Hi my name is Evan and I am a design student trying to come up with a product to help beginner to expert gardeners with the process of growing plants, fruits in a garden or greenhouse. It would be best to explain my idea by giving you an example of how you could use it.

The user opens up the box to find the Hand held device with a color LCD touch screen, seeds for several different plants, earphones and location markers with embedded RFID chips. The handheld device would also have a docking station to connect to a computer. The idea is that when the user starts planting fruits, flowers, ect. They would then place a RFID in the ground right with the seed.(An RFID is a chip that stores information you enter, and then can retrieve the information later wirelessly.)

The user would input what plant he just put the RFID chip next to. Now when the user ever comes back to that plant he waves his device over the plant and up pops a history of the plant, how to take care of it, the history of the users interaction with that plant, ect. The device would also be able to play mp3 files, which would allow the user to hook up to the internet and download instructional lessons, different methods of planting, care, ect. The device could even give visual references for the user.

This idea is just not limited to outdoor use. You could use the system for greenhouses, or even inside the house with “smart pots.” Maybe you have smart pots that have RFID integrated chips. The main thing I want to concentrate on is building this idea into an entire system for home gardening.

I would really appreciate any answers to the following questions, and any comments about my idea

What is your biggest problem with gardening and the gardening process?

What is the hardest thing to remember when gardening?

Do you document plants as they grow?

How do you remember what plants you planted?

What are the most common things you need to remember when taking care of a garden, ie nutrition, type of fertilizer, ect.

What are the most important things you need to do before starting to plant seeds for your garden?

Are there different ways you need to treat plants that you grow outside then in a greenhouse?

Thanks for your time, this will really help me out.