pcplantdb

[Richard Morris <webmaster@pfaf.org>]

Dear BK,
> I recently found your site, and I find it to be a wonderful undertaking.
> I'm thinking about the possiblities and I see some things that would just be
> plain neat to have (may not fit into the current database system but):

Nice one for feedback.

>     Knowing that permaculture is always trying to create guilds it would be
> neat if people could enter sitings of groups of plants growing together,
> then as more matches come in useful data can be culled from it to discover
> new plant relationships.

Yes it does seem a neat idea. Not at all sure how to structure it.
There could be a field like
        This Plant Grows Well with: ....

>     Allow people to enter spottings of plants via GPS or ZIP (and other
> national address codes) to establish accurate growing ranges, though many
> plant ranges might better be culling from other databases (USDA etc)
> (graphical maps).

Yes another good one. In the readers comment section
(at the bottom of every database page) I do have a place where
people can input the habitat and growing conditions and quite a few
people have added the place where the plant grows there. 
Postcodes / zipcodes might be good, but perhaps a bit to detailed.
I have actually incorporated the UDSA data into our range field.


>     Graphics! I know it may be a bandwidth hog, but maybe you can just get
> more mirror sites.....at a nursery resently I saw a very elegant plant sign
> system, consisting of nice icons for things like: deer resistant, low water,
> hummingbirds, etc. I'd love to design them (infact a new elegant layout).

Yes I'd love some graphics. I've been trying to redesign the
user interface for the website and database but my time is very
limited. You can see a draft for the new home page at
        http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/new/index.html
given a few minutes I should be able to put up a draft for
the database pages as well.

Only problem with too many graphics is it slows down loading of the
page. Our current page is pretty fast to load and I think our users 
appreciate that.

>     Lastly, it seems a potential revenue source would be to directly link
> the reference books to Amazon.com so that people can order the books, they
> cut you a share (personally though I'd see if there are some other smaller
> online booksellers instead of behemoth Amazon).

Yes I've though of this, nearly got as far as registering.
Someone had some ethical problems with Amazon (something to do
with animal rights). Can you suggest some alternative online
bookstores with affinity programs?

        Thanks for feedback

                Rich

p.s. Can I take this opportunity to encourage to you to join our 
friends of Plants For A Future membership scheme. Membership is only
£10 a year (£15 overseas) and we are trying to recruit 1000 friends 
in the coming year. If we can reach this target then we will be
able to secure the land for our demonstration gardens and visitors
centre in Devon which could become a shining example of woodland
gardening, sustainability, and the use of perennial plants.
See http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/friends.html for details.

--
Plants for a Future: 7000 useful plants
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