Plants Map Update: June 2014
Happy June!
Hopefully this update finds you enjoying your garden and your time outdoors in a beautiful place.
When I think of June I associate it with strawberries, picnics and cookouts, garden weddings, hydrangeas and so many beautiful vibrant annual and perennial flowers.
Did you know June is also National Rose Month? We hope you take the time to stop and smell some roses and enjoy a few great outdoor experiences with your family and friends as well as volunteer with some organizations to help beautify your community.
On to a few updates about Plants Map! We’ve been busy!
It Takes A Startup Village
As of the end of May we have three co-founders working full time on Plants Map!
Thanks to Steven Kaplan & Meighan O’Reardon of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP for the legal work, Jim Chinn & Michele Kinnick with Elliott Davis for the accounting setup and being awesome CPAs and Jeffrey Wade of Anchor Total HR for assisting with payroll and benefits. Bob Crimmins, you’re awesome! Thanks for assisting with getting our Plants Map Tag production up and running.
Welcome to our newest organizations!
We look forward to exploring your gardens and watching your networks grow!
Nonprofits are invited to have free profiles on Plants Map to showcase their gardens and projects as well as demonstrate and grow their network of supporters, members, volunteers and affiliations.
Please help us spread the word to community gardens, plant societies, garden clubs and others.
Garden Walk Buffalo Update
We are a contributing supporter for Garden Walk Buffalo. Please visit their growing network of gardens on their profile which now includes a map of gardens.
School Gardens
In early May we had a great meeting with Lara Pearce and Bobby Lewis of Meadows Farms Nurseries. We are working on a project to encourage thestudy of plants in area school curriculums. Trees would be planted at schools by students and then a Plants Map school profile created to list the trees and monitor their growth. Imagine seeing a freshman planting a seedling and then fast forward to that same student standing next to their tree in a cap and gown! We’ll have more details soon.
Beautiful RVA
Thanks to Libby O’Malley, a fellow startup founder of Design FFunnel, for inviting us to participate in a discussion with Lewis Ginter Botnaical Garden and Groundwork RVA about Beautiful RVA, a collaborative campaign among various Richmond area organizations to beautify public spaces with gardens and other green initiatives. We are looking forward to assisting the Beautiful RVA coalition and showcasing their supporters, organizations and projects.
USA National Phenology Network
We have had really good discussions with Theresa Crimmins, the Partnership and Outreach Coordinator of USA-NPN on how Plants Map could work with and support the USA National Phenology Network.
What is phenology? It is basically the observation, study, and recording of plants as well as animals and their development stages in relation to seasons, climates and other factors.
The USA-NPN would like to collaborate and tap our social aspects for their volunteers as well as gain more citizen scientists to add data to their research. We look forward to working out a data exchange and inviting their network of volunteers to join Plants Map!
Plants Map Webinars
We have had two informative and fun live webinars demonstrating how to start a garden. We plan to continue to have more webinars and to use them to help introduce new features as they are launched. We will also be recording demos on different topics such as how an organization profile on Plants Map can help grow interest in your cause or activity.
The webinar on June 5th was recorded and is linked on our About Us page.
Startup Weekend Fredericksburg Promo
Bill Blevins will be featured in a Startup Weekend Fredericksburg video to promote the next event September 26-28, 2014.
Happy Birthday FredXChange! We had a great time at the Fredxchange birthday party and movie premier!
We invite you to share this update with your friends and connections and help us help you grow your world on Plants Map.
We can’t wait to see what you are growing in your garden and your community!
Thank you & happy gardening!
The Plants Map Team