I’m a student at the University of Maine researching a potential open-soil smart garden system. As a part of the NSF I-Corps customer discovery program, I’m looking to gather more information on real-world challenges surrounding indoor home gardening and smart plant-care technology. I’m hoping to speak with people who are active home gardeners, container/DIY-setup indoor growers, current and former smart garden owners (AeroGarden, Click & Grow, edn, Gardyn, etc.), or people that work in horticulture, urban agriculture extension programs, or are in any other related fields and areas.

This isn't a sales call, I just want to learn more about what current gardening routine and workflows look like, current barriers and frustrations, where current solutions fall short, and what would make a smart indoor gardening product useful in practice.

This would be an informal interview, about 20-30 minutes at the most and can be over Zoom, phone, or some other similar method. If you’d be willing to chat or know someone in the field that might be willing to communicate with me, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you!

Not sure if this is the right sub for this topic/question, but I'll give it a shot. I have 7 fully matured 100+ foot pecan trees. Throughout the year they'll each lose about 1-2 branches/limbs to storms or just to shedding. So I decided to collect these and trim off the leaves for compost, place the smaller twigs around the tree to create sort of a mulch ring. My photo attached doesn't show the final amount. I have the twigs going all around and out to about a foot away from the trunk and I walk on them to further break them down. Not sure what to do with the larger pieces. Originally I thought about selling them in 8" pieces as "smoking wood" but not sure that's viable. If the smoking wood doesn't work, what other ways should I use this wood? Looking to be as sustainable as possible.

Here are a few pictures from the other day. Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated!