Smart garden irrigation

Smart garden irrigation is usually not the highest priority when planning a smart home. However, the benefits of smart garden watering, which starts and stops automatically or remotely, cannot be denied. Especially in hot and dry summer seasons, smart garden irrigation allows for a location-independent and thus convenient form of watering. Of course, the story can also be extended and set up a pinpoint and water-saving logic by means of moisture sensors in the soil, precipitation measurement and the weather forecast. But that is definitely “next level” and not part of this article.

What were my requirements for a smart garden watering system?

The summer of 2021 was marked by a lot of precipitation and little sun. Nevertheless, I have taken care of the topic of smart garden irrigation (or just because of all the time) and defined some requirements:

• Irrigation should be independent of electricity
• Manual control from a distance
• Definition of time intervals
• Integration into the existing smart home: I use the Home Assistant solution for all automations, so it should also be possible to integrate the smart garden watering system.
• Simple and independent installation

My search

I have invested a lot of time in finding a solution that suits me. I have always found suitable approaches, which, however, did not cover 100% of my requirements. Often, the systems could not be controlled externally or could not be integrated with other systems. WLAN solutions were also not really suitable due to the high power consumption of the components.

Then Commissioner Chance will have to help: While browsing through the offers from LIDL, I unexpectedly find the smart watering computer, which interacts in the Zigbee network. A “perfect match”, so to speak!

My recommendation

My favorite is the smart watering computer from Parkside. This combines the specifications I wanted: Easy installation, control via Zigbee and thus integratable into the existing smart home.

Installation

The small and compact irrigation computer from Parkside works by means of the included batteries. Afterwards, pairing with the Zigbee network can already be started. I use the Conbee II on a Raspberry Pie. This process was very fast and unproblematic.

After that, you can already mount the device directly on the outside tap. This works analogously to a hose. The hose is then connected to the irrigation computer. It should be noted that an additional water splitter brings a little more comfort: If you need additional water outside, there is still a second water connection.

After connecting to the faucet, the watering computer is already visible in Home Assistant and can be started by pressing the button. The water flows off within a second.

It is important to mention: Certain changes to the settings can only be made via the LIDL app. The default time of an opening operation is one minute. The watering computer then closes the valve automatically. To change the interval, you need the LIDL gateway and the LIDL app. It is good that these are stored on the device, so that the LIDL gateway can be removed again afterwards. The settings are not lost in the process.

Conclusion

I can absolutely recommend the smart watering computer from Parkside. For 35 francs you get exactly what you need for smart garden watering. In the first summer it has proved very successful: The evening stress of watering has been eliminated.