pass it along to your friends and network. All information is completely anonymous.
Thank you very much for your time!
Dave (vanmunch)
Survey Link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Gardening1
Comments
I'm probably not in the target group you are aiming for either. Once the purchase of a small country property is completed (June closing) I plan to build a small greenhouse to test out some ideas for automating the process. I plan to grow tomatoes and possibly add a few vegetables as things progress.
I did the survey, but forgot to enter the magazines. Add Nuts and Volts and Servo.
How can you think about gardening with all the snow in Boston. The snow won't be gone till July!
Jim
Kwinn, that's weird, I'll have to take a look at it and see what it's doing.
Hey Jim, ha ha
Take care everyone!
Dave
It's a bit counter-intuitive...
Yeah, filled it out, but doubt that I'm in the target group, unless that robot can climb...
My only garden is a windowfarm...
( www.windowfarm.org )
+1
I didn't put down deer as our number one problem. I figured getting approval for any robot that effectively dealt with deer (or even rabbits) might be a little bit difficult.
I'm not really into answering a bunch of personal questions on line. No matter how innocuous and anonymous they may seem.
But I'm curious. What kind of gardening robot do yo have in mind?
So far the only gardening robots I have seen are lawn mowers. None of which stand a chance of working on the kind of "lawn" I need to take care of.
If you have something that can wield a chainsaw and bring down a tree so as to avoid danger to humans that might be interesting. If expensive.
Ha ha, no nothing that big, but I think erco found a video of exactly what you need... now where is that video...
My parents live in the middle of the city next to a large preserve and deer are here #1 problem. They'll go through and eat everything, especially in the winter.
Awesome thanks!
I ran a landscape/gardening compnay with regular clients in Eugene, Oregon for 7 seven years and had a vegetable/fruit garden with apple orchard. Did numerous garden renovations in the $20,000-$30,000 USD range.
80% of the time, I was moving debris to the dump or a compost pile.
These days, I would just settle for growing a few orchids, but don't have a window with adequate natural light. I have no desire for indoor grow lamps and hydroponic gardens as there is a tendency towards more housekeeping mess.
People with the space for big gardens often let the situation get away from them due to changes in life style or income. Then the grounds become over-grown and require a complete rennovation... backyard logging, lawn renovation, thinning and transplant.
Others are disciplined, but usually want the gardener to work toward the lowest monthly maintence target that can be created.
Lawns tend to be the preferred low maintence solution if water is cheap and available. Drip irrigation and rock gardens work nicely in arid regions (like Las Vegas, Arizona, and New Mexico).
I prefer to garden outdoors and bring in a potted plant or cut flowers. Houseplants have spills and messes that may do water damage or stain.
One tip, though, is to never ever grow peas in a windowfarm...
http://our.windowfarms.org/2010/10/23/update-on-my-wf/
Green houses seem easiest to build with PVC pipe and sheet plastic. I see these all over Taiwan growing commercial produce.
Nothing wrong with growing something indoors for amusement. Tulips and iris can be forced out of season. And some potted plants are just a delight to look at up close. Kids will perpetually love to plant one bean and ponder the possiblities of Jack and the beanstalk occuring to them.
But I really enjoy growing 'cash saving crops' outside -- one or two tomato plants against a hot sidewall. Snowpeas in early spring and in the fall. Asparagus and artichokes to save their cost. I don't like weeding rows or doing a lot of sequence planning to get a steady stream of radishes and carrots. Squashes and melons are planted in the compost piles where they just take over and sprawl. Why grow potatoes when a 20 poung sack is so cheap?
Fresh herbs and fresh onions are very important.. yum.
The best thing we ever did was to take our two apple trees (one green apples, the other red apples) and to graft about 20 different varieties onto the two trees from cuttings taken from client's orchards-- variety in the garden is a great motivator. Having two or three bushels of the same apple all at the same time ends up wasteful unless you are into creating hard cider.
Always ended the summer with too many squashes and watermelons. It seemed that cabbages and lettuce were always attacked by aphids.
The window farm concept looks actually very good for fresh herbs in places such as yours -- a very hard winter. The difference between those tinned herbs at the supermarket and fresh grown is vast... and very very addictive.
I wonder if the window farm might work well for out of season strawberries. I suppose much depends on how many windows one desires to get involved.
Wish I could grow banana squash in my windows. We've got plenty of garden space outdoors, but there's some sort of bug that kills our squash just as they enter the rapid growth phase. Maybe vanmunch's robot could detect crawlies and zap them with a CO2 laser.
Does it look like this?
Damn things killed our pumpkin and butternut squash plants. Haven't discovered an efficient way to kill them.
I mostly grew lettuce and small bell peppers in my farm.
The peas were culled real soon after that picture as they threatened to overtake the entire system.
My Chilis died off during a cold spell when I was away. (I had left my air-air heat-pump on 'frost guard' unfortunately)
I started it because whenever I bought greens, most of them just... expired in my fridge. With this I could pick a leaf or bell pepper for snack or to add to dinner when I wanted it.
A windowfarm should be a pretty easy project for someone who wants to add a microcontroller...
(you need to keep track of PH, nutrient concentration, watering cycluses, lighting if you have it, temperature. )
One starts out with a very simple idea of planting seed, watering, growing, and harvesting. Then one pretty soon learns that plants do have differences (like peas are indeed a vine plant that will not be contained to the bounds of a pot whereas basel is well-behaved).
And some plants need lots of heat, others require cool weather (lettuce will bolt and go to seed in hot weather -- tastes awful). Red peppers will never take off until hot weather.
And so... with the knowledge comes a lot of facts that imply more management and more planning to get what you want. Just consider different plants as different personalities and enjoy the learning. Work thorough each as a topic.
Orchids really are about six different plants with different management for successful growing. Trying all at the same time is like your first vegetable garden... a lot of crop failures.
+++++++++
And yes, there are the bugs, the fungus, the nematodes, and the deer, the moles, and the bunnies that want to chomp on your treasures.
Pretty soon the expansion of knowledge will drive you crazy unless you get your ambition in check. I specialize on what I really like to eat while saving money or flowers that are stunning. Others just grow lettuce and daisies and are quite proud to have anything at all.