I am working as a volunteer in a vegetable garden, which is a couple of acres. During the work I saw possibilities for applying automation in the garden and the greenhouses that are there.
That’s why I put together a document for this vegetable garden with points to take into consideration with applying automation in greenhouses and the vegetable garden.
Home Assistant is a big part of the docuemnt, as one of the mentioned software systems available.
I decided to make the document available on the internet, as it can be informative for others too.
The information is focussed on low cost solutions and for those willing to do a bit more themselves rather than having a professional company taking care of all the automation installation and maintainance.
It’s not very detailed on how to execute everything it’s more about pointing out choices to consider and getting gardeners on the way in this field. So that gardeners can go further from this point.
So, it’s kind of specific, for commercial gardeners and it’s a application of Home Assistant to which it isn’t designed for initially.
Hi Johan, As someone who (a) has setup a small (1.8m square) greenhouse for my partners Orchild obsession collection, and (b) volunteers for a charity organisation, i am doubly interested in your document.
At first glance it seems very thorough, despite not proposing a specific configuration. I expect 83 pages is likely to put off many managers and volunteers (even with so many illustrations)
In section 8 AliExpress you missed my own main concern … a likely lack of support once the order is shipped. Since they are located overseas there is no legal requirement to follow EU laws and regulations.
My own experience with proposals to my charity has not been good. Volunteers are assumed to be temporary unskilled workers with no commitment - so not to be relied on, especially for a large or complex project such as you are suggesting.
The lack of official support is seen as a major issue - they don’t want to get stuck with something the managers don’t understand and can’t fix. Good system documentation is the logical answer, along with a team of volunteers with appropriate expertise … but managers would rather just get on with the day-to-day issues, and avoid anything they don’t understand, so cannot control.
Johan I certainly hope you have a leader (who sees the potential and looks for solutions) rather than just a manager.
Hi Don, thank you for your reply. I appreciate it that you took the time to have a look.
What is the nature of your volunteering, is it also a vegetable garden?
As for as your remark:
I agree that’s another point of concern with Chinese vendors. I tried to describe things to take in consideration when taking up a project of measuring and automatic controlling in the vegetable garden. And each has it’s pros and cons.
And for:
That’s a fair point. That’s something I thought about myself as well. That’s why I wrote that it’s best to not choose for self built modules, with microcontrollers, but rather plug and play solutions that are more easily replacable. However, it is true that the people in charge do need to have time and effort to learn about this. I think gardeners are pretty ‘hands on’ people, having a wide range of skills that involve also technical repairing. But they do need to be open for it indeed.
I can imagine what you are experiencing with feedback on improvement ideas. Regarding the willingness to implement automation in the CSA (Community supported agriculture) I am helping out: The gardeners that are in charge at my place come from a very different background (as they are gardeners) and are also practical minded, so implementing technical solutions is not something near to them.
Also I think in practice there isn’t always a desire for things being growed 100% optimal, 80% is good too and leads to result. And when one crop doesn’t work out as desired they have tons of other crops growing, their growing is very diversified. This makes the desire for automation less big maybe, altough ofcourse it can make work easier. Furthermore they are very busy, so in high season there isn’t much room for considering improvements.
But on the other hand they do are improving every year, with new buildings and tools. I’ll see if they are open to it. But it’s up to them, in the meantime I just enjoy working there. And I can only speak for the situation at my CSA, every application of growing crops is different.
I believe that anyone starting a new business or community initiative needs vision (to foresee what is possible) and drive (to push through the inevitable obstacles and make it happen). The managers who take over from them tend to be more concerned with day-to-day issues, just keeping things ticking over.
I volunteer for Lifeline in Australia, processing donated books for their “Big Book Fairs” which raise funds for Lifeline’s phone suicide prevention service.
