Badges
Why Badges?
Badges are designed to be a fun way to identify progress in your gardening practices and skills. They also provide a way to summarize and share your gardening experiences with other users. Finally, Chapter Badges provide a way to your Chapter's progress toward community food resilience.
There are three types of Badges: Garden, Gardener, and Chapter. Examples of Garden badges are Pesticide Free, Pollinator Friendly, and Water Smart. Examples of Gardener badges are Green Thumb, Grocery Bill Buster, and Compost Champion. Examples of Chapter badges are Connected Community and Seed Saver.
Each badge has three levels, corresponding to increased experience with the topic of the badge.
For example, the Compost Champion badge identifies gardeners who are using compost rather than (or perhaps in addition to) chemical fertilizer. Using compost as much as possible is an important practice: it improves soil structure, invites worms, creates beneficial bacteria, and reduces waste. The Compost Champion badge advertises this practice as positive and important, and helps gardeners interested in composting to find other local gardeners who have experience with it.
Like many badges, a gardener earns the Compost Champion badge by making one or more Observations with a badge-related tag. A Level 1 Compost Champion badge indicates that the Gardener made one or more compost-related Observations in a single calendar year. For Level 2, the gardener made compost-related Observations in two calendar years. Level 3 indicates compost-related Observations in three or more calendar years.
Viewing badges
To see all the badges, open the Drawer and tap Badges to go to the Badge Index Screen. The bottom (or side) menu allows you to toggle between Garden, Gardener, and Chapter badges:
Tap the "Details" button associated with any badge to go to a Badge View screen with details:
Badge Achievement
Each Badge View screen describes the specific requirements for achieving that badge, but most badges follow one of two approaches:
Observation-based achievement
Badges based on observations require the gardener to create public Observations and tag them appropriately for the badge. Gardeners are on the honor system to ensure that the Observations actually provide evidence for the badge in question.
For example, here is an Observation marked with the "#Vermiculture", which might qualify the gardener for a Vermiculturalist badge:
Planting-based achievement
Badges based on plantings are based on the data collected by gardeners regarding their Plantings. This data might include Outcomes and Quantities. Gardeners are on the honor system to record Outcome and Quantity data that reflects what actually happened in their garden.
For example, here is a planting where the quantity of harvest has been recorded, providing data that might lead to the achievement of a Grocery Bill Buster badge.
Got an idea for a badge?
We are always on the lookout for new badge ideas. If you have one, please post it to a Forum or email us at info@geogardenclub.com!