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Next presentation 6 mins

Presentation slides

Plant Barn and California Gardens research

Clarke and I went to these garden centres to speak to some of the employees about our app and asked some questions about suitable plants for indoor and outdoor.

Some of the questions we asked were:

• What are the recommended plants for indoor planting 
• What plants have health and well being benefits 
• What plants are suitable for an urban environment that don't require for much maintenance
• Suggested fertiliser for indoor 
• herbs that grown indoors well 

Suggested outdoor plants to suit the wellington weather and urban surroundings: 

• Flax
• Toi Toi
  Rushes 
• Grasses 
• Natives - Pohutukawa 
• Genko
• Plain trees - Suited for polluted areas 
• Pittasmorums 
• Coastal Reefs 
• Grissilinears 
• Pergians 
• London Plane trees 
• Ivy 
• Arthpodium 
• Dranium 
• Pandereas 

Particular suggested indoor plants for air purification 

• Peace lily 
• Mother in law tounge 
• Gucinas 

Indoor Plant fertizlier: 

• Grawla 
• Osma
• Novatec- Herb fertiliser 
• Thrive - House plant fertiliser 

 

Budbee

Presentation Progress

Presentation Content:

Problem

- Urban statistics (Laura)

• Today, 54 per cent of the world’s population lives in urban areas, a proportion that is expected to increase to 66 per cent by 2050.
• Projections show that urbanization combined with the overall growth of the world’s population could add another 2.5 billion people to urban populations by 2050.
• The urban population of the world has grown rapidly from 746 million in 1950 to 3.9 billion in 2014.
• The world’s urban population is expected to surpass six billion by 2045.
• In New Zealand over 70% of us live in urban areas, where we spend an amazing 90% of our time indoors

Target Audience (sickness in flats) (Clarke)
The indoor environment is so important to our health as we spend about 90% of our time indoors, therefore having a major impact on our health.

Common flat issues:
– cold
– poorly insulated
– hard to maintain heat
– damp

– moisture from; hot showers, cooking, drying laundry, and even just breathing
– poor ventilation, no fresh airflow
– condensation, growing mould

– Mould can be toxic and cause reactions to people with pre-existing respiratory conditions such as hay fever and asthma.

– While you're more likely to get a cold if you are tired, or emotionally or physically stressed, or do not have a healthy diet. Which are common traits of students especially when studying for exams, completing assignments, or just trying to keep on top of studies.

- Benefits of indoor plants for wellbeing (Nat)

Key Points:

The stress of an unpleasant environment can cause you to feel anxious, or sad, or helpless. This in turn elevates your blood pressure, heart rate, and muscle tension and suppresses your immune system. A pleasing environment reverses that.

Adjusting our surroundings with natural elements can benefit our overall wellbeing. Research reveals that environments can increase or reduce our stress, which in turn impacts our bodies.

Indoor plants in particular are the main contributor to air purification which can benefit our health and wellbeing especially being stuck in a damp, cold flat.

- Trees in NZ (Emma)

Only 24% of our country's land area is covered in native forest.

Studies say that 1000 years of Polynesian and European settlement has resulted in the destruction of nearly three-quarters of our country's indigenous forest cover.

So locally our Wellington City council has established a vision to plant two million trees in Wellington by 2020.

And it is with this vision and the other context we have just mentioned that has sparked the inspiration towards our project concept

Solution

– Introducing Budbee an app that helps you place, grown and track plants indoors. The app will use smartphone technology such as the compass, camera and weather, to guide you where to situate you plant indoors. (L)

– Budbee will also be able to identify plants through the camera. It will suggest what type of plant will thrive in a particular part of the room and what fertilizers to use. Improving air purification, mental health and well being.  (C)

– Plants become personalised through the naming feature in our plant profiling section, along with the ability to share amongst your friends through the app. The plant profiling will also send you notifications for watering reminders for each plant buddy.  (N)

Where to from here?  (E)

Next our team hopes to seek further validation amongst both the intended users of budbee and potential partners.

We see a collaboration between bud bees indoor planting endeavours and wider urban applications through forwarding our potential income into donations towards a charity operation that is seeking funding for either local forest restoration or wildlife protection.

We hope to start building relationships with local gardening shops to understand how bud bee could affect and improve their businesses

And how their current knowledge of planting in new zealand could help us refine and craft our app to the best it can be.

Through working closely alongside these centres If our project requires any sponsorship we would look into seeing whether any centre would be willing to cooperate.

The Kereru Discovery project aims to restore large flocks of kereru to the skies of Wellington.

A key part of which is to restore large fruiting trees back to Wellington's forest.

or the council has provided an opportunity to Sponsor a new forest

Where they help identify a reserve area, and we provide funds for tree planting. In return, they have a number of options to highlight our involvement.

Or you can partner with their urban designers and green your street by sponsoring a tree.

App names:

Herbit

Seedbe

Seedly

Bushbe

Bebush

Peebly

Budbe

Budin

Budbee

Presentation Planning

4 min (8 slides ish). Show that people are interested, potential partners? Cost?

- Urban statistics
- Target Audience (sickness in flats)
- Benefits of indoor plants for wellbeing
- Trees in NZ
- Plants into urban environment
- Introduce
- Specifics of app
- App ecosystem

Trees in NZ

Replanting and sustainable forestry

It's worth noting that proper sustainable forestry practices do not cause a net increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because a new tree is grown for every one cut down. By contrast, clear cutting and converting forestland into to urban areas has a very high negative impact - because the forest is destroyed and replaced with heat absorbing pavement and buildings.

-greenpeace nz

Conservation International's list of ecosystems "on the edge of collapse" said New Zealand had just 5 per cent of its original habitat. However, a 2006 Canterbury University study said 1000 years of Polynesian and European settlement had resulted in the destruction of nearly three-quarters of the country's indigenous forest cover.

The Convention on Biological Diversity website says that 24 per cent of New Zealand's land area, or 6.48 million hectares, is covered in native forest.

Forest & Bird conservation advocate Nicola Vallance said New Zealand's native forests were well-protected in law, but not enough pest control was being done.

"The fact [Conservation International's] even looking at New Zealand should be a cause for concern," Vallance said.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/4616650/New-Zealand-named-deforestation-hot-spot

10-18 sept conservation week

Growing partners

Kereru Discovery 
The Kereru Discovery project aims to restore large flocks of kereru to the skies of Wellington. The Council has partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to make this project happen - a key part of which is to restore large fruiting trees back to Wellington's forest.

Project Crimson
The Council has had a partnership with Project Crimson since 2005 on a project called Crimson Hills. This aims to restore northern rata to the hills of Wellington, and together we have seen hundreds planted. The project also includes a Living Legends planting on the Town Belt, which is a lasting legacy from the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

Victoria University of Wellington
Growing Graduates is a new initiative which aims to celebrate new graduates and create a lasting connection between students, Victoria University and the city. Each year, over the next five years, Victoria University will plant 2,000 native trees within Wellington's Town Belt.

Funded by the Victoria University Foundation and provided by the Council's Berhampore Nursery, the trees will be for all Wellingtonians to access and enjoy. The programme is designed to enhance the physical landscape of the city, supporting the Council in our Two Million Trees project.

Wellington Zoo
Wellington Zoo runs a conservation education venture called Bush Builders. Bush Builders is designed to reconnect urban children to local wildlife, and works closely with the Council on planting intiatives in and around Bush Builders schools.

Zealandia
Zealandia and the Council work together to get the school children of Wellington planting. In 2012 we partnered with nine schools and got over 1,200 children planting in sites across the city. This builds on lessons learned when these children visit Zealandia, and enables them to have practical experience with a restoration project.

Sponsor a new forest

We’ll help identify a reserve area, and you provide funds for tree planting. In return, we have a number of options to highlight your involvement.

Or you can partner with our urban designers and green your street by sponsoring a tree.

Commemorative trees

Celebrate an occasion, or create a memory by purchasing and planting a commemorative tree. For more information, see: 

Get staff involved in plantings

We provide the trees, you provide the people to plant them. The Council can offer a number of different sites and a variety of days during winter planting season. Your involvement can be acknowledged by news stories in our publications and on our websites.

The Council is proud to have grown, planted and provided around 700,000 native plants around the city in the last 10 years - all from the award-winning Berhampore Nursery. Community groups, Council staff, businesses, schoolchildren and others have all done their bit in planting projects.

Taking into account tree planting efforts by community groups, Wellington Regional Council, Forest and Bird and others, we estimate that one million trees have been planted in the city in the last decade.

Urban Statistics

http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/population/world-urbanization-prospects-2014.html

Today, 54 per cent of the world’s population lives in urban areas, a proportion that is expected to increase to 66 per cent by 2050. Projections show that urbanization combined with the overall growth of the world’s population could add another 2.5 billion people to urban populations by 2050, with close to 90 percent of the increase concentrated in Asia and Africa, according to a new United Nations report launched today.

The 2014 revision of the World Urbanization Prospects by UN DESA’s Population Division notes that the largest urban growth will take place in India, China and Nigeria. These three countries will account for 37 per cent of the projected growth of the world’s urban population between 2014 and 2050. By 2050, India is projected to add 404 million urban dwellers, China 292 million and Nigeria 212 million.

With nearly 38 million people, Tokyo tops UN’s ranking of most populous cities followed by Delhi, Shanghai, Mexico City, São Paulo and Mumbai

The urban population of the world has grown rapidly from 746 million in 1950 to 3.9 billion in 2014. Asia, despite its lower level of urbanization, is home to 53 per cent of the world’s urban population, followed by Europe with 14 per cent and Latin America and the Caribbean with 13 per cent.

The world’s urban population is expected to surpass six billion by 2045.  Much of the expected urban growth will take place in countries of the developing regions, particularly Africa. As a result, these countries will face numerous challenges in meeting the needs of their growing urban populations, including for housing, infrastructure, transportation, energy and employment, as well as for basic services such as education and health care. 

“Managing urban areas has become one of the most important development challenges of the 21st century. Our success or failure in building sustainable cities will be a major factor in the success of the post-2015 UN development agenda,” said John Wilmoth, Director of UN DESA’s Population Division.

Mega-cities with more than 10 million people are increasing in number

The report notes that in 1990, there were ten “mega-cities” with 10 million inhabitants or more, which were home to 153 million people or slightly less than seven per cent of the global urban population at that time. In 2014, there are 28 mega-cities worldwide, home to 453 million people or about 12 percent of the world’s urban dwellers. Of today’s 28 mega-cities, sixteen are located in Asia, four in Latin America, three each in Africa and Europe, and two in Northern America. By 2030, the world is projected to have 41 mega-cities with 10 million inhabitants or more.

Tokyo remains the world’s largest city with 38 million inhabitants, followed by Delhi with 25 million, Shanghai with 23 million, and Mexico City, Mumbai and São Paulo, each with around 21 million inhabitants. Osaka has just over 20 million, followed by Beijing with slightly less than 20 million. The New York-Newark area and Cairo complete the top ten most populous urban areas with around 18.5 million inhabitants each.

“Managing urban areas has become one of the most important development challenges of the 21st century. Our success or failure in building sustainable cities will be a major factor in the success of the post-2015 UN development agenda”

John Wilmoth
Director of UN DESA’s
Population Division

Although Tokyo’s population is projected to decline, it will remain the world’s largest city in 2030 with 37 million inhabitants, followed closely by Delhi, whose population is projected to rise swiftly to 36 million in 2030. While Osaka and New York-Newark were the world’s second and third largest urban areas in 1990, by 2030 they are projected to fall in rank to the 13th and 14th positions, respectively, as mega-cities in developing countries become more prominent.

Small cities are numerous and many are growing rapidly

Overall, nearly half of the world’s 3.9 billion urban dwellers reside in relatively small settlements with fewer than 500,000 inhabitants, while only around one in eight live in the 28 mega-cities with 10 million inhabitants or more. Many of the fastest growing cities in the world are relatively small urban settlements.

Rural populations expected to decrease as urban populations continue to grow

The rural population of the world has grown slowly since 1950 and is expected to reach its peak around 2020. The global rural population is now close to 3.4 billion and is expected to decline to 3.1 billion by 2050. While Africa and Asia are urbanizing rapidly, the regions are still home to nearly 90 per cent of the world’s rural population. India has the largest rural population with 857 million, followed by China with 635 million.

Urban statistics http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS

Benefits of indoor plants

Recent research has shown that indoor plants significantly improve a whole range of aspects of our indoor environment.  The benefits cover a spectrum from physically cleaner air to direct beneficial effects on psychological health, task performance, illness reduction and productivity.

The findings are important since, in New Zealand over 70% of us live in urban areas, where we spend an amazing 90% of our time indoors, so the quality of the indoor environment is crucial to our wellbeing.  

Recent research tells us that indoor plants are good for buildings and people in a variety of ways. Plants play a vital role in providing a pleasant and tranquil environment in which to move, work or relax. Indoor plants can also help health, wellbeing and productivity in the workplace.

Scientific studies from research in Australia and around the world, reinforces the positive effect living plants can have on the health and well being of people who work in buildings.

Research shows that indoor plants:

• Help improve indoor air quality
• Help reduce sick building syndrome
• Help improve well being
• Help improve productivity and performance
• Help to lower stress and negative feelings
• Help to reduce noise
• Improve business image with potential clients
• Contribute to fulfilling at least 75% of Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) Criteria

Nature + Wellbeing

How Nature/ Plants improve Human well-being 

Research reveals that environments can increase or reduce our stress, which in turn impacts our bodies. What you are seeing, hearing, experiencing at any moment is changing not only your mood, but how your nervous, endocrine, and immune systems are working.

The stress of an unpleasant environment can cause you to feel anxious, or sad, or helpless. This in turn elevates your blood pressure, heart rate, and muscle tension and suppresses your immune system. A pleasing environment reverses that.

Nature Heals

In addition, nature helps us cope with pain. Because we are genetically programmed to find trees, plants, water, and other nature elements engrossing, we are absorbed by nature scenes and distracted from our pain and discomfort.

Nature Restores

One of the most intriguing areas of current research is the impact of nature on general wellbeing. In one study in Mind, 95% of those interviewed said their mood improved after spending time outside, changing from depressed, stressed, and anxious to more calm and balanced. Other studies by Ulrich, Kim, and Cervinka show that time in nature or scenes of nature are associated with a positive mood, and psychological wellbeing, meaningfulness, and vitality.

Furthermore, time in nature or viewing nature scenes increases our ability to pay attention. Because humans find nature inherently interesting, we can naturally focus on what we are experiencing out in nature. This also provides a respite for our overactive minds, refreshing us for new tasks.

Nature connects

According to a series of field studies conducted by Kuo and Coley at the Human-Environment Research Lab, time spent in nature connects us to each other and the larger world. Another study at the University of Illinois suggests that residents in Chicago public housing who had trees and green space around their building reported knowing more people, having stronger feelings of unity with neighbors, being more concerned with helping and supporting each other, and having stronger feelings of belonging than tenants in buildings without trees. In addition to this greater sense of community, they had a reduced risk of street crime, lower levels of violence and aggression between domestic partners, and a better capacity to cope with life’s demands, especially the stresses of living in poverty.

This experience of connection may be explained by studies that used fMRI to measure brain activity.  When participants viewed nature scenes, the parts of the brain associated with empathy and love lit up, but when they viewed urban scenes, the parts of the brain associated with fear and anxiety were activated. It appears as though nature inspires feelings that connect us to each other and our environment.

Sickness in flats

The indoor environment is so important to our health as we spend about 90% of our time indoors, therefore having a major impact on our health. New Zealand houses have many common issues, with the biggest problems is that our houses are too cold, particularly old homes. Which can result in dampness, mould and respiratory illness, although a minimum indoor temperature of 18°C is recommended to be suitable.

Though, how warm is your flat? With our target audience of flatters, what are their odds of being sick during winter and what can our app design do to help with this.

Cold houses affect health for flatters due to being old, and often poorly insulated. Making it hard to maintain a warm house and expensive! Since student flats are cold they get damp, grow mould, also by having hot showers to warm up, cooking nice warm soups, drying laundry and even just breathing effects moisture (each person produces one litre of moisture per day), and while windows don’t always get opened during crips winter days there is no fresh airflow resulting in poor ventilation. Leaving moisture and condensation to condenses on cold uninsulated walls, with the possibility of mould growth.

Mould is not always harmful for healthy people, although there are some species that are potentially toxic and can cause reactions to people with pre-existing respiratory conditions and cause allergic reactions such as hay fever and asthma, along with cold and flu symptoms and temperature changes such as cold dry air. There is the risk of getting bronchitis developing from a cold and you're more likely to get a cold if you are tired, or emotionally or physically stressed, or do not have a healthy diet. Which are common traits of students especially when studying for exams or completing assignments, or just trying to keep on top of studies.

Heating is another problem for student flats. Firstly some heaters produce indoor air pollutants. Secondly while heating a room is nice while your watching tv, when you leave to the rest of the flat that is cold, the change in temperature can lead to sickness. Heating the whole house is the way to go, but is often too expensive for students, especially in a poorly insulated flat.

Flats can be made water by installing insulation and effective heating. Efficient, less polluting heaters include heat pumps, wood pellet burners and flued gas heaters. Heat pumps use the same technology as a refrigerator, but in reverse. They are very energy efficient, with some models producing up to 5 kilowatts of heat for every 1 kilowatt of electricity they use.

Proof there are unlovable flats in Wellington is this example of a flat in Aro Valley. “The New Zealand Union of Students' Associations (NZUSA) president Linsey Higgins said the mould and cold was "toxic and escalating", and could set off lifelong health issues, such as asthma, as well as leading to academic failure from being sick”. – Stuff (source NZUSA). The flat was damp, cold, and  mould on the carpet and curtains.

But are there any other alternatives to making a warmer, healthier flat?

Group Meeting

Tonight we met to discuss narrowing down and focussing our idea in preparation for presentation in week 6. In order to create a convincing argument that backs our project, we decided we will need to do a large amount of research on the issue, the benefits plants provide and some options to explore. Below are the allocated topics we have split to all go away and research for next mondays class. 

Research: 

Nat: Biophilia 
Clarke: Sickness in flatting situations 
Laura: Urban living
Emma: Deforestation 

Gardening Apps

After researching what other apps are available we found there are only a few for indoor gardening that supply tips on 'how to'. We are planning our app to include this along with features from other gardening apps, such as plant identifier, watering/fertilising reminder notification, season planting tips, information on plants – informing of watering/sunlight/temperature needs. All this for plants, herbs and vegetables.  

Tutor Feed Back

Brian Lucid Feedback

- Think about how to make things narrower to have walls to push against
-Gardening for things you may eat
-focus on indoor support for herbs
-why do we want people to grow inside
-Home farming
-Urban Farming on a small scale
- Frame it as a problem
-People aren't growing enough?
-Not focused on growing your own food?
-People don't have enough connection to growing
-Be more engaged with things you eat
-Simplifying growing your own food

-Don't have to make app- About selling your idea
-Could be a service or a system - plants you don't eat get sent off to a bigger cooperation to distribute
- Customer Forum?
-Community based?
- Think of all the avenues it could go down

-What do you want to grow?
-Why
-Prepping of eco system and planting- can design through the whole process
-Why Grow?

- How to you frame the problem so people want to solve it
-How does it give back- using app you are prompted to give back in another way

-Make it really narrow and persuasive
-Craft your story and idea
- Here is the problem/ here is the solution
-How do you engage people
-Here is how we know this has value
- how do we know this is going to be successful
- Is there a desire to plant your food
- What are the benefits- economic- ecological- wellbeing- nutritional
- Big stats- how people in a certain age range don't have access to nutritional food or have disconnection to the outside world
-Its about the eco-system around the app
- Its about the opportunities the app presents
-how to raise money from groups- gardening club?

Week 4 - Class

How to look after a indoor herb garden

Location is the most important choice you’ll make in setting up an indoor herb garden. Herbs need at least 6 hours of bright sunlight, which may be tough to get during the winter months. To ensure plants are getting plenty of light consider the following:

1. Southwest facing windowsills offer the most light.
2. A corner with two windows (one facing south and the other west) is ideal.
3. Supplement with HID grow lights if your home doesn’t get enough natural light.

Growing medium is a better choice than garden soil for your potted herbs. Choose an organic growing medium that is loose and drains well. You can purchase a commercial mix or make your own:

Soil Mix – Use equal parts compost, sterile topsoil and builder’s sand. An all-purpose organic fertilizer can be added to this mix.

Soilless Mix – Combine 4-6 parts peat moss, 1 part perlite and 1 part vermiculite. If adding nutrients, blend 1/2 cup each bone meal, oystershell lime (raises pH) and cottonseed meal/canola meal per 8 gallons of potting mix.

Water your plants enough to keep the soil moist without over-watering (roots will rot in a soggy container). Let the top of the soil, or growing medium, dry out completely between waterings and check moisture levels often. A soil moisture meter can help eliminate over and under watering by measuring moisture at the root level. It’s also a good idea to plant herbs in separate containers, or make sure that plants grown together have similar watering needs.

Tip: Mint, parsley and lovage do best in fairly moist soil, whereas rosemary, thyme and sage prefer soil that is only slightly moist.

Seeds of annual herbs (basil, coriander, dill and oregano) can be started indoors and grown year round. Place a collection of popular culinary herbs in a sunny kitchen window and they’ll be available when needed. Perennial herbs, like chives, parsley, sage, sweet marjoram and thyme, can be started from seed, but it is often easier to purchase young plants from a nursery. Because perennials grow for more than one season, it’s best to keep them outside in pots during the summer and bring them in before the first frost.

Indoor Plant Research

Researching into some indoor plants and what lighting and water it needs to live flourish and be healthy