INTRODUCTION
Gardening can be considered both as an art, concerned with arranging plants harmoniously in the surroundings, and as a science, encompassing the principles and techniques of plant cultivation. Because plants are often grown in condition markedly different from their natural environment, it is necessary to apply cultivation techniques derived from plant physiology.In the past few years, people in urban areas would love to have a nice vegetable garden. But few have the time to maintain one. Above all, gardens require regular watering when the weather is hot, just a few days without water can cause drought to your garden. The time it takes to drag out your hoses and get everything soaked regularly, is more than many people are willing to spend. There are many automatic watering systems available today. Some are only timers. Some incorporate rain sensors. But what if you want to check on your garden remotely?
Since the use of webpages prove to be very useful in today’s way of living, it would be a great advantage to exploit this technology to improve the gardening system. Integrating sensors, electronics control, power system and automated monitoring into gardening is a key enabler for delivering improved crops in urban areas without increased burden on the limited fertile land-bank of the society
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
One of the most pressing concerns of the agricultural sector is the rampant conversion of agricultural land into commercial use especially in urban areas. Food production and water management are increasingly becoming issues that are fostering debate on a number of fonts. Among the concerns to be addressed by the project are the following:• Limited availability of area for urban gardening.
• Tedious manual monitoring of a garden.
• Uncalculated watering that may lead to water wastage.
• Limited amount & varieties of crops grown in urban areas.
Objectives of the Study
Specifically the study aims to:• Maintain a garden with three different varieties of crops, raised simultaneously namely:Lettuce, Honey Dew, and Bell Pepper.
• Develop and implement a gardening system for urban areas that can monitor the crop’s watering schedule, soil moisture content, growth, temperature inside the garden and status of the garden.
• Provide an interface between the user, garden and webpage using J-Query mobile.
Significance of the Study
This project intends to tackle on problems pertaining to a Gardening System for multi-crop production in urban areas with proper monitoring of its water management, temperature, and plant growth, through the use of modern electronics.If this project were to be implemented and available for everyone, it would optimize the greenhouse gardening and management process. As of now, the most common method of monitoring and regulating a gardening system is to be personally available to averse the growth and progress of the plants and doing adjustments accordingly.
This project is very beneficial for anyone who has the passion to engage in gardening but spend most of the time away from it, for it has an automated monitoring system which triggers the provisions of the plants daily need through its proper healthy level. And in addition to this, it has an interface with a webpage for the user to constantly monitor remotely through a live stream of the garden.
Scope of the Work and Limitation
Scope:
The design and implementation of this Multi-Crop Gardening System is applicable in managing a garden for crop production in urban areas. Generally, the output of this research is not limited for agricultural crop-production only; it can also be applied to any plant-raising garden as long as different plant characteristics such as water and sunlight needs are taken into consideration. However due to the overwhelming things to be taken into consideration with such limited time to ponder on the various aspects of the gardening system, the researchers have the following aspects to focus on:• The monitoring & automation focuses on watering system, temperature, growth of plants and the status of the garden.
• Temperature data are presented graphically in the webpage of our gardening system.
• Status of the garden and growth of the plants can be monitored through a livestream using a camera.
Limitations:
• The system does not control the temperature inside the garden.• The reliability and findings of the project is only tested in a miniature model.
• Internet connection is needed for the user who is out of range to access the system through the webpage.
• In the absence of Internet connection the user may access the system through the local host within a specific distance.
Basic Operation
Multi crop gardening works as a system in which the sensors for soil moisture and temperature collect data from the garden then send this data to the Raspberry Pi in which it will be analyzed. The information will then be collected to the database to organize these data for accessing and updating the information presented in the web server. Then it will be uploaded to cloud that serves as the gateway for the J-Query mobile and the user can access the variety of crops, graphical data of the temperature and water log, estimated time to harvest and live streaming inside the garden even if the user is away from the garden. It is also associated with a proper drainage system that helps to conserve water and minimize water wastage in the garden.
Software Design
This project uses an Arduino microcontroller as the brain of the system and a Raspberry Pi module for the web server. The code programmed from the Arduino automatically activates the submersible pumps when the soil detects a low level of moisture content. Different pots might have different watering time because varieties of crops were contained in it. Watering the plants was done by the three submersible pumps assigned in each pot and stops until the sensors detect enough soil moisture content. The temperature inside the garden is monitored by the temperature sensor. All these information are then stored in database and sent into the Raspberry Pi. Likewise, all these information were viewed in the webpage accessible through mobile in which it will graphically illustrate real time data of the time of pump activation in each pot and the temperature inside the garden. The installed camera was directly linked through the Raspberry Pi to monitor the garden and was associated with J-Query mobile. Through this, monitoring can be done even when the user was away through a live stream.Flow Chart
TESTING AND IMPLEMENTATION
Prototype Construction The wooden structure for our garden have a dimension of 25 x 25 x 45 inches comprised of two layers which serve as base of the plants and is covered with plastic cellophane. The first layer consists of ten parallel woods with proportional spacing and well divided into two portions while the second layer was constructed with seven woods. A plant is placed in a transparent plastic that serves as our pot in which small holes were created at the bottom of it for water drainage. One week old lettuce, honey dew melon and bell pepper seedlings were into the pots. The printed circuit board for the power supply and for the electronic components were made. The rest of the materials like water pumps circuit are placed in an acrylic casing. The camera for monitoring was installed in its proper place. The sensors were calibrated and the circuit was tested and retested. Likewise, the garden is placed in an area with adequate sunlight and ventilation.
Experimentation
The completed prototype was made to operate for 3 days and calibration with the readings
from the sensors for the soil moisture in each pots were implemented, together with the flow of
the water from the different tubes to the drainage. The serial port of the Arduino was used for
debugging and for observing the read values from the sensors, and these information were
forwarded to the database using the Raspberry pi module. The researchers then observed the data
through J-Query mobile.
Results and Discussion
This Monitoring and Automation System drawn several findings and have come up to a successful results. Figure 1 below shows the capacitance readings of the honey dew melon and the bell pepper ranges 150-300 indicate that the interpreted values were low. Thus, it would indicate that the sampled values have low level of soil moisture. Likewise, figure 2 shows value ranging 150-200 of the lettuce capacitance readings designates that the soil moisture content is low.Soil Moisture Low Level of the Honey Dew Melon and Bell Pepper
Soil Moisture Low Level of the Lettuce
The actual display of the webpage viewed using J-query mobile is shown in figure 3. The two layers in the garden designate different crop per layer, located at the upper layer is the bell pepper and honey dew melon which shares the same characteristics and located at the lower layer is the lettuce that grows best with minimal light or a shady area.
Figure 3
Figure 6 shows the three different data in graphical form with a calendar icon above it are viewed using j-query mobile. The values detected and shown in the capacitance reading where transmitted by the Arduino through the Raspberry pi. Thus, through the j-query mobile the user would be updated and can monitor the level of soil moisture content. Likewise, the user can still look into the previous graphs of different soil moisture content level of the plants by tapping the previous date found in the calendar icon.
Figure 6 Graphical Data
Figure 7 Temperature Sensor
Monitoring with a camera through a live stream is not easy to mount on our project especially that our camera must be intact and should have a wide coverage because we have pots in every layer. What proved more challenging is finding a strategic location for the camera such that it will not be easily detached or moved and the place should always be dry.
Recommendations
Given a very limited time and budget the group has come up with the realization that there are still many capabilities of this project that has yet to be explored. The results would require further research, study and exploits. For future researchers, the group would like to recommend the following should one choose to increase the agricultural activities of people especially the one living on Urban areas.1. The user must be able to take images of the garden through a mobile application.
2. Every user must have an account so that every system can be accessed individually.
3. A message will be sent via text to the user if the microcontroller detects anymalfunction in the system.
4. Intensive study on the growth of different kinds of crops that is suitable for urban areas using our system should be considered by more qualified researchers.
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