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Show HN: Veterinarian turned founder, AI lawn diagnosis

grassdx.com

21–30 of 67 posts

Re: Show HN: Veterinarian turned founder, AI lawn diagnosis

#21

I've been slowly working for years on letting clover take over my lawn. I have amazing flows of white flowers in the spring, with the red clover now starting to come in as well. I mow it once the flowers pop up to force the growth back down into the root systems, and I've converted more than half of my 5 acres into clover at this point. It also is speeding up, and will probably be fully clover within a year or two. M…

The real proposition here is diagnosing the specific problem and offering specific fixes for said problem. I think the platform provides a good opportunity to present alternatives to the user other than "just fix the problem" and says "have you thought about this instead?" But since the primary user is trying to fix the issue, I don't want to necessarily try to force alternatives my audience isn't looking for. That being said, one option would be to give an option in filling out the form to ask what their goals are, such as "I just want to fix the problem" or "I'm open to exploring new ideas for my lawn."

It's not "just" for lead gen. I'm actually trying to help people and solve a problem. I want the tool itself to be free. It monetizes by means other than making it a paid tool.

Re: Show HN: Veterinarian turned founder, AI lawn diagnosis

#22
post #5
post #2

> Your lawn is trying to tell you something. It's saying "I'm an unnatural, non-native monoculture that does little to support biodiversity but will gladly suck up your time and money." Sorry to speak negatively of the thing you're working on Andrew, but the subject matter is one I feel strongly about. Having a short cut lawn area has many recreational uses, but most people don't do anything except maintain most of t…

I appreciate the sentiment, perhaps it would be wise to include some lawn alternatives or eco-friendly lawn techniques, or even drought tolerant landscaping. Though my site is not likely to change peoples' behavior around traditional lawns, perhaps we can eliminate needless application of pesticides and fertilizers by focusing on the right applications at the right time, rather than via guesswork. I also appreciate t…

> Maybe they don't even want the pressure of trying to keep a short cut, green lawn.

I think offering a range of options and leaving it up to people could go a long way. Especially since people could just try out all options to see what it would involved, how they might imagine (and like) the results, before committing to anything.

As in, here's the lawn, I want it to a.) keep it trim and green, b.) keep it decent looking and still human friendly, but also make it low maintenance and better for biodiversity c.) turn it into a jungle of flowers.

Re: Show HN: Veterinarian turned founder, AI lawn diagnosis

#23
I’ll definitely try this out. I have a Claude project for our home and many chat conversations about my lawn.

What I don’t know yet is if the DIY I’m doing with the help of Claude is going to materialize into a lush lawn.

It has me doing pre-emergent spray, broad leaf weed killers, and moss killer.

It’s a lot of work and I’m sure there is a much better UX than saved chats.

Re: Show HN: Veterinarian turned founder, AI lawn diagnosis

#24
post #2

> Your lawn is trying to tell you something. It's saying "I'm an unnatural, non-native monoculture that does little to support biodiversity but will gladly suck up your time and money." Sorry to speak negatively of the thing you're working on Andrew, but the subject matter is one I feel strongly about. Having a short cut lawn area has many recreational uses, but most people don't do anything except maintain most of t…

I did look into it but neither the state, the county, the city, nor the HOA allow for that to happen. It’s gotta be Bermuda and it’s gotta be green.

What (U.S., I assume) state do you live in that has a state law requiring green grass? I've never heard of that.

Re: Show HN: Veterinarian turned founder, AI lawn diagnosis

#25
post #2

> Your lawn is trying to tell you something. It's saying "I'm an unnatural, non-native monoculture that does little to support biodiversity but will gladly suck up your time and money." Sorry to speak negatively of the thing you're working on Andrew, but the subject matter is one I feel strongly about. Having a short cut lawn area has many recreational uses, but most people don't do anything except maintain most of t…

I tried clover. Eventually it just got replaced more and more with grass, now there's not much there. It was meant to be more drought tolerant than grass, but it didn't work out that way. I probably need to do more research.

Re: Show HN: Veterinarian turned founder, AI lawn diagnosis

#27

I recommend to change the title of this submission to: > Veterinarian turned founder, AI lawn diagnosis When I first saw "vet", I assumed that an American was trying to virtue signal using their armed forces veteran status.

Thank you for the suggestion, however it appears I am outside of the allowed editing window

Re: Show HN: Veterinarian turned founder, AI lawn diagnosis

#28
post #23

I’ll definitely try this out. I have a Claude project for our home and many chat conversations about my lawn. What I don’t know yet is if the DIY I’m doing with the help of Claude is going to materialize into a lush lawn. It has me doing pre-emergent spray, broad leaf weed killers, and moss killer. It’s a lot of work and I’m sure there is a much better UX than saved chats.

Yes, please try it and let me know! I think you'll find the output a little nicer than a chat, which is exactly why I made this. If it sucks, let me know why so I can improve it. Thank you!

Re: Show HN: Veterinarian turned founder, AI lawn diagnosis

#29
post #2

> Your lawn is trying to tell you something. It's saying "I'm an unnatural, non-native monoculture that does little to support biodiversity but will gladly suck up your time and money." Sorry to speak negatively of the thing you're working on Andrew, but the subject matter is one I feel strongly about. Having a short cut lawn area has many recreational uses, but most people don't do anything except maintain most of t…

I have gone full "pocket forest" / Miyawaki Forest - planted 100 trees in my tiny back yard.

Technique developed by the Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki: planting seedlings close together makes them compete for sunlight, thus growing tall quickly. Get a forest in under a decade!

https://www.creatingtomorrowsforests.co.uk/blog/the-miyawaki...

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