GARDIE (The Guardian Gnome)

Do you also forget to water your plants? Is your garden also scorched by the heat or too much light, or does the temperature and humidity bother it? If yes, meet Gardie and his friends, who will protect your garden from all these and keep it in check. I made Gardie to support my Plant Zone, and it's been working great.Do you sometimes overlook watering your plants? Is your garden struggling with excessive heat or too much sunlight? Are temperature and humidity affecting its health? If this sounds familiar, let me introduce you to Gardie and his friends. They’re designed to help safeguard your garden from these challenges and maintain its well-being. I developed Gardie to enhance my Plant Zone, and I’m pleased to say it has made a significant positive impact.

1. For this project, I used the following materials:
2. - Arduino Uno
3. - Arduino components (water sensor, stepper motor with driver, servo, LDR, LEDs, DHT11)
4. - Jumper wires
5. - Cardstock paper
6. - Water bottle
7. - Cardboard
8. - Skewers
9. - Toothpicks
10. - Glue gun
11. - Stationery materials

In this step, we will create Gardie and his friends. This will be done in four steps:

1. First,download and print them on an A4 sheet
2. Cut them out
3. Glue them on Cardstock paper
4. Cut them out again

In this step, I planned how to wire and arrange my components. For this, I used an online platform so I could test my work as well. I also wrote the code for this step, as it relates to the wiring. Note down loade DHT11 library before uploading code.

After designing a schematic for wiring, I started doing it. Follow the steps below to wire your Arduino, or follow the schematic and list provided.

1. Connect GND and VCC rails on the breadboard to Arduino 5V and GND.
2. Connect the water sensor(S to A1, VCC to the power rail, GND to GND)
3. Add 2 220ohms resistor and and connect them to D6 and D5(IGNORE THE REMAINING 2 IN THE PICTURE).
4. Connect wires to GND from the line beside the resistor
5. Punch holes through Gardie's eyes to glue in the LEDs and connect them to the pins.
6. Connect DHT11 to D2
7. Connect LDR to A0 via a 10K ohm resistor
8. Servo to D3
9. Stepper driver IN1,2,3,4 to D8,9,10,11.

The shade and water pump are two important steps.I didn't have awater pump, so i made a DIY one by using a water bottle and using the stepper to open the pump (allow water to flow )and close it. The Shade is made with three cardboard boards and a sheet of paper, connected to a skewer to be controlled by a servo.

Now attach skewers to all gnomes and put a sensor behind each. Connect the breadboard and Arduino to the back of the pot or to a waterproof place in your garden beds. Also stick in Gardie at the back (see 5th image). Next, put in the other two gnomes(DHT11 and water sensor in the soil). Connect the ldr gnome to the back out of shade's reach to give better values. Now connect the servo to the back of the plant. If there is no wall, connect a pole for it.

Stay worry free as your Plants are in safe gnomely hands.