what do you grow indoors?

I don't have a Smart Phone either---and I do not use a cell phone--
even though I have one (a T-Mobile)... It lives and dies in my purse....
If I think of it--I will charge it up...

Too many businesses assume we all have Smart Phones...which leaves
a big percentage of people out of the loop.
G.

trackable customers or potential customers are more valuable to retailers, marketers and data collection brokers.

Latest cell phone useage statistics
http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/mobile-technology-fact-sheet/

Gita, Holly, we are the minority now.

Gads, I'm in the minority too. I seldom even turn on my simple cell phone except when I travel out of town, and then just for any potential emergency. I doubt I use 20 minutes a month.

I will admit to occasionally wishing for a smartphone when I'm in an unfamiliar city and would like to know where there's a Whole Foods, or other stores I'd like to visit but not found near my very rural home area.

I'm checking in to read this thread on my smart phone right now....

But I still don't use those 2D bar codes.

Judy, that was such a cool link. Thank you!
Gita, based on the info in that survey, more than half of adults are using smart phones so it's not such a bad assumption on the part of the companies.

This message was edited Feb 27, 2014 1:31 PM

Adults are, of course, anyone over 18......

Count me in that minority too, I do not have, and do not want, what I call a "dumb phone". I don't want any more "apps" or any other trails that let "Big Brother" monitor what I'm doing - IT'S NONE OF HIS BUSINESS!!! Ooooh boy, don't get me started here...!!

I'm not saying everyone should have a smart phone, a cell phone, a gramophone or a xylophone.

I'm just agreeing with Judy that it makes good sense from a marketing standpoint.

Oh I think they are great things, I just don't feel that I need one.

Yes, Typ and Judy, from a marketing standpoint they absolutely make perfect sense, I totally agree. From a personal standpoint, however, I just don't think Big Brother, in ANY capacity, needs its nose in my every little move. And I certainly don't trust a little portable device of any sort to have TONS of my personal or financial info on it... ya know, some small little thing that can so easily get LOST or nicked. Heck, your credit card can even be skimmed without ever having to leave your wallet or purse, as long as it's got an RFID on it, and many/most these days do. Do I want to open up the door even further for the bad-guys? No, I don't! If anyone found it even possible to 'skim' my phone, they'd see I talk with my Mom, my son, and my Hubby pretty regularly - that's about it! =)

those things are called QR codes by the way...I had to look it up, again!

My library training class just had me read some things about marketing with new technology. there are lots of people who like these new gizmos and use them, and the practically logarithmic way those people post, tweet, and otherwise tell each other about stuff that interests them is mind boggling. and its all free to the seller; its the "buyers" who do all the work of spreading the word. That is amazing when you think about it.

haha typwc!

saxophone

This marketing and 'word of mouth' digital communication as amazing as it is uses a tremendous amount of energy/electricity. The increased demands on the grid for electricity is mostly due to information technology demands. world wide. If the world wide web and all its acutrement were a country, it would currently be the 12th largest user of electricity, slated to be 5th or 6th within a few years. Interesting world we are living in.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/markpmills/2013/08/11/how-green-is-the-internet-wrong-question-how-big-is-the-internet-and-where-do-i-invest/3/

My two cents about the QRs.

I see them all the time but don't use them. I think scanning bar codes and QMs has come and gone. Not too long ago you would scan a barcode on a friend's phone for the contact information. I believe that today we want everything as fast as possible. Scannig a QR code with my phone takes multiple steps resulting in who knows what on the other end. Why not just move directly to my browser and find what I need.

But the QR is here, there, and everywhere. They are even found on business cards, at least in IT. On more than one occasion I have received a card with a QR and been told scan the QR code for more information. Often I ask, "when is the last time you scanned a QR?" the unequivocal response is, I can't remember.

The QR is a strange beast. I imagine that the QR will be a necessary but short bump in the road for the evolution of the Bar Code. What will come next? Perhaps the push of a button, maybe on your glasses, will give us an overlay of additional information and advertisements using a combination of image/product recognition, mapping, and social media.

Terp: probably NFC chips, but I dunno either.

Oh man, you read my mind Karen... the idea of those chips scares the you-know-what outta me, I don't want that either!

Judy, not only is there an increase of activity on the grids, but.. what do "power plants" run on? How do they generate electricity? Their generators use FOSSIL FUEL!! ^^ the electricity consumption, and that will ^^ fossil fuel usage. Aren't we supposed to be "going green"?? HA! Amazing how that connection is so often missed.

Way way back at the beginning of the thread, we were talking about indoor plants. Here's what I was talking about with the air plants in the little glass hangers:

http://www.abeautifulmess.com/2014/02/how-to-care-for-air-plants-1.html

Awww aren't they just the cutest little things?!

very fun!!

Those cute things are all over Pinterest and I saw several vendors at the two Flower Shows we attended.

Yes, I'm surprised we don't see them even more. I've not seen them in Big Box retailers, but I imagine they'd be so easy to maintain and they'd just fly off the shelves.

Karen, are you familiar with 'string gardens'?

No, Judy, I'm not. Enlighten me! :)

I found this tutorial on String Garden not what I think Coleup is talking about but very interesting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZdTFJjVSEg
I think Coleup was talking about where you just tie air plants up with string they kind of look like those beaded curtains but with air plants. I have seen several of them on Garden tours and they sure are pretty.

Typwc, Jill has gotten a few of those air plants each year when we've gone to the Philadelphia Flower Show and a coworker has a nice collection of them on her desk. They are cute and people are coming up with a lot of creative ways to display them.

Rawlings Conservatory has a wall of Tillandsias in different stages of growth
and bloom. They look so cute in bloom.
They are attached to some kind of Spanish Moss covered stuff/ netting???
I do know they need a lot of humidity to grow well and to bloom.
Misting would be a must...just think about that when you look for containers.

People may think they are "dead"--but they are very much living and growing plants.
G.

String gardens grew out of a form of bonsai ( )where a plant was suspended in air and not a container basically in the photos below string woven web-like around a ball of moss filled with soil in which the plant is planted sort of like the air plants mentioned above, but not limited. Just a different way of doing indoor plants...

Holly, 1st pic is for you

Judy--That looks quite pretty! I like the balls with the Ferns the best....
G.

Karen and Judy - WOW how cool!!! Air plants and String Gardens, more stuff for me to learn about! < =D

Love it Coleup, Yes that was what I posted from UTube.
Where did you take those pics.
Gita, I really loved those ferns, too.

Holly, lots of string garden ferns here
http://www.google.com/images?q=string+gardens+ferns&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=s&hl=en-US&tbm=isch&ei=p9MVU43HGenA2AWn7oCICA&start=20&sa=N

There was one pic i didn't copy that had individual spring bulbs. Lovely, but I have no idea how hard or easy it is to maintain the plants. Sure is more appealing to me than what our usual hanging plants have become.

String gardens look beautiful! I bet it would be fairly easy to maintain in a humid bathroom.

My citrus trees are doing really well and blooming beautifully, but I have scales on one of them. I can tell by the sticky yellow leaves. It's a small infestation so I'm trying to control it by dabbing alcohol on the scales, but the little stinkers are so little I can't find them!

I bet they are a pain to water. But they sure are pretty, thanks for the link Coleup. There was this one picture that reminded me of those little woven nesting boxes that you get for small birds. You could put the ball in a nylon stocking to help hold it together, wonder if the moss would adhere to the nylon

ooh ooh, could you plant a plant in a woven nest and hang it up? Like an orchid? And to water it, just take it down weekly and soak for a few minutes, let drip dry.
I could kick myself for having ended up in a house with NO window in any bathroom. so No chance of plant to enjoy the humidity.

scale is nasty. I had them on the lemon once. My lemon suddenly blew up with mites, so I sprayed it and sealed it in a plastic bag, who knows what it'll look like by 'spring'

Those little glass balls with the opening on the side are just so darned cool, I would really like to find something like that to offer for sale at the store, along with teeny tiny little succulents to put in them. They're so darned pretty!! We could even get pretty ribbon.. or something attractive from which to hang them. They are so absolutely adorable!!

Sally, I don't have any windows in either of my bathrooms either, and it's just sad-sauce. Was always the norm in the bathrooms in So. Cal. (where I was born), and even in PA.. but for some reason it doesn't seem so common around here, dunno why. I want a BIG ballroom-dancing sized bathroom with window seats!! < =D

I would be very happy with a Bathroom like that. No windows in any of my bathrooms either.

My bathroom has the one and only best plant light window, but the room is so smalll that any plant in that window would make access to the toilet harder!

I still want to live in a greenhouse!
http://www.spiritofmaat.com/archive/aug3/domes.htm

Interesting...

Speedie here are some videos of Grow Domes Growing Spaces. I like these domes in particular because they go a long way towards so;ving issues that other greenhouses even if domes can't touch for integrated sustainability


http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB1806980D45E743D

Those are really cool Judy! Can't wait to move onto larger property where I can actually put something like that. That first one, "Dome Sweet Dome", is wonderful; I could so easily curl up on a little cat-cushion in there and take a long nap! The sound of the water fountain, and the smell of ALL those lush plants... Heaven!

http://www.shopterrain.com/ is killing me! I WANT IT ALLLLLLLLLLL! I imagine that this is how other people get about shoes, or clothes, or home furnishings?

Just love the Straight Side Bowl Planter I have something similar in shape in blue.