B.C. tech expert programs his garden to water itself

Watering your plants can be a chore, so a tech expert from Surrey has created a self-watering gardening system to take care of his vegetables for him.

Andy Baryer — a fan of do-it-yourself projects — says it saves time, helps when he forgets, and keeps plants alive during heatwaves.

“The one year we had the heat dome, all of my plants died because I just could not water it enough. And it’s hard when you’re a busy professional … so the epiphany I had was if I could just create a watering system, self-watering system, take myself out of the equation, that is how I could be an excellent gardener,” Baryer explained.

His system splits water from the spigot into zones that can be programmed to water at certain times of the day and specific durations, and he can set it on his phone.

Surrey tech expert Andy Baryer has a different strategy for gardening this spring, as he’s programmed his vegetable garden to water itself. (Sarah Chew, CityNews Image)

Baryer grows a variety of vegetables and he says it’s helped him cut down on grocery costs.

“I’m specifying the foods that I like to eat the most, and that is spinach, peas, beans, carrots, also squash … also growing a lot of herbs. So oregano, basil, parsley, cilantro, pretty much. If it’s green, I’m probably growing it,” he said.

But for those who might not have green thumbs like Baryer, CityNews asked a gardening expert for some easy tips for B.C. residents as we head into peak planting season.

“If you’ve got a patio, put one or two pots on your patio or a couple of hanging baskets. If you’re new to vegetable gardening, you want to try maybe one or two tomatoes, not ten tomatoes,” said Miles Hunter, general manager and owner of Hunters Garden Centre.

He says annual flowers are the easiest to grow and will bloom every summer. He also recommends people begin to plant warm-season fruits and vegetables outside starting May. 24 and start pruning plants now.

“Quite often people will come in showing us pictures of their shrubs and saying, Hey, what’s wrong with this? And you’re like, Okay, well, that’s just winter dieback. You would want to prune it out, fertilize it, and then it’s likely going to continue to grow,” Hunter added.