What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have never been discovered. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
I’ve been thinking how can I combine my love of gardening with electronics and route my controlling nature into a useful venture? Then I thought about the game Farmville. Who the hell thought that people would go online and grow virtual vegetables? Yet they did. So why not buy a vacant lot, bring in good dirt and do a real Farmville? So, lets do it. Lets get the land, set up a camera, a remote control system for watering, a sensor to prevent overwatering, maybe even a loud speaker to shoo away the crows. I’m serious.
My experiment begins with a property search of small vacant lots in my hometown of Louisville, KY. Using the free Open Data GIS (Geographic Information System) provied by the city of Louisville I plotted every vacant lot in the city. The city has a great incentive program for vacant lands where you agree to maintain the property in exchange for a low price. In this case $450.00.
Click to view