Fun Friday (Bonus!): Tweeting Houseplants

Last week, the tweeting coffee pot was all the rage.

This week, Mashable reports on how to outfit your houseplants to tweet you when they need water:

Our plants are animate objects, and whether we’re paying attention or not, they’re always subtly communicating their need for water and sustenance. But realistically, we humans need a nudge to remember to give them their required daily attention.

That’s where the Botanicalls (bontani+calls) Kit can save the day, and our plants. Masterminded by former graduate students — Rebecca Bray, Rob Faludi, Kate Hartman, and Kati London — in NYU’s Telecommunications Program, the kit of parts uses your Ethernet connection to tap into the health of your plant. With a little tech savvy and electrical know-how, you can assemble the kit of soil-moisture censors to make your plant Twitter you when moisture levels drop too low. Your plant will also tweet back a thanks of gratitude for keeping it alive.

The Twittering kit is a successor to the original Botanicalls system that enabled plants to call their caregivers when in need of sustenance. You can follow Kate Hartman’s plant, @Pothos, to see a Twittering plant in action.