Smart ways to keep your garden hydrated
When you hear the term “waterwise” your mind immediately goes to decorative paving, cacti, and rockeries…all very “nice” but hardly exciting…
If this is your vibe and you don’t feel the need for anything more, then that’s fine, and you can click away.
If, however, you feel like the word “waterwise” needs to be reimagined, read on!
Over the past couple of months, we have had some fun discussing all manner of smart applications and automation systems for every aspect of your home, from lighting, to access control and security, you can now customize and program your home to fit your EXACT needs.
But then you step out the door and you have to pick up a real hosepipe and touch a garden tap, and (Shock! Horror!) walk from plant to plant to water them…in real life…
This is where today’s discussion comes in. Much like you can now control the rest of your home from your phone, we are here to tell you that you can do the same with your garden. Well…at least certain parts of your garden.
Take control
Things we can’t control: The elements, pesky neighbours, most common garden pests and when exactly your dahlias will bloom this year.
Things we can control: When and how much water your plants get, to the last drop, with no waste, no fuss and no lugging around of hoses and watering cans.
The sprinklers of yesteryear
If you are, like most of us, of a “certain age” you might remember the innovation that the first automatic analogue sprinkles systems were when it came to residential gardening.
By installing a sprinkler system and simply setting the recurring count down timer, you could rest assured that your plants would get the required water while you were gone. This hands–off approach to watering enticed many previous garden sceptics into the trying out their green thumbs. As groundbreaking as these timer-sprinklers were, they had their problems and would easily malfunction leading to a complete over watering or under watering of your plants while you were away for the December holidays…many a good marriage was tested by the inevitable irrigation malfunction and consequent composting of the plants you used to love.
Smartie p(l)ants
The advent of the smart phone not only brought us the majesty of TikTok and online banking, but also placed our garden management squarely in our own hands. Clever people, making clever tools and designing clever software has made smart gardening the new age of water wise horticulture.
What is so smart about it?
In short, the idea behind a so called “Smart Garden” is that you use sensors and computing components to detect soil hydration, send the necessary instructions to your sprinkler or irrigation system and then, importantly, continually check the soil hydration and switch off your irrigation once your plants have had enough to drink.
This is so much more sophisticated and economic than simply dumping water onto your plants regardless of their needs, based on a set timer with no room for customization other than picking the 12 or 24hour cycle.
We are talking finetuned irrigation that takes season, temperature, type of plant and general geography and climate into account.
A new age, sustainable, waterSMART way of gardening.
As much as we love these innovations, well be the first to admit, we are not scientists, nor are we programmers, engineers or roboticists. We just like gardening, and anything that makes it better.
However, we do believe in doing research, finding experts and educating yourself. To that end, we’ve come up with a reading list for you.
For more information on the Arduino soil hydration sensors, visit Last Minute Engineers.
(This website is an ideal starting point for any amateur home automators who have a hint of computing savvy and love a DIY adventure.)
Far various local integrated smart irrigation systems compatible with all kinds of different gardens and gardeners, visit:
To do a deep dive into automated irrigation for agriculture and what it can mean for the future of farming and food security, visit:
While waterWISE is important, we love being waterSMART instead.
