Smart Garden IoT Hardware

GardenZone

Your Garden, Always Monitored.

Soil sensors, weather data, and automated watering schedules in one embedded system. Real-time monitoring, intelligent scheduling, and solenoid-driven irrigation -- all from a single board.

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What Is It

An IoT garden monitoring system with capacitive soil moisture sensors, temperature/humidity probes, light sensors, weather API integration, and automated solenoid valve watering -- controlled from a companion dashboard.

How Does It Work

Sensor nodes collect soil moisture, temperature, humidity, and light data every 60 seconds. The hub correlates readings with weather forecasts and triggers watering schedules through 12V solenoid valves via relay modules.

How Can It Help You

Stop guessing when to water. GardenZone tracks every zone, learns your soil's retention curve, and waters only when needed -- saving water, preventing root rot, and keeping your garden healthy around the clock.

Live Sensor Feed

Real Data, Not Guesswork

Basic garden timers water on a schedule regardless of conditions. GardenZone reads the actual soil, checks the forecast, and makes decisions based on real-time data. If rain is coming, it skips the cycle.

  • Capacitive soil moisture -- no corrosion over time
  • Per-zone watering with independent solenoid valves
  • Weather API integration for rain-skip logic
  • Historical data logging and trend analysis
  • Low-power mesh networking between sensor nodes
gardenzone-hub
> gardenzone status --all-zones
Zone A (front beds)
Moisture: 42% -- threshold: 35%
Temp: 24.3C Humidity: 61%
Light: 8,420 lux -- full sun
Zone B (raised garden)
Moisture: 28% -- BELOW threshold
Valve: OPEN -- watering 12 min
Weather (API)
Forecast: Rain 80% tomorrow 6am
Zone A evening cycle skipped -- rain incoming.

Sensor Capabilities

Four sensor types working together to build a complete picture of your garden's health

Soil Moisture

  • Capacitive sensing -- no electrode corrosion
  • Per-zone calibration for different soil types
  • Depth-configurable probe placement
  • Retention curve learning over time

Temperature & Humidity

  • DHT22 sensors with 0.5C accuracy
  • Ambient and soil temperature readings
  • Frost alert notifications
  • Evapotranspiration rate estimation

Light Sensing

  • BH1750 digital lux meter
  • Full sun / partial shade / shade classification
  • Daily light integral (DLI) tracking
  • Seasonal pattern logging

Weather Integration

  • OpenWeatherMap API for local forecasts
  • Rain probability triggers skip logic
  • Wind speed factors into evaporation model
  • UV index correlation with water demand

Automation Features

Traditional timers guess. GardenZone decides based on data.

Traditional Timer
GardenZone
Fixed schedule, rain or shine
Moisture-triggered, weather-aware
Same duration every zone
Per-zone calibrated run times
No sensor feedback
Real-time soil moisture loop
No forecast awareness
Rain-skip via weather API
No historical data
Full trend logging and alerts

System Specs

Built for reliability in outdoor conditions

8 Zones independent valves
60s Poll Rate sensor readings
200m Mesh Range node-to-hub
6mo Battery Life per sensor node

Companion Dashboard

Monitor every zone, review history, and configure schedules from one interface

Live Monitoring

Moisture Map

Per-zone soil readings

Climate Panel

Temp, humidity, light

Weather Feed

Forecast overlay

Alert Center

Frost, drought, leaks

Control & History

Valve Control

Manual override per zone

Schedule Editor

Watering rules and timing

Trend Charts

7/30/90 day history

Water Usage

Gallons per zone/month

The Stack

ESP32 Capacitive Soil Sensors DHT22 BH1750 Solenoid Valves Relay Modules MQTT OpenWeatherMap LoRa Mesh SQLite REST API React Dashboard

From Sensor to Solenoid

An embedded garden monitoring system that reads real soil data, checks the weather, and waters only when your plants need it. No cloud dependency. No subscription. Just hardware that works.

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