Garden products database

I don't know if this has been suggested before, but I thought it might be nice to have a database where we could rate our experiences with various garden products (and maybe a Plant Scout-like feature too so you could find reputable companies who sell each one?). A lot of times I'll see ads for a new product in gardening magazines, but I'll wonder if they really work well or not, and right now the only option is to post in the Garden Products forum and hope that you run across a couple people who've used it. So I thought it would be nice if there was a database where you could look up things and see ratings from other DG'ers who've used it.

I think that's a great idea. I know I would use it.

I would too!! I am always looking for different products to use and never know what works on what. This would be a big help.

I've thought about this very thing many times over the past few years. I think it would be an incredibly useful tool to have.

I'm really focused hard on Landscaping.com work right now, however, so I don't see getting started with this right away, but let's definitely revisit this idea in a month or so.

dave

Sounds great! I figured you were pretty busy now but I wanted to get the idea out there while I was thinking about it. I'll bump this one up again in a couple months...

Great, I have a terrific weeder to add to it!

Great idea Ecrane and Dave, and one I searched at DG this very morning when, tragically, I thought my lawn tractor had died its final death. Where else to turn for valued input but DG?

I would fully participate in a forum that reviewed garden products, tools, equipment.

Meanwhile.... I raised the dead beast to life with some WD40 and elbow grease on the fly wheel just like old Charles the mechanic showed me! YAY!

Poochella, there already is a forum for discussing things like that, it's called Garden Products. I was asking for a database sort of like Garden Watchdog where if I was thinking of buying some Felco pruners, I could look in there and see what other people thought of them. Or if I didn't know what kind of pruners I wanted, I could see which ones other people have rated highly and then know which ones are the best ones to buy.

bump

Let's talk about this a little more.

I'm really keen on the idea; I think it would be an extremely useful addition and one that I would personally get a lot of use out of.

What would the feature look like? Would it be modeled after PlantFiles, or the Watchdog, or Bookworm? What kinds of fields would we want?

Do we want to be able to post pictures? Comments with reviews/rankings are obviously a must. How specific do we want this database to be?

Pictures would be good! More like plant files so we can see who carries them.

I agree with Grammy - vendors would be good and definitely pictures, more like PlantFiles.

Fields could include hand tools, power tools, greenhouse gadgets (can't thing of a word! - but things like propagating systems), garden "things" like hose guides, hose reels, self-watering pots, trellis material, grow boxes would need a category. We need to be able to tick off more than one category, too, like the landscaping site.

I'm sure we'll get lots of ideas.

Good feedback. So we'll model it as a hybrid approach between PlantFiles and Landscaping.com.

We'll want the name of the product; what else? Manufacturer? Retail cost? I can't really think of what all kinds of information (text fields) we're going to want.

dave

Yes photos.
Positive, neutral, negative with a comments section like Plantfiles/Watchdog would be most helpful. If there were particular praise or a negative tale of terror on an item, maybe the 'comment' post could be linkable to Garden Products where there'd be more room to expound or share experience with that item.?? Just a thought.

Random ideas on categories-
power tools gas/electric/solar
hand tools: weeders, cutters, cultivators, etc
fertilizers, amendments and the like. Plant specific?
insecticides, fungicides and the like. Plant specific? (organic/inorganic?)
landscaping software?
plant supports
potting mix, starter mix
bulk soils/amendments suppliers by geographic location
ponds and pond accoutrements- plants and creatures for ponds
pots/planters/plant stands
garden furniture/decor
greenhouses
irrigation equipment:hoses, sprinklers, watering wands that last >2 months ;)
patio,pathway and deck materials?
fighting the enemy: deer, racoon, 'larger' pest control
bird houses/feeders
outdoor lighting

Out of ideas.... for now. I think this would be a fantastic addition to DG.

Well done, Poochella! I knew someone could get things going.

Ergonomic is another category - there are lots of tools out now with specially designed handles, etc.

IPM - sources for beneficial

Link new additions to the Garden Products forum? Or perhaps just a notice at top that says "x new products have been added since ?" using your last logon? I like ticklers, because I sometimes forget to check things for a long time. I tend to use DG more when I'm reminded of all the great things available in some way.

Fields: name, manufacturer, retail price (how about a range?), online URL if applicable.

Oh great idea... could you tie it into our Go gardening?? That way we would know who in our area carries the products we are looking for.
I just spent a lot of time looking for some bulk products like coarse vermiculte in bulk, potting soils, etc since we just moved here...
something along those lines might be helpful,too??

MsC




spelling errors

This message was edited Jun 13, 2007 11:18 PM

If we did tie it into local and/or mail order companies, my vote would be to do it on a "participating" vendor (read: paying) basis. That would ensure their list is at least no more than a year old (if they don't renew, their list would drop off), and the onus would be on the vendor to somehow provide a list of what they offer, rather than us trying to locate it and add it for them.

The big problem I see there is the variability in what to call specific items (Is it a glazed umber-colored terra cotta pot, or a brown terracotta urn?) Both could refer to the same item, depending on who's doing the describing.

There are no standard naming conventions for home/garden products and supplies like there are for plants (the standardization is what made PlantScout feasible.) But if we can sort that out, it might be worth a shot - a vendor could go through and select the categories/items they carry.

Terry, your point #1 sounds good, but since the idea was to report on things we buy individually, there will be many vendors. Does DG contact them after a member posts and ask them to participate? I'm just not sure how this works.

As for how to describe your pot in #2, I would say a terracotta (or terra cotta) pot - the operative word being POT. If we were to search on the category pots or plant containers, presumably a post would contain the descriptive words, no?

#3 - This is where I started to stumble (my vocabulary is full of words like thingy and whatchamacallit), but it doesn't have to be perfect, does it? :-) If we can get some more feedback, I'm sure we will get closer to what we need. Just like a catalog on a supplier site, I sometimes have to spread a wide net to find what I'm looking for.

Cool! I'm excited that we're maybe going to get this feature!

A couple additional thoughts...
For names, since we're going to be making listings for specific products from specific manufacturers, I would use whatever the mfg's official name is for it, I guess there may be a few cases where this is not available but I think we'd only want to include things where it's very easy to identify what brand, etc the product is. I guess I hadn't thought too much about things like pots that can be harder to describe when I originally suggested this, I was thinking more of X brand gardening gloves, pruners, etc where it's really easy to identify the product. My thought would be if it's some generic thing where it's not easy to identify the mfg and name maybe it shouldn't be included, it'll be really hard to identify it to a level that other people can find it if they want it. Some orange plastic pot that I found at my local Walmart is not going to be something that's very useful to include in the database in my opinion since WM probably changes orange plastic pot suppliers over time and across regions, but something like Earthbox container system would be easily identifiable and find-able (if that's a word!) so would be valuable to include

I would love to see links to the manufacturer's website for more info (they will sometimes have info on where you can purchase their products too), as well as I would love to see vendors listed like we have in Plant Scout, I'd love to see similar criteria applied as is done with Plant Scout where they have to pay to be included and also "bad" companies wouldn't be allowed in.

Definitely should include photos, those are extremely helpful. I'm not sure about including prices though, although I like the idea of knowing about how much something costs, different vendors may charge different prices and I could see it causing problems to include a price, then you go to a "Garden Scout" vendor and it's a different price there, that annoys people and probably isn't helpful to the vendor either and might make them less willing to participate.

For categories, it might be useful to browse around some of the garden supply vendors websites and see how they organize things--I could see categories like outdoor decor, seed starting, pest control, fertilizers, garden tools (maybe some sub-categories here too). I would love to see a category for greenhouses too in addition to the regular gardening supplies, there are always people looking for advice on which one to get. Would also love to see some categories related to natural/organic/green since that's a big trend. This won't be applicable for some types of products, but would definitely be a useful sub-attribute for things like fertilizers, pest control products, and amendments.

I'm sure I'll think of more later but I have some work stuff I have to get done...I'll think about it and come back later if I think of anything else.

Thanks Dave for giving this consideration!

I would use this feature. It gets old having to go on line hunting products down all the time.

This is starting to take form - thank you all for your feedback!! I'm very excited to have this feature coming up. I think having a "where to buy this" feature ("Garden Scout") would be excellent, and the extra benefit is that we can use our NameMedia sales team to get the companies to learn about the system and sign up for it. Sounds like a win-win all the way around.

I am going to do what I can to get a beta up for this feature by the end of the week!!!

dave

Thanks Kaperc. I was just stream of consciousness-thinking out loud....

Terry's point one: Paying vendors. I can see the undeniable benefit of getting DG exposure for the vendor; but say I get a great pair of rose pruning gloves at my local nursery- very geographically specific nursery, not nationwide, not even statewide, and no online sales from them. Should that nursery be excluded from any database for that product? Such a localized listing/source for that product would fit well into "Go Gardening" for NW gardeners, but less so in the big picture of nationwide gardeners/shoppers interested in rose pruning gloves. My local nursery might not want to be a paying vendor for what little benefit it might bring them by listing with DG/Namemedia. Just a thought abut the restrictions placed on sources cited by posters....

Could I, as the poster, provide a link to that nursery even though they weren't a paying vendor? I would hate to be restricted in mentioning a non paying vendor. Or maybe we should keep it to manufacturer and product. Anyone interested in where we found it could Dmail an inquiry to the poster? I don't know. These are things Dave and his imaginary staff must wrestle through!

Point 2 by Terry: I think umber terra cotta pot is too specific: I see more POTS: ceramic, plastic, zinc, other. Let the posters supply the details and people interested can scroll through to find the umber one. This is where photos are of immense aid.

Number 3, by Kaperc and Terry both "no standard naming conventions for garden product: That IS a potential problem, but I bet we'd learn our way around real names, real fast. I'm with Kaperc: my rotating thingy under the hood ceased to function again yesterday on the lawn tractor- the whole reason I posted to begin with and the whole reason I looked to DG to find others' input on lawn tractors. Before Consumer Reports, mind you!

You have a lot of work cut out for you, Dave. But we're here to help. A whole army of gardeners at your disposal. Good luck!

I think it might be hard to include local vendors for things, Plant Scout right now is only set up for mail order places since those are available to everyone. Go Gardening tells you where your local nurseries are, but it doesn't tell you what specific plants they are carrying, so I don't see why garden tools/supplies should be any different. I think if you start including all sorts of local listings you'll end up with a huge unwieldy list of sources to scroll through and I'm not sure how useful that would be. I'd rather see it like Plant Scout where the vendors listed are ones that will be available to a wide range of people through mail order.

Don't forget we have the comments themselves to add info - presumably, people will at least scan that when looking at your "perfect" product.

Case in point for being too specific: I just went to LeeValley, a well known company, to purchase a rake I saw in my catalog. Didn't have the catalog to hand, so I looked under Rakes - what else? It wasn't there. Further (frustrating) search found it under Lawn - they called it a lawn rake, but that's not what I'll use it for! Why wasn't it under plain old Rakes? grrrrr....

I think the manufacturer, if known, should be the second thing on the page. This allows one to possibly go to their web site and look for sources. Then we could have a field for where it was purchased - either locally or online.

I still think a range of prices is better - for instance, if I'm looking for pruners and I see something "over $50" - I'll go on to something else. I don't think it's necessary to have the exact price, as it might vary from place to place and season to season.

Kathleen

I've got the basic layout finished!!

http://davesgarden.com/gp/

Please give it a try. Add a product, set the categories, upload a photo, and write a review!

As always, we'll continue to improve the system, especially once it starts to see some good use.

dave

Thanks, Dave! I think this will be a great feature.

Comments:

1. I don't think the "Product Info" stands out enough. Can it be moved into the "Details" box?

2. The link opens in the same window - can it default to new?

3. Would like to edit my comments.

Kathleen

Will a tab be created at the top of our home page for this enhancement?

I have already created the tab and it's ready to go up, but I'd like to get some people to play with the system and populate it with some products before I "launch" it.

dave

Love it! This will get a lot of use from me.

I played with the system and added four entries. I really like it. I'm just having problems finding the area to add products unless somebody posts in this thread. Are we allowed to add chemicals? How do we correct a spelling error?

Equilibrium,

I added it to my "Favorites" by clicking on the little yellow folder at the top right of the screen. Of course, you still have to go to "MyInfo" and "View Your DG Favorites" but at least you can find it more easily.

Dave,

When viewing all products, we need a way to sort or return to the "main" page.
Actually, as we get more in the db, we'll need some kind of search by product type, since we won't know the name of what we're looking for! :-)

k

I looked at it and found it confusing...under green?sustainable I found a propane week killer and under organic I found a weed puller???????? Not at all what I was expecting under these two headings.

Green/Sustainable sort of means any product designed for sustainability that aims to lessen its impact on our environment through energy and resource efficiency. A carbon footprint reducer for lack of a better term. Hybrid vehicles are deemed "Green" vehicles.

From Wikpedia- "Organic foods are produced according to certain production standards. For crops, it means they were grown without the use of conventional pesticides, artificial fertilizers, human waste, or sewage sludge, and that they were processed without ionizing radiation or food additives. For animals, it means they were reared without the routine use of antibiotics and without the use of growth hormones. In most countries, organic produce must not be genetically modified." They probably should have added organic foods and fibers in reading that entry and cotton comes to mind.

I placed the Weed Wrench under organic but I should have also placed it under Green/Sustainable now that I think about it.

Thanks kaperc, I never knew what that little folder was up there and I was afraid to click on it.

Editing to add it is a little confusing. I thought for sure somebody was going to comment about the paint mixer.

This message was edited Jun 22, 2007 5:51 PM

I will work on the database as time allows so 'Tex' and Dave have something to sink their mega GB, dual core, Raid 10 teeth into.

I would also vote for an edit feature.

Thanks Dave!

LOL Poochella!!

This is cool! I added a couple things, the one request I have is would it be possible in the details section to be able to add a description of the product? For some products this may not be necessary and for some once there are pictures maybe you don't need it, but for one of the things I added it would have been helpful to have a field like that. I put the description in my comments instead for now.

Also, I noticed when you're choosing the category/primary feature/etc, the right hand box says something about "options selected for this landscape", I guess it should say "product" instead of "landscape"?

And I wonder about the ability of everybody to add categories, functions, etc...right now I think it's great, but as more and more products get added I wonder if it might get a bit unwieldy? Now it's easy to look through all the categories, but once the list gets long, someone may miss the fact that there's already an appropriate category there for their product and add a new one that's just a different way of saying something that's already there.

Great feedback!

I'll have editing capabilities next week. As for unwieldy categories, I can certainly see that becoming a problem... I'm not sure what the right solution is for that. Let's give it some thought.

I'm heading to Boston early tomorrow morning to meet with NameMedia and attend a roundup. I'll be back Wednesday afternoon!

best,
dave

Is there going to be a category/categories for garden apparel products other than gloves? I know when I garden I got my special footwear on and sometimes my I have to use my bug suit so I don't get eaten alive.

Also when entering a new product, maybe there should be a spot to enter a model number if applicable.

Erynne

You get to add your own categories (at least for now) if you're adding a product and the category it belongs in isn't there. If there's no category there now, it's because nobody's entered a product that fits there yet.

On mine, for the one where there was a model number, I put it right in the name of the product. I agree that's info that should definitely be included, so if people aren't putting it in the product name then a separate field might be a better way to remind people that they should include that info.

I think it would be useful to see the average star rating for the product in the summary list, so if I click on the Mulch category and see the list of various mulches I can quickly see which ones are overall rated better than others. Otherwise it looks great so far. :)