April Maker Challenge #29/30 : apartmentHerbPlanter

WHAT: so i was listening to Kasper on a splendid table while cooking dinner. makes a LOT of sense to me to start a food garden. but alas - i live on the 3rd floor of an apartment. i DO have windows, and i DO have a balcony. thatll do.

OBJECTIVE: make a planter that can sustain fresh thai chillies, cilantro (and parsley), holy basil, and green onions. (i tend to use a LOT of these). hopefully yield enough for a 2 week harvest cycle.

HOW: will probably be a staggered launch of this thru the summer. i eat a LOT. which means i have to put out quite a bit of balcony real-estate to get that done. so i might crop rotate and freeze many of chillies and basil. to be determined.

APPLICATION: food! homemade food! would go well with the vermicomposting i plan to startup. on top of the CSA for staples .. i would only need to go grocery shopping for meat and outlying stuff.

April Maker Challenge #21/30 : miniWaterTower

WHAT: you know these little water reservoirs you stick in soil? i think they are called "glass plant watering bulbs". they look like this:yeah. i wanna make something like that. but out of cheap, everyday materials available out of the home. i *sometimes* neglect to water my plants.

OBJECTIVE: make a little water reservoir system that keeps my plants (in the short term) quenched. try and achieve a decent flowrate. hopefully hyrdrostatically pressure sensitive - so it doesnt just keep flooding these bastards.

HOW: science! and household appliances. i have hotglue, some water bottles (and wine bottles) - maybe the use of some cork and plastic tubing might be useful.

APPLICATION: water. my. plants.

April Maker Challenge #11/30: ThirstyNoMore!

WHAT: a "simple" system indicating whether or not my plants need water. Visual feedback only.

OBJECTIVE: cheap little stake modules that can be entered into the soil - measuring moisture. can be tuned to different "trip" moisture levels for different ones. should turn an LED on when my plant(s) are thirsty.

HOW: hoping to use some fancy pantsy opAmps! would help in my understanding of them - and should be cheaper than having a digital read in each one (i think?). hopefully just run off a AAA or a watch battery for a long time.

APPLICATION: my plants are thirsty! and different ones have different needs. and i am sometimes quite absent minded about keeping them alive.

possible developments: pH measurement would be nice to implement into the same stake, pending on cost and complexity. if the plan doesnt prove cost effective (less than 10 bucks per) - then i might just make a plant probe meter. like a multimeter - but for plants (moisture and pH). i could also then sample several spots in the soil and use it to double as a mini aerator.