My Garden Pal is an interactive encyclopedia that is specific to each gardener. It filters out the information that is irrelevant and tracks all that each gardener needs, which is as individual as the gardeners themselves.
How Does My Garden Pal personal online encyclopedia work?
This is done through My Garden Pal desktop encyclopedia (a software product) for all gardeners and My Garden Pal Online personal plant collection. The My Garden Pal personal encyclopedia allows the gardener to create a plant index, record the care that is required throughout the plants life and will remind you throughout the year the care that each plant requires. For example, it will tell you that the rose tree needs to be pruned in February and the mango needs to be fertilized in September. Each gardener can record in My Garden Pal encyclopedia the progress and changes that they have made to care for the plant.
An example is if a gardener wants to record when they last obtained fruit from a tree or the when their roses bloomed and also record the conditions it was under when it bloomed. My Garden Pal is just as useful for a garden landscape company to keep track of each client's plants and needs as it is for commercial garden Centers caring for plants in commercial premises and adding value to a customers experience.
Localized Plant Information
My Garden Pal is interactive with our web portal and online plant encyclopedia. Through the desktop software the gardener can upload knowledge they have obtained to My Garden Pal online community and share this information with gardeners throughout the rest of the world. This allows other gardeners to get more specific care information for plants from users that are in similar growing environments.
For example; a user in Florida, USA can share information with someone living in Queensland, Australia, about the benefits of pruning the hibiscus plant in spring which they have found increases its blooms. My Garden Pal will even automatically adjust the season and measurements for you!
The desktop software allows a gardener to download into their My Garden Pal encyclopedia, information that has been loaded onto the My Garden Pal online community by other gardeners. This allows gardeners to obtain and retain information about plants with which they do not have experience in growing. My Garden Pal desktop encyclopedia can also search the My Garden Pal online portal encyclopedia for plants matching their criteria (maybe you want annuals that bloom red in January). The portal will then return a summary of matching plants that can then be loaded into their own personal My Garden Pal encyclopedia ready to be used and track that plant. My Garden Pal is an ideal Garden Diary for new home buyers who may not be familiar with plants in their new garden or need to create a garden that suits their environment.
The advantages of using My Garden Pal are:
1. Gardeners no longer need plant reference books every time they need to know when to do something in their garden.
2. Gardeners can record an action plan in their My Garden Pal diary to record when to do activities in their garden and the diary will remind them with automatic prompts.
3. Information gardeners obtain from all resources will now be located in their own encyclopedia on their own computer, and in a connected manner, as opposed to disconnected reference books, magazines and web sites.
4. Gardeners can join online groups to share information with other gardeners and horticulturists around the world, opening up a world of possibilities to each gardener.
5. Gardening experience will no longer be lost, as it can be passed on and shared between gardeners young and old.
One possibility for My Garden Pal extensive use....
Imagine we have two people in the same planting zone - let’s say Sydney and Melbourne. Josephine in Melbourne grows fantastic tomatoes as she has figured out how to do this for the Melbourne climate, the soil she is using etc. Likewise Steve in Sydney also grows fantastic tomatoes but using different soil, fertilizer etc. So, even though they are both in the same Climate Zone according to the growing information, they use two totally different methods to get the results they are after.
As participants in the My Garden Pal Community, they can share this knowledge with the click of a button through our online encyclopedia.
The Software
This information is now ready to be searched by anyone on the internet or any members using My Garden Pal Desktop Software. They can directly import this data and instantly have the schedules of when to do tasks to their tomatoes.
So, Melissa (Port Stephens, N.S.W) uses the search facility in her desktop software to search the online database. She enters the words, "common name = tomatoes, zone = 10" and the results will display all entries in the database that match this - in the case of our example Josephine's and Steve’s information will be showing, thus allowing Melissa to choose the data that suits her best.
Plant Information Capturing
The entries may come from anywhere in the world, all entries are automatically adjusted to the location of the user, the seasons are changed and measurements are adjusted to the user location.
Melissa can choose the closest match to her location or can choose all of the entries to keep and see which one best suits her situation. The entry from Daytona in Florida may actually be a better match to her soil type and other environmental variables.
Now Melissa has chosen the tomato growing data all she has to do is enter in the plants location and age of the plants and the system will automatically remind her of when to water, prune and fertilize for a successful crop. It will follow the tomato from seedling or sowing and adjust watering requirements as the plant grows. She can have multiple locations for her tomatoes that are sowed at different times and it will follow each individual location for her.
More Features
- Remember the good old days when a grandparent or parent would pass on their gardening experience? The My Garden Pal Mentor program is a place where My Garden Pal Club members volunteer their time to help you in your garden.
- Want to ask a technical question about a plant or gardening task? Enter it in our forums and wait for the experience of many to answer your questions.
- Have you seen a plant in a magazine or book you would like? Search our members that are nurseries and find your closest match. We will provide you with their contact details.
- Don’t know what plant that is? Take a photo and upload it to the Internet with a description and you will receive answers from all over the world to identify this plant. Then you can download the appropriate care information.
- Are you a Nursery person? Upload the list of plants you stock and the care information that you recommend for your local client's and you will automatically be in our supplier list and receive free advertising of each plant you upload.
- Enter Events in your area to spread the word. It’s all included and will also be displayed to the users of the desktop software if it is in their area.
- Enter Tips for others. Say you think the rains are coming early in your area this year. Enter a tip to let everyone know. The tip will come through on the relevant My Garden Pal Members computer.
