While living in a 2-bedroom loft in downtown might have its pluses (computing on the balcony, close proximity to work, and a friendly security guard named Joe), when it comes to finding anything remotely "green" to look at, I usually find myself hard out of luck.
So, seeing as I am both backyardless, I was wondering if any readers out there know where I can find some kind of automated watering system (kind of like this one) to help water my plants if I were to start one on my balcony?
i say, why bring a lot of technology into it?
get one of these:
agardenpatch.com
it has a 4 gallon reservoir in it. With a combination of a light weight potting mix (yes, not soil, MIX, no soil at all, it's peat moss, another moss, etc) it will water your plants for you. $ gallons will last a few days too, so if you don't want to water every day you don't have to.
Mine currently has snow peas, basil, a red pepper plant, and 2 tomatoes in it. They are all special varieties designed for containers, but they grow amazing. Last year i have a huge "crop" come in.
Plants are something you do not need to get hightech with... they grow on their own, just relocate them to your balcony.
view jmorey's profile
my friends have an aero garden...17 hours of blinding light emitted every day! wee!
view kdkaboom's profile
I've been wondering also - how safe would it be to eat vegetables from such a balcony garden if you live in the city, especially near major roads? I'd assume you'd have to wash your produce very carefully, but would chemicals from cars get into the soil and thus into what you eat?
view cyli's profile
@cyli Hmmm... good point you have there. I guess it'd be better planting them on a windowsill or something.
view ekoshyun's profile
Get rid of the soil altogether. Use hydroponic methods.
A Google search: http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=hydroponic gardening&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
All of my houseplants (ficus, draceana, palm, orchids) are grown hydroponically.
view Khürt Williams's profile
I've been looking into building an auto waterer. a simple pump either from a surplus sptre or an aquarium, or one of those crappy waterfall desk decorations can work. and as far as timing goes an arduino for $29 is easy as hell ever if you've NEVER done DIY electronics programming before.
there's also a $40 ethernet addon for arduino that makes it the same as the $350 system you linked to. but for $70 total cost..
not sure why a waterer needs to be networked though, I'd rather just use a moisture sensor.
you can build a moisture sensor out of a common nail from the hardware store and some wire and hook it up to the arduino.
view fyrebug's profile
@fyrebug, sounds like a great plan! I might just try it out!
view ekoshyun's profile