Thistlebridge
A small plant nursery in Taylorsville, Utah, growing food starts, herbs, fragrant plants, and pollinator-friendly stock for local businesses and neighbors. Also a test site for a new generation of community tools.
Thistlebridge operates out of a 26-foot geodesic greenhouse dome on a residential lot. We grow vegetable and herb starts, fragrant plants, and pollinator and bedding stock — sold to nearby nurseries, garden centers, and anyone in the neighborhood who wants them. It's a small operation by design.
The property also serves as a proving ground for a suite of emerging technologies that are becoming cheap enough to run at the neighborhood level. Mesh networking that works without the internet. Environmental sensors that track growing conditions across the property. Local computing that ties it all together — helping manage production schedules, answer questions about what's growing, and feed data into citizen science networks.
Right now, setting this up takes real technical effort. Part of what we're testing is how to make these tools simpler and more maintainable — something a neighborhood group or small organization could run without a dedicated technician. We're publishing what we learn along the way.
What's Here
Plant availability from our current growing season. Reports from what we're building and testing. Notes on community infrastructure and the tools that support it.
Questions? Try asking a Thistlebridge-specific Claude instance here.