UNIVERSITY OF CALOOCAN CITY

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Ta Trela

SMART INDOOR GARDEN

SIM HORTUS

SIM Hortus – Smart Indoor Micro Garden

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I. PROJECT CONTEXT

SIM Hortus – Smart Indoor Micro-Garden (from the Greek word “hortus” meaning
garden) is an enhanced micro-garden for personal indoor use which gives small spaces a driving
principle behind a new, chic way to garden. Micro-gardening means just what you think: growing
small herbs in small spaces. It uses a central micro-controller, Arduino Mega, where all other
controllers and sensors are connected; such as moisture sensor, humidity and temperature sensor,
and ultrasonic sensors. These sensors send data to the microcontroller that will be uploaded to the
cloud database. An android application will be used to manage the data for the user to monitor the
smart indoor micro-garden anytime and anywhere. Automation of watering of the herbs, adjusting
temperature and lighting system can also be done with the android application, which will help
control and maintain the garden.

The table below shows the features and/or functionalities of the current smart garden
available on the market in comparison to SIM Hortus.

Current Smart
Functions/Features Gardens at the Sim Hortus
Market
Analytics ✕ ✓

App Companion ✓ ✓

Automatic Watering ✓ ✓

Controlled Environment ✕ ✓

Grow Light ✓ ✓

Notification ✕ ✓

In this particular project, the researchers will use sensors that will detect height, humidity,
light, moisture and temperature to gather information about the garden-controlled environment.

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The project will also use ultrasonic sensor for the monitoring of the mini water reservoir for the
micro garden’s watering system. The micro-controller, Arduino Board, is programmed using the
Arduino IDE software. It gathers readings from each of the sensor. Those readings are data that
will be send to the controllers of the micro garden through the use of internet. The data readings
collected will also be used for recommendations, predictions and/or analytics. All the data gathered
from the micro garden will be stored on a cloud database, which can be accessed using the device.
Therefore, the researchers will be able to develop a smart indoor micro garden which is the SIM
Hortus.

TARGET USERS
Smart indoor micro garden target users are people living in urban areas, especially those in
condominiums, and those who can afford it. Those that are living in condominiums don’t have
space for a garden outdoor and still lacks space to plant inside.

PROBLEM STATEMENT
With smart-gardens popularity on the rise, prices are becoming more competitive,
although, still expensive. Many current smart gardens lack a lot of features. From degrading soil
and high maintenance, to sometimes frequent need to tend to them. Smart gardens are widely used
today to grow fresh herbs, mini fruits and micro greens in the comfort of one’s home or office.
Although smart gardens are already beneficial for urban gardeners, researchers have learned that
they can be technologically enhanced by implementing new functions and features.

SIM Hortus is an innovative indoor mini garden for everyone, regardless of their gardening
experience. This is to help make fresh herbs accessible and affordable for everyone in almost any
location. Smart gardens take care of the herbs by making sure they have enough water and light
with its automatic watering and illumination features. Implementing data recommendations and
predictions, SIM Hortus will guide the user on the care and status of the micro garden. Lastly,
integrating voice command and assistance will make the technology more effective and interactive.
The potential impact of this project in the IT field is on how it could be utilized in the future work
of others, specifically, students who are taking computer science courses.

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SYSTEM LOGO
The background of the logo represents the box/container of the herbs. Each corner of the
background shape has symbol that symbolizes components. These components are connected to
each other creating a network which is called neural network or data mining. The herb at the center
is the main subject of SIM Hortus. Its roots represent technology that is being applied to the growth
of the plants.

UNIQUE FEATURE(S)/INNOVATION
• Controlled Environment – automatically adjusts the micro garden’s temperature:
heating and cooling of the garden’s environment.

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• Gardening Prescription and Recommendation – the micro garden can predict the
status of the garden and will guide the user on what action could be done in the
garden.
• Humidity sensor – used to measure the humidity content of the soil.
• Moisture sensor – measures soil moisture grace to the changes in electrical
conductivity of the earth.
• Auto-illumination micro garden – automatically provides light to the herbs.
• Smart micro garden IoT (Internet of Things)
➢ Mobile application will ultimately be utilized to log data, view real time
data, and control the smart micro garden.
➢ Smart micro garden will log data on the cloud.
➢ The cloud will connect the micro garden from and to the devices.
• Temperature sensor – use a solid-state technique to determine the temperature.
• Ultrasonic sensor – used to measure the water level in the water reservoir.
• Watering system – automatically or remotely water the herbs.

II. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

GENERAL OBJECTIVE

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To develop and innovate the current smart garden available on the market today. And
develop a system that sends and receives data for better functionality to help user in taking care of
the herbs.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
1. To collect data from the environment of the garden. Such as, soil moisture, temperature,
ambient light, level of water and growth of the herb by the use of different sensors
connected to Arduino MEGA.
2. To use the collected data for monitoring and maintaining the smart garden.
3. To use information formulated from the garden to assist the user through predictions and
recommendations for the gardens condition.

III. SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS

SCOPE
• SIM Hortus uses Arduino’s technology to operate its features and functionalities.
• SIM Hortus uses IoT technology or Internet of Things; smart garden will be monitored and
controlled by a mobile application.
• SIM Hortus micro garden’s data will be stored on cloud that is connected to the device.
• SIM Hortus has controller for watering system that will water the herbs, led strip or grow
light that will provide herbs light, controlled environment that manages temperature.
• SIM Hortus has automatic feature. The micro garden will function automatically by means
of sensors to control the micro garden.
• SIM Hortus can accommodate up to 6 herbs of the same type at a time.

LIMITATIONS

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• SIM Hortus has a limited number of herbs that can be grown and can only grow herbs with
the same requirements on the same time.

➢ Chinese Chives;
➢ Italian Parsley;
➢ Sweet Basil;
➢ Oregano and;
➢ Thyme.

Herb Environment Requirements

Temperature pH Weeks to Germination

Chinese Chives 16 – 22֯ C 6.1 – 6.8 4 – 6 weeks

Parsley 15 - 21֯ C 6–7 3 – 4 weeks

Sweet Basil 15 – 21֯ C 5.1 – 6.5 2 – 3 weeks

Oregano 22 – 25֯ C 6.1 – 7 6 – 10 weeks

Thyme 18 - 21֯ C 5.5 – 7 2 – 3 weeks

• Required Soil – Well-drained loamy soils generally contain more nutrients, moisture, and
humus than sandy soils, has better drainage and infiltration of water and air than silt and

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clay-rich soils, and is easier to till than clay soils. It allows water to percolate through it
reasonably quickly and not pool. The soil’s texture, especially its ability to retain nutrients
and water are crucial.

• Vermicast Fertilizer – it is a mixture of earthworm castings and uneaten bedding and

feedstock harvested from worm beds. This means that it started with organic materials for
bedding and added feedstock. The worms consumed most of the food and bedding, and left
behind a mixture of their castings (worm poop) and undigested organic materials.

• The micro-garden will be limited by height and width and has a limited temperature range.
➢ Height: 20 inches
➢ Length x Width: 24 inches x 18 inches
➢ Lowest Temperature: 15 Celsius
➢ Highest Temperature: 27 Celsius

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Container and Pot Preview

• SIM Hortus users will still manually and is required to:

➢ Remove and place soil
➢ Connect to a running water supply
➢ Plug the garden on a power outlet
➢ Pick and harvest the herbs
➢ Create a SIM Hortus account
➢ Connect the garden to the mobile application

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IV. RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

RELATED LITERATURE

Foreign Literature
With the rapid increase of global population, there is a continuous need to increase food
production. Countries around the world, especially developing countries where the most affected
of hunger and food scarcity. Globally, each country is relentlessly looking for resorts to different
strategies in meeting the growing demand to food insecurity and famine. Multiple studies are
required to address these issues to food production and food security. Choices of possible solution
depends on the existing social, political, and economic conditions and resources available to a
country prior to implementation and intervention. Therefore, there is much attention towards
indoor garden or home gardens as a strategy to enhance household food security and nutrition. A
lot of countries are widely using home gardens as a remedy to alleviate hunger and malnutrition.

Home gardening is an ancient and widespread practice all over the world. They are
classified as mixed, kitchen, backyard, farmyard, compound or homestead garden. Indoor or urban
micro container gardening is the practice of cultivating vegetables, herbs, roots and tubers in small
spaces. These gardening spaces might be balconies [1], small yards, patios [2], or rooftops [3]
which make use of containers – anything from plastic-lined wooden crates, old car tires, plastic
buckets [4], trash cans, and wooden pallets. (Grant, 2018) Thus, home garden can definitely use
family labors such as parents, children, and even elders, particularly in management and
maintaining the home garden.

With the use of technology, a lot has changed in the ancient way of home or indoor
gardening. Multiple ways of home gardening have been developed: aeroponics, hydroponics, and
the use of LED grow lights. LED Grow lights are perfect for indoor seed starting, as well growing
as light-loving houseplants, such as orchids.

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With a set of grow lights, you can grow many plants indoors, including houseplants,
orchids, and even some fruit and vegetable crops. Grow lights are ideal for seed starting because
they help ensure stocky, green seedlings. A wintertime harvest of herbs and salad greens can also
be grown under lights. By learning how plants use light and about the fixture options, you can
select an indoor grow lights system that is right for the plants you want to grow.

Sunlight contains the complete spectrum of light including all colors of the rainbow: red
through yellow to blue and violet. Like plants growing outdoors in the sunlight, indoor plants grow
best under full-spectrum bulbs, which produce a balance of cool and warm light that replicates the
natural solar spectrum. They're excellent for seedlings as well as houseplants, culinary herbs and
other plants.

No matter what type of plants you are growing, you must give them a rest. When it's dark,
plants respirate, which is an important part of their growth process. The balance of rest time to
active growth time affects many biological processes, including the growth rate, and the setting of
buds and fruit. A power strip with built in timer makes it easy to get the duration right.
(Gardeners.com, 2020)

Other than using grow light, other technology can also be used to enhance the indoor
garden. With the use of different sensors and Arduino technology, artificial light, automatic
watering, automatic adjustment of humidity and temperature is possible for an upgraded indoor
garden. Arduino is a flexible programmable hardware platform and designed to control the circuit
logically. Central to the Arduino interface board is the main component of an integrated circuit
chip that can be programmed using C++ language. This microcontroller is an AVR type, which
produced by Atmel firm. The device can read the input, process the program, and produce many
outputs based on project requirements.

Arduino is used for controlling whole the process of this Automatic Plant Watering System.
The output of soil sensor circuit is directly connected to digital pin D7 of Arduino. A LED is used
at the sensor circuit, this LED’s ON state indicates the presence of moisture in the soil and OFF
state indicates the absence of moisture in the soil. (Saddam, 2016) The moisture sensors rely on

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the resistivity of water to determine the moisture level of the soil. The sensors measure the
resistance between two separate nails by sending a current through one of them and reading a
corresponding voltage drop due to a known resistor value. The more water the lower the resistance,
and using this we can determine threshold values for moisture content. The pump system we
created uses a small fountain pump attached to the arduino with a solid-state relay, allowing the
arduino to turn the pump on or off automatically. The garduino uses arduino and python programs
that interact with one another through the library pySerial. The arduino checks the soil moisture
content and if low. (Whitaker et.al., 2010)

All of this can be created in one garden and data can be forwarded to a mobile application
for much better monitoring and management. In an agricultural country like India a lot of people
will work with green thumb in mind. Most of the people loves to grow plants at home, but due to
their work schedule they very often take care of plants. The only solution to this problem is smart
monitoring of the plant growth by modernizing the current traditional methods of gardening.
Hence the one proposed system targets at smart way of monitoring the plant growth using
automation and IoT technologies. Internet of things (IoT) provides various applications for crop
growth and monitoring the growth conditions. (Sambath, 2019)

IOT is the future of present technology. It generally means machine to machine

communication. According to study there will be 20.8 billion devices connected to internet till
2020. The term "Internet of Things" was coined by Peter T. Lewis in a 1985 speech given at a U.S.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) supported wireless session at the 15th Legislative
Weekend Conference. In his speech he states that "The Internet of Things, or IoT, is the integration
of people, processes and technology with connectable devices and sensors to enable remote
monitoring, status, manipulation and evaluation of trends of such devices. Agriculture IoT is
becoming one of the fastest growing fields (pun intended) within the IoT. Today, more than ever,
farmers have to more effectively utilize and conserve their resources. That’s where the need for
data comes in, and M2M communication has made the ongoing collection of that info easy. (Sinha,
2017) The system can record the data and send the result to user through the smartphone
application.

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The smart garden consists of NodeMCU as a hub to which different types of sensors such
as moisture sensor, humidity sensor, temperature sensor and ultrasonic sensor are connected. The
ultrasonic sensor is connected to a water tank which indicated the level of water in the tank. Other
sensors are connected to their respective positions and these sensors send the data to NodeMCU
which consists of an inbuilt Wi-Fi technology. Firebase is a database available on the internet in
which real-time values of the sensor are updated every second. Android application is developed
using android studio software. Within the software, the connectivity between the application and
firebase will be made. So, the user can monitor the parameters from anywhere. Watering of garden
varies with the type of soil. Hence the values of the sensors are predetermined for automation
purposes inside the software. Whenever the user finds need of watering the garden, a switch in the
application will automate the process. This helps in complete maintenance of the garden.

Smart Garden includes NodeMCU as a hub. NodeMCU is an open source IoT platform. It
runs on ESP8266 Wi-Fi SoC from Espessif Systems, and hardware based on the ESP-12 module
available at lowest cost. It is a Single – board microcontroller consists of 128kBytes of memory
and 4Mbytes of storage. It was designed to for easy programming and allows easy prototyping for
developers. There are essentially three ways to build NodeMCU firmware: cloud build service,
Docker image, Linux Build Environment. It consists of inbuilt Wi-Fi module which allows us to
upload the values of the sensors to the firebase.

Firebase is a mobile and web app development platform owned by Google. It helps to build
better mobile applications. It gives functionalities like analytics, databases, messaging and crash
reporting. It is built on Google infrastructure and scales automatically. It is easy to integrate
firebase with iOS, Android, and the web. APIs are packaged into a single SDK hence it can be
expanded to more platforms. It provides a real-time database and backend service. The real-time
values from the sensors are uploaded to firebase through NodeMCU. The firebase is integrated
with mobile apps for control purpose.

It is an open-source Integrated Development Environment for building Android

applications developed by JetBrains. This software is compatible with Windows, macOS, and
Linux. It consists of various features which let the users create Android applications with a better

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user interface. It supports programming languages such as Java, Kotlin, and Python. It owns
Android Virtual Device to run and debug applications in Android studio. In the Garden app, the
program for implementation is written in Java and the code for designing part is written in XML.
The firebase connectivity is also done in the implementation part. This app consists of a login
screen followed by the home screen. It consists of various events for automating the Smart Garden.
This mobile application allows the user to monitor and control the Smart Garden System via locally
or remotely. Whenever the values the sensor crosses the maximum or threshold value it alerts the
user by push notifications and allows the user to take control of the system from the remote
location. This method is cost effective since it is open-source. (T.Thamaraimanalan, et al., 2018)

In conclusion, IoT is feasible in smart indoor gardens, making it effective and efficient to
all types of people.

Local Literature
The Philippines is still primarily an agricultural country despite the plan to make it an
industrialized economy by 2000. Most citizens still live in rural areas and support themselves
through agriculture, like those in provinces. The country’s main agricultural crops are rice, corn,
coconut, sugarcane, bananas, coffee, mangoes, tobacco, abaca, some other root crops and many
more. (Nation’s Encyclopedia, 2019) These are the major export products of the country all around
the world. And not only for exports, small and large Filipino entrepreneurs supply agricultural
products nationwide. Filipinos’ livelihood in the early days rely mostly on the beauty of
agriculture, which means that most Filipinos know how to plant.

As days, months, and years pass by, Filipinos were introduced to the amazing world of
technology. In the Philippines, urban agriculture is slowly gaining ground but still has a miniscule
contribution to overall crop production. (Dar, 2019) Agricultural sector started to diminish and a
large sum of industrial sectors bloomed who provide different products and services to the country.
Factories and other companies started mainly in Manila, which gave the idea to most Filipinos
from provinces to migrate in the city to work. Manila, being the capital city of the country, has a

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large sum of population. As of today, agricultural labor force is declining while industrial labor
force is remarkably growing. The country's agriculture sector is made up of 4 sub-sectors: farming,
fisheries, livestock, and forestry (the latter 2 sectors are very small), which together employ 39.8
percent of the labor force and contribute 20 percent of GDP. Climate and weather have also played
a large factor in the agricultural production. The year 1998 was a bad year for agriculture because
of adverse weather conditions. Sector output shrank by 8.3 percent, but it posted growth the
following year. Yet, hog farming and commercial fishing posted declines in their gross revenues
in 1999. The sector is burdened with low productivity for most of its crops. One of the most
pressing concerns of the agricultural sector is the rampant conversion of agricultural land into golf
courses, residential subdivisions, and industrial parks or resorts. In 1993 the nation was losing
irrigated rice lands at a rate of 2,300 hectares per year. Small land-holders find it more profitable
to sell their land to developers in exchange for cash, especially since they lack capital for seeds,
fertilizers, pesticides, and wages for hiring workers to plant and harvest the crops. Environmental
damage is another major concern. Coral-reef destruction, pollution of coastal and marine
resources, mangrove forest destruction, and siltation (the clogging of bodies of water with silt
deposits) are significant problems. (Nation’s Encyclopedia, 2019)

Due to different factors affecting the declining agricultural production, the country is now
importing few other goods from other countries. Imported agricultural products include unmilled
wheat and meslin, oilcake and other soybean residues, malt and malt flour, urea, flour, meals and
pellets of fish, soybeans and whey. The country is now facing problems with food production and
insecurity. Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture (UPA) is becoming a viable option to help secure the
food needs especially in urban communities. It is a solution supported by the United Nations’ Food
and Agricultural Organization (FAO), which placed at 800 million of those who practice it
worldwide. FAO stated that UPA helps low-income urban dwellers grow their own crops and save
on food purchases. (Dar, 2019)

Through the government’s relentless efforts to find answers to the continuing drama and
difficulty of food price increases and shortage particularly for rice, vegetables, and fish, the
concept of Urban Agriculture seems a very hopeful alternative that can help manage and stabilize

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the prices and production of prime commodities. Urban agriculture can also contribute to the
reduction of greenhouse gases and the climate change mitigation.

Urban agriculture pertains to the cultivation, processing, and distribution of food within a
community to address the needs of its members. Urban farming is undertaken for the following
purposes: (1) for addressing food shortage in the community; (2) for maintaining the environment;
(3) for ensuring adequate food supply within the community; and, (4) stabilization and
strengthening of food prices in the market. In the recent years, because of the benefits derived from
its utilization, urban agriculture has gradually gained popularity in urbanized localities and
countries around the world. These cities and countries include Queensland in Australia, Cairo in
Egypt, Havana in Cuba, Mumbai in India, Bangkok in Thailand, in the United States, United
Kingdom, Canada, Israel, and Argentina.

Urban gardening is an easily doable and less costly alternative solution to prevent this
present food crisis from worsening. Not only will it address the situation we are experiencing at
present: it will likewise improve urban livability by reducing pollution and solid waste. It’s like
hitting two or more birds with a single stone cast. It is high time that people in urban areas are
educated and made to understand the importance of urban agriculture in ensuring natural
environment, human health, and national progress. (Tolentino, 2018)

Thus, going “high-tech” in urban agriculture can further increase productivity and
profitability. Among the most popular technology options for increasing urban farming
productivity are vertical farming and incorporation of hydroponics, aeroponics, using artificial
light for growing crops indoors, and more.

Artificial light for growing crops indoors, tapping solar energy to power the artificial lights
and applying Fourth Industrial Revolution (ID4) technologies like robotics, data analytics, block
chain and artificial intelligence. The big advantage of urban-based indoor farming is it is almost
immune to extreme weather disturbances and pestilence, making year-round food production
possible. (Dar, 2019) The Philippines has only two seasons, the wet and the dry season. Different
types of climate also pronounce different type of crops and plants that can be planted. Different

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leafy, fruity, and root vegetables, rice, corn, including herbs and others can be planted depending
on the climate on a particular place. (Planting Calendar for the Philippines, 2019) Thus, indoor
agriculture is definitely an advantage to people in different parts of the Philippines, particularly to
those who experiences drastic climate conditions.

This process can also be called “micro-gardening”. "Micro-gardening" is the intensive

cultivation of a wide range of vegetables, roots and tubers, and herbs in small spaces, such as
balconies, patios and rooftops. While urban residents have long grown vegetables in backyard
plots, modern micro-gardening makes use of containers such as plastic lined wooden crates,
custom-built tables and even old car tires. It integrates horticulture production techniques with
environmentally friendly technologies suited to cities, such as rainwater harvesting and household
waste management. Micro-gardens allow low-income families to meet their needs for vitamins,
minerals and plant protein by providing direct access to fresh, nutritious vegetables every day.
They also offer a source of extra income from the sale of small surpluses. (Dar, 2019) Micro-
gardens are highly productive and can be easily managed by anyone - women, men, children, the
elderly and the disabled.

RELATED STUDIES

Foreign Studies

Times of food shortage, high prices and increasing risk for the local agriculture due to
climate change, modernization, and more other factors, calls for new approaches to guarantee
sufficient food supplies, example is the increasing population in Africa.

One approach towards achieving this could be micro gardening as an agricultural concept
that focuses on enhancing farming productivity for families with limited farming space in urban,
semi-urban and rural areas. It involves planting crops on balconies, patios, terraces and rooftops

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and also cultivating plants in recycled locally available materials (e.g. plastic tins, old car tires and
polythene bags). Micro gardening is not a new concept but in large (urban) regions of Africa there
is decreasing attention on this topic. In the case of future challenges such as urbanization,
population growth and malnutrition, the revitalization of micro gardening has a high social,
economic and ecological value.

In Africa the population is rapidly increasing with a high rate of rural-urban migration
(expected urban population in 2050: 5.2 billion, compared to 2010: 2.6 billion).8 Hence, a fall in
production in the rural areas due to alternating division of labor and inadequate labor force is
predictable. One of the effects of this development is increasing insecurity and revolving poverty.
Micro gardening presents a good innovative solution to ensure food security, employment of
young people and an alternative way for households to generate an extra income in developing
countries. (Leregger, 2014)

Micro gardening can work for just about anyone with a small space and be as simple and
inexpensive or more complex and costly as you wish. Research by the U.N. Food and Agricultural
Organization shows that a well-tended 11-square foot micro garden can produce as much as
200 tomatoes a year, 36 heads of lettuce every 60 days, 10 cabbages every 90 days and a whopping
100 onions every 120 days. (Grant, 2018)

Pahwa, an author which is a student of applied electronics and instrumentation engineering

at JRE School of Engineering, Greater Noida created a project called “Automated Plant Watering
System”. This automatic plant watering system works using soil moisture sensor. The circuit
comprises an Arduino UNO board, a soil moisture sensor, a servo motor, a 12V water pump and
an L293D (IC1) motor driver IC to run the water pump. You can power the Arduino board using
a 7V to 12V wall wart or plug-in adaptor or solar panel. You need a separate 12V battery or power
supply or solar panel for the pump motor. Two types of soil moisture sensors are available in the
market—contact and non-contact sensors. A contact soil sensor is used to check soil moisture to
measure the electrical conductivity. The moisture sensor provides an analogue output, which can
easily be interfaced with Arduino. The program in the Arduino reads the moisture value from the

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sensor every 20 seconds. And does its job to water the plants when soil moisture is detected to
reach the threshold level. Using the Arduino UNO board, you can water six different potted plants.
By adding a few more lines in the code, you can water even more plants—by using the Arduino
Mega 2560 board which has more analogue input pins. (Pahwa, 2018)

Another project from (Cayenne Community, 2017) is an IOT based garden automation and
monitoring system. The system is designed to sense soil moisture, amount of light falling on the
plants and water flow rate. When the moisture content in the soil is too low, the system will give
command to start a pump and water the soil. The flow meter monitors the water consumption.
Apart from this the Arduino and ESP8266 will transmit information on moisture level, ambient
light and flow rate to the web. The user can monitor all the data from a smart phone by using a
mobile app. Then a tweet will be sent to the account automatically if the moisture falls below a
given threshold value.

Care for the environment has become very important in recent years and there is an
increasing demand for “green” applications that can help reduce CO2 emissions or make a more
efficient management of energy consumed.

Using a greenhouse allows you to control the heat, moisture, and shade for your plants,
giving them the most perfect environment in which to grow. Greenhouse herb gardening can
protect tender annuals from extreme summer heat, while extending the season and allowing your
plants to grow earlier and later in the season. The key to getting the most out of your greenhouse
is in setting it up before you add a single plant. A review of the recent trends in greenhouse
environmental monitoring shows that research and development in this field are shifting from
offline systems to wireless and cloud-based data collection architectures. Various data acquisition
platforms, either prototype or commercial, have been used for improving the performance of
greenhouse production. Some of the most recent examples include web-based, cloud-based, IoT
communication and control, wireless sensor networks, field-server based monitoring, field router
systems, and distributed data acquisition with local control management.

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The processing and interpretation of information arriving from the outside are the main
tasks of data acquisition systems and measuring instruments based on computers. Data acquisition
and control systems need to get real-world signals into the computer. These signals come from a
diverse range of transducers and sensors. According to Data Acquisition (DAQ) is collecting and
measuring electrical signals from sensors and transducers and inputting them to a computer for
processing.’ Further processing can include the sensors’ characteristic transformation, joint
processing for many parameters as well as statistical calculation of results and presenting them in
a user-friendly manner. One of the triggers for the growth of smart sensors is the forthcoming
sensor bus standard. The standard will spawn both a wide range of smart-sensor ICs and a
generation of sensor-to-network interface chips. Due to available industrial interface circuits, it is
possible to convert the analog sensors’ signals to the quasi-digital domain easily. The following
approach allows an important smart sensor feature: self-adaptation. The interfacing circuits
considered above are able to control accuracy and speed using suitable software.

Adding everything up makes the indoor garden “smart” and smarter with the use of mobile
application. For instance, the user will be able to monitor the garden even from afar. Perhaps
something like, when the water level is low the sensor can detect it and the app can send a reminder.

A product of Cooking Hacks by Alicia Asín Pérez, the CEO, is the Open Garden. It is an
Arduino-based DIY kit that has everything you need to create a connected, automated garden.
There are three versions of Open Garden available, with sensors and other equipment customized
for indoor, outdoor, or hydroponic growing. The core of Open Garden is a gateway that uploads
the data to a web server by using any of the available wireless interfaces (WiFi, GPRS, 3G) and
communicating to its remote nodes using license free 433MHz wireless radios. By attaching
sensors to nodes, the user can collect data on air temperature, humidity, light levels, and either soil
moisture or the temperature, pH and conductivity of the hydroponic growing medium. The systems
include an application to visualize real data of all your sensors in a web browser.

Also, a number of studies have been carried out on the application of data mining
techniques for agricultural data sets. For example, the k-means method is used to perform forecasts
of the pollution in the atmosphere (Jorquera et al., 2001), the k-nearest neighbor is applied for

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simulating daily precipitations and other weather variables (Rajagopalan ad Lall, 1999) and the
different possible changes of the weather scenarios are analyzed using SVMs (Tripathi et al.,
2006). Data mining techniques are often used to study soil characteristics. As an example, the k-
means approach is used for classifying soils in combination with GPS based techniques (Verheyen
et al., 2001). The research conducted by Ibrahim was to apply unsupervised clustering to analyzed
the generated clusters and determine whether there are any significant patterns. Decision tree
analysis method has been used in the prediction of natural datasets in agriculture and was found to
be useful in prediction of soil depth for a dataset.

This has proven that the application of technology has made a huge difference and
advantage in the gardening techniques available today.

Local Studies

Many factors contribute to problems on food security in the Philippines including poverty,
agriculture, food accessibility and climate impacts, according to a 2017 country review by Brain
Trust, Inc. Hunger and malnutrition affect the poor most. Malnutrition has been a significant issue
in the Philippines for more than a century. The government and the nutritional community have
focused on different types of malnutrition in different historical periods. Currently, the challenge
is particularly complicated because of the coexistence of various types of malnutrition including
energy deficiency, micronutrient deficiencies, and obesity. According to the 2015 National
Nutrition Survey, while one-third of children are still undernourished, one-third of adults are
overweight.

Among different social or technological innovations to address the issue of malnutrition,

school gardening stands out to be a favored measure and is promoted by the Department of
Education. In 2007, the Department of Education announced the Gulayan sa Paaralan (School
Garden) program and mandated that all public schools should set up gardens to support the school
feeding program, which was also a national program implemented by the Department of

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Education. At the end of 2018, the Department of Education announced to re-implement “School
inside a Garden” (SIGA) program, which indicates the continuation of the policy trend promoting
school gardening.
The promotion of school gardening as a solution to malnutrition is associated with two
particular policy rationales. The first policy rationale refers to the vision that “school gardening”
could catalyze the change of the entire community. School gardens could not only provide fresh
produces to the school feeding program and offer educational opportunities for good nutrition
practices, but also serve as a platform to promote home gardens in the community and deliver
nutritional knowledge to all the community members. This policy vision is particularly
foregrounded by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in
Agriculture (SEARCA). SEARCA launched its own “School Plus Home Gardening Program”
(S+HGP) in 2016 and has held several regional and international events advocating this vision
(Blesilda Calub et al. 2019) The second policy rationale concerns the vision for the future of
farming in the Philippines. Setting up gardens within schools has never been a new idea. In the
Philippines, as earl as the U.S. colonial period of 1907, there were discussions and proposals to
create gardens in public schools. School gardening thus fits well into this agenda and supported by
different stakeholders. This is also why the Department of Education encourages teachers to
incorporate school gardening into the curriculum so that agriculture may become more appealing
to students.
Based on these policy visions, the government and different nonprofits began to promote
school gardening; this further leads to different types of innovations associated with school
gardening. This list of major innovations is as below: 1) Organic farming; 2) Bio-Intensive
Gardening; the Ecology Action predicts that in less than 40 years from today, the world might
already run out of farmable soil; 3) Infrastructural innovation. Also play an essential role. This
includes the design of the entire garden.

Encountering the trend of urban migration and aging population, the Philippines
government envisions the shortage of farmers as one crucial challenge. Since the government still
acknowledges the agricultural sector as one crucial pillar for the Philippines economic

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development and the foundation of the Philippines culture, there are different calls for making
agriculture more interesting to youths.
A micro-garden can be one. It can be grown on an area of just one square meter. Water
requirements are modest, an important consideration in developing cities, where good quality
water is often scarce and expensive. In a year, a one square metre micro-garden consumes about 1
000 litres of water, or less than 3 litres per day. To ensure a regular water supply, micro-gardeners
can channel rainwater into storage via a system of gutters and pipes. Rainwater is virtually free
(after the investment in harvesting equipment) and usually of good quality. From a roof of 20 sq
m, growers can collect 2 000 litres of water for every 100 mm of rainfall, enough for the year-
round cultivation of a micro-garden of two square metres. Keeping micro-gardens productive is
also fairly simple. They can be fertilized regularly, at no cost, with compost produced from
household organic waste. Pests are controlled by non-chemical means, including coloured sticky
traps, insect proof nets and intercropping with aromatic herbs that naturally repel insects, such as
basil, parsley and mint. (FAO, 2010)

FAO studies also show that a micro-garden of one square meter can produce any one of
the following:

▪ around 200 tomatoes (30 kg) a year

▪ 36 heads of lettuce every 60 days

▪ 10 cabbages every 90 days

▪ 100 onions every 120 days

Where no land is available, vegetables can be planted in a container filled with garden soil
or a "substrate" made from local materials, such as peanut shells, coconut fiber, rice husks, coarse
sand or laterite. If substrates are unavailable, there is another option: growing the vegetables on
water enriched with a soluble fertilizer.

A micro-garden is also doable as it is unlikely to be exposed to extreme weather

conditions, making the task of growing crops easier and not be damaged due to droughts, floods
and extreme weather events.

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“The number of internet users in the country hit a record-high 47 percent in December
2018, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released on Wednesday. This
was six points higher than the 41 percent recorded in September 2018, and five points above the
previous record of 42 percent in March 2018, SWS said. ‘The proportion of Filipino adults using
the Internet has been steadily increasing since SWS first asked about it in June 2006, when it was
at 8 percent,’ the polling firm said’. It ranged from 11-19 percent from September 2007 to
December 2011, and rose to 23-32 percent from March 2012 to December 2015. It ranged from
34-42 percent from April 2016 to September 2018, before it reached a record-high 47 percent in
December 2018,’.Since 2006, the number of Internet users among Filipino adults has always been
highest in Metro Manila, although it went down by five points from 64 percent in September to 59
percent in December 2018.In Balance Luzon, the proportion rose by nine points, from the previous
record of 47 percent in September 2018 to a record-high 56 percent in December 2018.The number
of Internet users in the Visayas also rose by seven points, from 28 percent in September to 35
percent in December. In Mindanao, it rose by five points, from 27 percent in September to 32
percent in December.” (ManilaTimes, 2019) It is proven that the high percentage of the population
who uses the internet, there is also high percentage of the population that would be capable of
managing a micro-garden applied with technology and internet.

V. SOFTWARE METHODOLOGY

Agile Scrum Methodology is a process framework used to manage product development

and other knowledge work.

1. Scrum Roles
Product Owner – Is responsible for overlooking what the team is working on and
is also responsible for ensuring that the backlog is up to date.

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Scrum Master – Is assigned to ensure that the agile scrum is followed rightly by the
team. They are also responsible for overlooking how the team is performing and then
resolving any issue that is coming up.
Scrum team – They are the ones who are actually doing the tasks. They own the
development and testing part of the whole project.

2. Product Backlog
Handled by the product owner, product backlog is a list of tasks that the team needs
to perform. The modifications and priorities are set as and when needed.
The idea is to have a list of backlogs ready before the sprint starts.

3. Agile Sprint Backlog and Planning

In this step, the mobile app development team decides on the backlogs they will be
targeting on in the current sprint. Sprint backlog is the list of things the team plans on
achieving in the delivering. Usually, sprint backlogs are divided into workable actions and
once the team agrees upon the backlog items, the sprint begins.

4. Daily Scrum Meeting

Once the team start working on the product backlogs, a practice called daily scrum
is initiated. A stand-up daily meeting is held every day for 15 minutes. In the daily scrum
everyone in team tells about the last day’s work and the day’s plan. The daily scrum lets
everyone in the team know of the whole project’s progress.

5. Agile Sprint Review

After every agile sprint, the team demonstrates what was developed to the
stakeholders and look into the steps where they got stuck and which went well. The findings
of one sprint become the action statement of the next.

6. Increment

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The end result of a scrum is called Increment. The aim of everyone involved in a
scrum is to deliver an increment that is complete on its own.It should adhere to all the
quality standards set by the product owner and team.

7. Learn. Repeat. Improve.

This entire cycle is repeated in the next sprint.
Sprint Planning chooses the next set of items in the Product Backlog and the sprint
cycle starts again. As the team executes the Sprint, the Agile Product Owner
simultaneously ensures that the items which are on top of the product backlog are executed
first in the next Sprint.
The short, iterative cycle offers the team a lot of opportunities for learning and
improving.

Agile Scrum Methodology is currently the widest used methodology in the industry, by
choosing this type of methodology the proponents will be able to familiarize themselves on it,
gaining knowledge and preparing them for the industry world. The ultimate value in Agile
development is that it enables teams to deliver value faster, with greater quality and predictability,
and greater aptitude to respond to change. With only less than 10 months of development, this fits
for the span of time needed for a Thesis project to be done.

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Unlike other methodologies, Agile Scrum’s depends heavily on an empowered,

independent team working together to get projects done quickly and efficiently. The proponent’s
team has an organized role for each member, with the strong commitment given to the project
development, and understanding each responsibility, proponents will be able to finish the Thesis
project. Lastly, Agile Scrum also projects involve frequent check-ins and updates. Thesis subjects
have scheduled presentations and the proponents need to defend their work. On the development
of a Thesis project, panels suggest functions and other processes that may need to be done. For
this to work, proponents must choose a methodology that will allow them to meet the required
updates that the panels have given, making Agile Scrum the best methodology to use.

VI. SYSTEM STRUCTURE

SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM

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DATA FLOW DIAGRAM

Context Diagram: SIM Hortus

Diagram 0: SIM Hortus

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Diagram 1: Register Account

Diagram 2: Start Planting

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Diagram 3: Upkeep Garden

Diagram 4: Generate Garden Records

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USE CASE DIAGRAM

ENTITY RELATIONSHIP DIAGRAM

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VII. SAMPLE UI DESIGN

MOBILE WIREFRAMES

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VIII. COSTINGS
Price
Availabi
Name/ Purpose in the (original
Hardware lity in
Description/ Project price and/or Seller
Image the Phil.
Model discounted
price)

Used for
Humidity Availabl
measuring air in PHP 415.00 Lazada.com
Sensor e
surrounding

Measures soil
moisture grace to
Moisture the changes in Availabl
PHP 124.75
Sensor electrical e Lazada.com
conductivity of
the earth.

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Use a solid-state
Temperature technique to Availabl circuit.rock.
PHP 95.90
Sensor determine the e com
temperature.

2019 Used to read

Arduino inputs from
MEGA sensors and PHP Availabl
Lazada.com
Advanced controls 1, 673.75 e
Upgraded Arduino
Starter Kit devices.

Used in
Ultrasonic determine Availabl MarkeLabs.
PHP 200.00
Sensor distance of an e com
object

Used for wireless

Availabl
Wifi Module connectivity PHP 2,500.00 shopee.com
e
especially IOT

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Used for voice

Voice
recognition input Availabl
Recognition PHP 1,158.00 Lazada.com
of the micro e
Module
garden.

Relay Used in control a Availabl Lazada

PHP 99.00
Module circuit a signal e .com

Solenoid Used in watering Availabl Lazada

PHP 198.00
Valve system e Philippines

Used in Self-
LED Strip Availabl Agodue
Luminous Micro PHP 274.29
Light e Express
Garden.

Essential Deeco
Availabl
Breadboard component of the PHP 85.00 (electronic)
e
system. store

Essential
Availabl Deeco(elect
1k Resistor component of the PHP 1.36
e ronic)store
system.

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Essential
Availabl
10k Resistor component of the PHP 0.287 Deecostore
e
system.

Essential
Cables Availabl
component of the PHP 69.00 Deecostore
Jumper e
system.

A total cost of PHP 10,293.837 for hardware and components only. Estimated cost on
components can be changed depending on the amount to be used. This does not cover the expenses
for other materials e.g. container, mini plant baskets, plants, etc. All of the resources needed are
available in the Philippines. Divided by 8 members, each member will provide an estimated
amount of PHP 1,286.73or more as the development of the project progresses.

USE CASE DIAGRAM

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