Category: City Gardening

Measuring Flow

Built a fully working prototype of a water flow meter using $25 of parts, including an Arduino microcomputer. It behaves exactly like a meter costing ten times as much. I’ll build a “production” version of this and incorporate it into our indoor irrigation system.

Manifold Destiny

A manifold is a wide and/or bigger pipe, or channel, into which smaller pipes or channels lead. Scott, John S. (1992). Dictionary Of Civil Engineering. Springer. p. 269. Over the past few months I’ve been educating myself about ways to distribute water to indoor house plants by building a series of irrigation systems. A manifold… Continue reading Manifold Destiny

Yet Another Manifold

Built my latest manifold for watering house plants. It’s smaller, with 5 zones controlled by solenoid valves; each zone can have 8 adjustable drippers. We can adjust the duration and frequency of watering for each zone via the Web.

Indoor Farming Experiment

Used grow lights for the first time today. We’re still experimenting, but the plan is to produce a continuous supply of microgreens and herbs. The white rectangle in a small zippered bag wirelessly logs light levels and surface temperatures in a spreadsheet.

Winter Preparations

Prepared for winter. Took down the irrigation system I’d built for our balcony plants. Gave the 250 feet of tubing and 48 drippers a shower.