Simple materials and technology combined make for a fun and plant-friendly iPhone/iPod dock.

As an urban ag enthusiast and a green-thumbed gal, I love to see plants incorporated into products, especially when it's not over-thought or complicated. In the age of Portlandia and urban ag proliferation, where "put a bird on it" has become "put a plant in it" some plant-centered products take the simple act of growing at home a bit too far. The Bloombox manages to keep it simple. Most iPhone/iPod docking stations leave something to be desired, but the minimalist design of the ceramic Bloombox is enticing. The Bloombox both amplifies your phone's speakers up to 30% and provides a home for your favorite succulents.

Created by Nicholas Hyde and Brennan Conroy of Portland, OR, the Bloombox has just over two weeks to go before completing their Kickstarter campaign. With only $304 left to hit their goal, I'm fairly certain they will join the ranks of thousands of successfully backed projects via crowdsourced funding.

To support Bloombox please visit Kickstarter here.

Designer Joey Roth introduces a clever planter made out of terracotta that naturally irrigates plants.

Roth was inspired by the "olla" an ancient irrigation tool that farmers still use to conserve water in arid climates. A user simply pours water in the center chamber and the planter’s porous earthenware material allows water to gradually seep into the surrounding soil. It is an efficient system because virtually no water is lost to evaporation or run-off.

The planter is 8 inches in diameter and 6 inches tall and is designed to hold three herbs or six succulents. The vessel can hold up to 2.5 liters of soil and 0.4 liters of water and it is suitable for indoor or outdoor use. For indoor gardeners, this self irrigating planter means you won't need to worry about a puddle of water accumulating on your floor if you over water.

Roth's design philosophy is to combine simple functionality with honest, unfinished materials. His planter isn't available for sale yet, but you an pre-order it at JoeyRoth.com for $45.

Sources: Joey Roth & Core77

Stop carrying around bulky speakers or iPhone accessories! Eco-amp is a portable, sustainable amplifier that suits all of your eco geek needs.

When eco-made set out to design a better iPhone speaker amplifier, they noticed that most portable phone amps were bulky, expensive, made out of plastic, and not recyclable. Eco-made strives to produce products that are manufactured locally and consist of environmentally friendly materials, while maintaining a high level of design quality. All of these lofty product goals are achieved with the company's debut product; eco-amp.

Eco-amp can be easily assembled and used on the on the go to amplify the music in your iPhone. Use it on vacation, by the pool, at a picnic - anywhere you want to share your music! It is made out of 100% post consumer paper. Eco-made designs and manufactures eco-lamp in Los Angeles, California. The product then ships to customers in flat envelopes. Don't worry if you accidentally spill beer on your eco-amp, since its paper you can just recycle it and replace it. The amps are sold in pairs.

Watch the video below to see how eco-amps are assembled:

What you need to know about eco-amp:
• Designed for iPhones 4 and 4S
• Constructed out of Environment® series papers, which are FSC Certified Post Consumer, 100% Post Consumer and Alternative Fiber Papers, Green Seal™ Certified and Made with 100% Green Energy, and Made Carbon Neutral Plus
• Packaging printed with soy-based ink

Like how that sounds? Buy a pair of eco-amps for just $7.99 from the Eco Made website. I look forward to seeing what other products eco-made is cooking up!

Sources: Eco Made & Design Milk

One of the many creations of Kate Hartman, Botanicalls provides a digital pathway of communication from plants to humans.

Just a few months ago we brought you a story about a little device that helps those with less than a green thumb keep their plants happy, healthy and well watered. Botanicalls is the creation of Kate Hartman, Kati London and Rob Faludi. This past week I had the chance to see Kate Hartman speak about the project at the second annual Eyeo festival in Minneapolis. A designer with a diverse set of talents spanning electronics and wearable tech, Kate's projects are whimsical and about connecting with others, your plants and sometimes your own thoughts.

A DIY kit that is simple to construct, Botanicalls was originally designed to call you when your plant needed watering but over time was upgraded to tweeting. Your plant essentially has its own Twitter account and status updates let you know when it's in need of watering. Although I think I might prefer a call or text as it would feel like a more direct connection to me, giving plants the ability to tweet is an interesting way of providing them with a voice within the human world.

The Botanicalls kit is available through Sparkfun here.

Image source: MOMA

Opening this month in a New York gallery, Jenna Spevack's urban agriculture inspired exhibition showcases in-home micro-farms.

Brooklyn designer and artist Jenna Spevack's solo show at Mixed Greens incorporates installation, sculpture and permaculture design to explore themes of  sustainability, accessibility to healthy food and artistic social expression within the context of a gallery. Spevack's purpose is "to provide healthy greens to extraordinary people with ordinary incomes".

An iteration of an experiment that began in her own home, the exhibition showcases efficient, sub-irrigated systems for growing microgreens, that have been built into everyday objects and furniture. The modified household objects are fitted with lights, providing necessary light for the plants but also creating a sense of spotlighting the greens similar to an art object lit within a gallery.

Spevack's work is intended to ask questions related to the value placed on food and creative effort. Rather than her work being priced by the gallery, the microgreens will be for sale at a price set by each individual purchaser. Each sale will have a copy of the receipt placed on the wall within the installation as an expression of the work's value as determined by the community.

Maintaining a commitment to urban agriculture and community building, all money received for the microgreens will be donated to local urban ag groups and participants can choose to donate the greens they purchase to a local food pantry. Materials and services used to create the exhibit were donated, bartered or salvaged and was funded in part by Spevack's Kickstarter campaign.

Source: Mixed Greens

A stunning installation in Tokyo's Sumida River created quite a visual  spectacle, but it has an important message too.

Kicking off the inaugural Tokyo Hotaru festival, 100,000 solar-powered LEDs were sent down the Sumida River last week. During the 18th century catching "horatu," Japanese for "firefly," was a popular past time on the shores of this expansive river.

Inspired by the fireflies that once inhabited the river, the LEDs were created to resemble those glowing creatures of flight that will always remind me of warm summer nights in Georgia. This luminescent sculpture speaks to a time before urban life and polluted waters pushed these tiny creatures from their homes along the banks of the Sumida. The LED horatu were provided by Panasonic and designed to illuminate upon contact with the water. To prevent further pollution of the Sumida, large nets were used to capture the LEDs further down the river.

Source: Spoon & Tamago

Photo Credits: makure, Mai Suzuki, tokyo-hotaru.com, Jeremy V. and ajpscs

It's not often that you actually want wildlife nesting in your walls. But a new concept in habitat-building just might change your mind.

Brick Biotope is a series of bricks designed specifically to provide a natural living environment for birds within the urban landscape. Inspired by the disappearance of the House Sparrow in the Netherlands, Brick Biotope responds to the desire to create hand-made objects in a digital world. As part of a three-month intensive, design students Micaela Nardella and Oana Tudose devised a brick-making technique using simple molds, plaster and sand. Each unit is made by hand and totally unique but the standard rectangular form allows for easy placement within a brick wall.

Recently exhibited during Milan Design Week as part of FABRIKAAT, Brick Biotope is intended to provide all the basic needs for a wild animal's habitat. Each unit has the potential to be used as shelter, a space for vertical vegetation or water collection. Brick Biotope is a simple and easy to implement solution to a problem seen in cities across the globe.

Source: Inhabitat