Garden & Plants¶

Lindsay's dedicated dashboard for monitoring indoor plants and managing the outdoor landscape. Integrates soil moisture sensors, a personal weather station, smart irrigation, and a seasonal care calendar into one place.

Indoor Plants¶

All nine indoor plants now have soil moisture sensors (ThirdReality Zigbee). The four that previously used only a last-watered timer — the three Monsteras and the Bird of Paradise — got their own sensors in June 2026; Audrey Ficus (8th) and Monstera Adansonii (9th) were added later that month.

Moisture Tiles¶

Each indoor plant has a live moisture tile showing the current reading. The tile is color-coded: red below 30%, yellow at 30–50%, green at 50%+. If a sensor hasn't checked in yet (sleepy Zigbee device), its tile reads "No reading" in grey until the next report.

Outdoor Plant Care¶

Seasonal Care Calendar¶

The Garden tab's Outdoor section shows a This Month's Tasks card — a dynamic list of the most time-sensitive care tasks for the current month, pulled from the 17-species care guide. The goal is to surface the plants where missing a window causes real damage.

Automated Reminders¶

These notifications fire automatically at the right time each season:

Weather Station¶

An Ecowitt WS90 all-in-one weather station is planned for the property. It measures temperature, humidity, wind speed, UV index, and rainfall using an ultrasonic sensor and haptic rain detector — no moving parts to clog or wear out.

The station pushes readings locally to Home Assistant every 60 seconds over your home network. No cloud account is required.

The Garden tab shows: - Current outdoor temperature - Rain today (inches) - Days since last measurable rain - UV index - Wind speed (relevant for irrigation hold)

Weather-Driven Irrigation¶

The WS90 is also connected to Weather Underground (WU), which feeds directly into Rachio's Weather Intelligence+ scheduling. Rachio reads your actual on-property rainfall and calculates daily evapotranspiration (how much water the soil loses from sun and wind). It automatically skips zones after enough rain and adjusts zone run times based on recent weather — rather than running on a fixed schedule regardless of conditions.

Irrigation¶

The property has six irrigation zones controlled by a Rachio 3 smart controller.

Dashboard Controls¶

The Irrigation section of the Garden tab shows all six zones with: - Current status (running / idle / skipped) - Next scheduled run time - A Run Now button (requires confirmation) for manual watering

Smart Zone Gating¶

Two outdoor soil moisture sensors (front yard and rear yard) prevent irrigation from running when the soil is already wet:

• If Front yard sensor > 60% moisture → Zone 1 will not run
• If Rear yard sensor > 60% moisture → Zones 4 and 5 will not run

Wind Hold¶

If wind speed exceeds 15 mph, any running Rachio zone is automatically paused to prevent spray drift wasting water on the pavement.

Yard Map¶

After the irrigation field session is complete, the Irrigation section will show a property map with all six zone coverage areas and sprinkler head positions. The map is generated from a GPS-anchored survey and exported as a Home Assistant picture-elements overlay — zone status badges and soil moisture readings will appear directly on the map image.

Plant Dashboard¶

A dedicated dashboard for the indoor plants, in the sidebar under Plants (web address /plant-care). It's designed for a phone in portrait, in the same dark "Midnight Glass" look as the other dashboards — open it for a quick read on who needs water.

It shows nine plants as a two-column gallery: Monstera 1, Monstera 2, Monstera 3, Bird of Paradise, Fiddle Leaf 1, Fiddle Leaf 2, Maury River Fiddle, Audrey Ficus, and Monstera Adansonii (the newest addition).

How to read a tile¶

Each plant is a photo tile with a moisture ring in the corner:

• How full the ring is = how much moisture is in the soil right now (0–100%).
• The ring's color = whether that plant is happy:
  • 🔴 Red — water it now.
  • 🟡 Yellow — water it soon.
  • 🟢 Green — happy, leave it be.

Different plants like different amounts of water, so a 30% reading is comfortably green for a Monstera (which likes to dry out) but means "water now" for a moisture-loving Bird of Paradise.

Each plant ships with a sensible default tuned to its species — from driest-tolerant to most moisture-loving:

You can always fine-tune these in the drawer below.

Tap a plant for details¶

Tap any tile to open its detail card. It shows:

• Current moisture and a plain-language status — Needs water, Water soon, or Happy.
• Temperature, battery, and signal for that plant's sensor.
• Its location (pulled from the sensor's assigned room) and its own watering thresholds.
• 7-day graphs of moisture and temperature, so you can see the trend, not just the moment.

Adjusting watering levels¶

Tap ⚙ Adjust watering levels at the bottom to open the drawer. Each plant has a slider with two handles:

• The left handle sets the red point (water below this).
• The right handle sets the yellow point (water soon below this).
• Everything above the right handle is green (happy).

Slide them to match what you know about each plant. The rings update instantly.