Mike Schropp is a geek of the highest order. His blog is called Total Geekdom and on it he tinkers with scraps of technology to make them better, different or just plain weird.

His most recent project involved trying to work out how he could use the heat generated by a computer in order to grow plants. Getting together an old computer, a bunch of acrylic tubes and a handful of wheatgrass seeds, Schropp managed to put together the world's first techno-organic ecosystem – and all for $20. In an age where technology so often seems to be stood directly in opposition to nature, we think this is a more than intriguing prospect. Google take note: your server farms could be powering the world's next forests.

(Sidenote: he designed the whole thing as his five-year-old son's first computer, which we think gets Mike many, many Dad points.)