May 25, 2025 Update

Posted on May 25, 2025 • 3 min read • 571 words

First, I have to say the Amazon, UPS and FedEx delivery drivers are pretty oblivious to ‘Keep off the grass’ signs. After having them repeatedly trample over things, I resorted to blocking off the area with orange flags and some old landscaping lights (for those who deliver when it’s dark). Not pretty. WAF (Wife Approval Factor) is very low. But it seems to be working.

The fragile little sprigs aren’t looking so good. There is a hint of green on a few of the stolons, but mostly they just look like dried up pieces of straw. I inspected a few, and absolutely no signs of any root growth.

The problem, I’m sure, is water. I tried to manually water 2 to 3 times a day to the point where the ground glistened, but didn’t puddle. But here in central Texas, it seems like didn’t last long. Temperatures have been in the mid-to-upper 90’s and humidity in the 35-50% range in the afternoons. It seems like after watering, the ground was dusty again within a few hours. Plus, I actually only watered 3x on days I was home. On the days I had to go to the office, I could only water in the early morning and evening. I’m pretty sure there were several times where things just dried out too much.

So… my next attempt is, as you can probably guess, some home automatition magic!

First, I bought an Ecowitt GW1100  and two WH51  soil moisture sensors. I put these in the ground Saturday night, and they read about 40% saturation. Per my research, this is WAY too low. The sprigs can barely survive, let along try to root. Sunday morning, I tested with my normal hand-watering regime. Afterward, the sensors only read about 47%. That was enough to confirm my hand-watering was insufficient. (FYI: The green you see here are new sprigs I just planted today.)

Next, I installed a 75ft soaker hose. I got the idea after checking the local water restrictions  and found that “soaker hoses” are allowed. I laid it out, relocated the sensors and ran for about 10 minutes. Afterward, the sensors were reading up to about 62%! I need to test a slightly longer run, but now I have to wait for the soil to dry out, back down to around 40-45%. Then I’ll run for 15 min and see if that gets me up to the 70-80% range (which my research says should be my target).

Once I get the water duration figured out, my next step will be to install an Orbit B-hyve  smart watering timer. I’ll set this up in HomeAssistant, where the Ecowitt sensors are already reporting the soil moisture data. Using HomeAssitant and NodeRed, my plan is to trigger a 10-15 minute watering cycle whenever the soil moisture gets below 45%. Ideally, the watering will get it up to the 70-80% range and good for another several hours, depending on the weather.

Finally, I will probably also work the program logic to incorporate any forecasted rain. My OpenSprinkler setup already takes this into account, and I should be able to prevent running if rain is in the forecast.

I’ll give this setup a go for the next week and see if any of the old sprigs come back to life, and how today’s newly planted sprigs do. If needed, I’ll plant more sprigs and give the whole thing another go.