The Assistive CMS I Wish I Had When Running My Plant Shop
Mexico, a Plant Shop, and the Challenges of Handling hundreds of plants
A while back, I decided to take a sabbatical from my position at a tech company’s innovation department. I relocated to Guadalajara, Mexico, and even though I was freelancing, I wanted to invest my time wisely. So, I teamed up and started a small plant shop.
Now, what did I know about plants? Not much. Running a business? I had experienced some past failures. But running a plant business? I was clueless.
To tackle this challenge, I dedicated myself to learning about plants. Drawing upon my tech background, I began building a database of plants, including names, pictures, descriptions, care instructions, and more. Initially, it was for organizing my own plant shop inventory, prices, and pictures. Little did I know how vast the world of plants and their names could be. Just imagine visiting a nursery — it’s overwhelming!
During that time, I relied on a powerful spreadsheet. I managed to connect it to a website, enabling me to sell plants and pots online. However, something was still missing. I longed for a smart, collaborative, and most importantly, an open solution. I didn’t want to work on something that every plant shop, nursery, or plant lover had to build individually on repeat, again and again.
I spent countless hours reading botanical books and creating a bunch of content, such as designing care cards for plants. It made me wonder, why isn’t there an open database for plants? Why isn’t there a Wikipedia for plants?
Returning to Software Engineering
Fast forward, I returned to Madrid and resumed my career in Software Engineering. I worked on various projects, having a great time. Then, in one of the amazing companies I worked for, Francesco Gatti suggested building a CMS based on Firebase. It turned out to be an incredible solution, helping startups manage their digital content, including exercises, content, podcasts, videos, surveys, articles, news, and more. It was a versatile tool.
We realized that if it was useful for us, it could benefit other companies as well. So, we decided to open-source it and see what would happen. And thus, FireCMS was born. Soon enough, we started noticing small agencies, software boutiques, and other companies utilizing it.
The AI Revolution sparked by GPT-3 and ChatGPT
As we worked on our product based on the open-source engine, the GPT-3 revolution began. We thought, “Hey, this is the perfect extension for our CMS. Let’s help people write content, summarize it, translate it, and more.” It was an incredible opportunity to demonstrate how technology and AI can assist us with repetitive tasks. After all, how many times did I have to write the same watering instructions for all the plants from the Monstera family?
Hopefully, once or maybe none.
The Plant CMS I would love to have
Inspired by this vision, I started building the Plant Library App — an open database utilizing FireCMS as the core, with our newest ChatGPT Plugin. The app featured just a few simple columns:
- Name and alias
- Scientific name
- Watering
- Sungligh
- Extra care
- Geographic origin
- Curiosities
- Picture
Simple, yet enough to create a comprehensive plant library. Whether you’re a future plant shop owner, a plant lover, or simply want to identify your houseplants, the app is free to use. You can check it out at plantlibrary.app.
Interested in Collaborating on the Open Plant Library?
If you’d like to contribute, please send me an email orreach out to me on Twitter (marianmoldovan), and I’ll invite you as an editor.
Interested in the technical insights?
Want to check how I did it? Check our technical documentation to get started or take a look at the code in Github.
Already using FireCMS and look to add AI based on the latest Open AI models to your FireCMS? Take a look at how to get started withour newest ChatGPT Plugin.
In summary, FireCMS is an excellent CMS that can greatly benefit your endeavors. Check it out and unleash its potential! Visit us at FireCMS.
Need help building a project? Feel free to reach out to us at hello@firecms.co if you need assistance with your project.
