Not surprisingly, gardening is probably the most common hobby in Namma Bengaluru, which truly was a ‘garden city’ when I first came here in 1997. However, over the last two decades, we have all been witness to much of that garden space being taken over by concrete. But we Bengalureans still have that in our DNA, to grow plants wherever we live, whether on the 10th floor of an apartment, in a good old typical Bengaluru house in Jayanagar or in a housing community with individual houses.

With my farming background, my decision to buy a house was based on the availability of garden space. My garden has been growing well for the last 10 years with flower plants and veggies. But I had to shift the entire garden to my terrace as my ground floor garden got covered in shade by my mango tree. My first thoughts were how to water the plants on the terrace when I am not at home. Being a techie, I started exploring different automation options available in the market and also discussed with neighbours their experience with such products. I soon realised that market solutions available had limitations in controlling the water flow when you are away from home. This led to me designing my own solution to automate watering through Alexa, a voice-based digital assistant device along with a mobile app that supports home automation to control lights and any other compatible appliances.

Read more: No more worries about watering your plants

The diagram below depicts the overall schematic of the drip system, solenoid valve setup and integration with Amazon Alexa.

Read more: How this Bellandur apartment set up a kitchen garden on the terrace

A garden which is properly taken care of grows well.

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