Gardening in Small Spaces

So the verdict is in.  The lighting conditions on my balcony are shade, different variations, but still shade.  I realize by choosing plants accordingly I will have thriving plants in my container garden this year, but I have to admit that this is a rather sore subject for me right now.  It seems like overnight my hopes of growing vegetables have been dashed.  However, I now understand why I could barely keep my tomatoes going last year.  The harvest was pitiful.  Anyway, I would like to discuss the innovative tool that helped thrust me out of my “I am going to plant tomatoes, zucchini and eggplant this year” denial. 

The EasyBloom Plant Senor is a revolutionary product that helps determine what plants to plant where, both indoors and out.  When placed in a particular location EasyBloom collects data on lighting conditions (Full Sun, Part Sun, Part Shade, Full Shade), temperature, humidity, soil moisture and soil drainage.  EasyBloom recommends plants for particular locations based on collected environmental data, diagnoses problems with existing plants, quickly tells you if a plant needs watering and provides you with an ever growing library of plants and their care instructions.  

Getting started with EasyBloom was fairly easy, no pun intended.  I purchased my EasyBloom from Brookstone.  It was not in stock, so I had it shipped to the store and  then picked it up.  It did take about 10 business day for me to receive it, a little longer then I would have liked.  Nevertheless, I was very excited when it did finally come in.  I was anxious to decode the climate on my balcony and optimize my plant choices for the year.  The first thing I had to do was register my EasyBloom at www.easybloom.com/go.  At this site I downloaded the companion software.  I then inserted the battery and connected the EasyBloom to my PC via the USB cable that was provided.  Alternatively, you can insert EasyBloom directly into a USB port.  When connected the EasyBloom dashboard was then launched where I could select a mode of operation.  There  were 3 modes to choose from:

1) Recommend – Helps indentify plants for the location that you place the sensor

2) Monitor – Monitors a troubled plant in order to make recommendations

3) Water – Indicates whether a plant needs water

I have only used the EasyBloom in recommend mode thus far, because it needs 24 hours to collect complete environmental data.  Considering the time it takes to get a read on each location it has taken me a little while to gather data on various locations on my balcony.   After EasyBloom was finished collecting the data from a location,  I connected it via USB cable back to my PC and the EasyBloom website was automatically launched.  The data was then downloaded immediately and I was prompted to name the location from where I gathered this particular round of data.  Additionally, I had to type in my zip code and choose whether this location was indoors or outside.  I few seconds later a page with a summary of the environmental conditions in the location came up as well as a link to recommended plants. 

All things considered I believe that EasyBloom worked well.  I wanted to find out definitely rather than relying on guessing what the conditions were on different parts of my balcony and what plants would thrive there and EasyBloom help me do just that.   I am looking forward to using EasyBloom’s other functions to enhance the vitality and longevity of my container garden.

Tennille