Plants grow but planters do not, at least until this self-expanding pot came along, forever obviating the need for repotting. GROWTH has a three-stage lifecycle, starting out small and becoming quite large as the roots of the plant it supports expand and push out its sides.

Like a blooming flower or unfolding leave, the vessel itself transforms from a seed stage until a fully-formed shape, transitioning between a set of compact triangles, a balloon-like interstitial phase and a final form that once again looks like a pot but much larger.

The initial phase is even smaller that it appears, and the final larger, since the triangles start out forming denser sides then become thinner in their biggest iteration. Designed by Studio Ayaskan, GROWTH addresses a timeless problem when it comes to indoor gardening: the need to remove and replant trees and other growing plants at various stages along the way.

The post No Need to Repot: Origami Planter Expands as Plants Grow first appeared on Gajitz.

Remembering to water your houseplants can be tricky. If you want to keep them alive you’ve got to either stick to a watering schedule or figure out a way to get the plants to water themselves.

Designers JiaChen Du, YangHan Wang, WenZai Ye and DanDan Liao of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts designed a self-watering flowerpot that requires far less attention than most others.

The Water Recycling Flowerpot is a double-wall glass structure that allows water to evaporate, collect on the glass and then drop back into the soil. It’s a natural type of irrigation that prevents both over-watering and under-watering.

An added benefit of the flowerpot’s glass walls is that you can see the roots of your plant growing and snaking through the soil.

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The one and only reason we look forward to winter is a chance to take a break from mowing the lawn for a few months. Lugging out that beast of a mower, gassing it up, and pushing it wearily around and around the yard does not make for a fun summer afternoon.  This solar-powered robotic lawnmower is the perfect alternative. It’s a Roomba for your grass, and it runs entirely on sun juice.

You don’t have to watch it and steer it with a remote control because it works with the same kind of boundary technology that Roombas use – or, since it’s outdoors, maybe it’s more akin to an Invisible Fence that keeps dogs from wandering off. Just like its indoor vacuum cleaner cousin, the robotic lawn mower turns and changes direction when it encounters an obstacle. An on-board battery stores power when the mower is in the sun, then provides energy when the solar cells are in the shade.

The designers at Open Electronics acknowledge that you’ll need to use a more conventional mower if you let the grass get too high. You can get around that, though, by setting the little guy loose on your lawn regularly to keep the grass short and manageable. Schematics, plans, code, and materials list can all be found over at Open Electronics.

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In movies, we see astronauts in space consuming pills rather than eating meals. In reality, they currently eat freeze-dried rations that, according to most astronauts, aren’t the tastiest meals. In the future, they may be able to pick their own fresh vegetables right from a garden aboard the International Space Station. When a SpaceX resupply rocket launched to the ISS in April 2014, it took with it a vegetable growth chamber that would allow fresh vegetables to be grown and observed in orbit.

The expandable chamber, dubbed Veggie, will use “root pillows” to grow “Outredgeous” lettuce seedlings. The chamber is low-cost and collapsible, able to travel almost flat and then expand upward up to 18 inches as the plants within it grow. The Veggie is the largest space growth chamber to date with a growing area that is 11.5 inches wide and 14.5 inches deep. A bank of red, blue and green LEDs encourage plant growth and let crew members observe the plants.

Studies on plant and animal growth in space have been conducted in the past, with some finding that insects born in space have a hard time adjusting upon their arrival on Earth. The goal of the Veggie project is to determine whether it will be possible to grow fresh food for sustenance and for recreation during the long-duration space missions NASA hopes to launch in the future. What’s the worst that could happen? We’re imagining huge, sentient heads of cabbage taking over the ISS and conquering Earth…but we’ll have to wait and see.

The post Largest-Ever Space Veggie Growth Chamber Boards the ISS first appeared on Gajitz.

Ordinary concrete is a rather lifeless material that doesn’t exactly bring to mind lush gardens. But a “biological concrete” building material being developed by a team at the Structural Technology Group, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona is set to change that perception. Unlike traditional concrete, this stuff actually encourages the growth of moss, fungi, lichens and other simple organisms.

The biological concrete is actually a triple layer system including a waterproof layer that protects the building, a middle water-retaining layer, and a top layer of concrete made with quick-setting magnesium phosphate cement. This top layer allows water in, but does not let it escape. It’s the top layer that is key to the biological component of this concrete: it provides the perfect environment for mosses and the like.

The mosses and other organisms should take hold on the concrete within a year. As the plants grow and change, the appearance of the concrete panels subtly shifts. The biological components reduce CO2 and provide a small amount of natural insulation. Unlike other vertical gardens or green walls, the biological concrete doesn’t require any complicated equipment or special care. As an added bonus, it discourages harmful plants, such as climbing ivy, from taking hold on the exterior walls of buildings.

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