Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Gardening Meets Web 2.0

I love to garden. There is something extremely satisfying about having your hands in the Earth and watching plants grow.

I have to admit though that I find our current yard a bit overwhelming. We have about 3 acres--two in the back are heavily wooded, and we can't do much with that due to HOA restrictions--which is fine. The acre in the front and side yards is also very shady with large oak trees, which leave (no pun intended) a mess of oak shoots, acorns, and leaves with which to deal. There are a few azaleas on the property, but really not much in the way of plantings or landscaping.

Tons of possibility though, and this is where MyFolia comes in. MyFolia is a relatively new web site that combines people's love and knowledge of gardening with social networking. On the site, you can organize, track, and share information about plants in your garden or ask questions about what, how, or when to grow something. The site combines blogs, wikis, online groups, mashups, and incorporates other sites like Flickr. I was particularly intrigued by the ability to search the posted gardens by location. I was anxious to see what others in my area were growing and perhaps get some inspiration/direction for our yard.

After checking out the map though as well as the wiki encyclopedia of plants, I was a bit disappointed. Sites with user generated content are only as good as the content. There was no information about the plant I looked up (Black-eyed Susan), and there were no gardens posted within my immediate geographic area.

I still think the site has tons of potential and look forward to seeing how it develops. Who knows maybe I will be even get around to settling on a design for our yard and actually plant something.

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