Automated Tomatoe Gardening

In the past couple years I discovered my love for growing food. Like many, I started with a small garden of herbs like basil, parsley, rosemary, and more. As my preferred dinner consists of fresh bread with cream cheese, tomatoes, and cucumber slices, I quickly got into growing my own vegetables on a tiny balcony in Germany.

In the beginning, my roomie and I experimented with a plastic wine barrel on higher terrain. Water flow was controlled by a valve near the plants. The system included a Raspberry Pi 2 and a humidity sensor.

In 2018 I refitted the system by using a small water pump and the original plastic wine barrel. The new approach allowed me to water more plants with higher precision.

Next year, I want to make the system autonomous with solar panels. Also, I want to integrate smarter controls by use of machine learning.