Camera to watch over garden

K

Keizer

Getting comfortable
Jan 3, 2023
275
550
Wa
Garden season is coming up and this year I'd like to try something new. We have alot of deer roaming around the property and they love to destroy gardens. In the past I would drag hoses everywhere and connect them to motion sensor sprinklers to scare the deer away. The problem is the summer sun really wreaks havoc on the hoses swelling them up and sometimes they burst and waste water.

So, I was thinking. I have underground sprinklers in the garden which are controlled in Home Assistant. I was thinking I could get rid of all the hoses and motion sensor sprinklers and replace it all with a wifi camera. I would need one that is capable of being brought into Home Assistant. I could then set up a routine that when it detected motion it would turn the garden zone of sprinklers on for a few seconds to scare the deer away........or rabbits.

Has anyone else tried a set up like this? What would be a good wifi camera for this? I don't really need it to be part of my Blue Iris setup as long as everythiung can be done from its app and Home assistant. It just seems like this would be way easier then the hose/sprinkler setup.
 
Last edited:
I finally resorted to a 7 foot high fence to keep the deer out. A few years back we had seedlings disappearing from the greenhouse. I put a temporary cam in there and fairly soon found out it was a mouse who quickly got acquainted with a mousetrap. I ran a temporary wire for this to the greenhouse, for both not trusting wifi, and I would have run a power line out there anyway. The fence doesn't help with the rabbits. A 4" wide rabbit can walk right through the 2-inch-apart wires in the fence. Watching it looks like a scifi move where somebody walks through a wall. We finally gave up on landscaping plants that the deer like.
 
tigerwillow1 said:
I finally resorted to a 7 foot high fence to keep the deer out. A few years back we had seedlings disappearing from the greenhouse. I put a temporary cam in there and fairly soon found out it was a mouse who quickly got acquainted with a mousetrap. I ran a temporary wire for this to the greenhouse, for both not trusting wifi, and I would have run a power line out there anyway. The fence doesn't help with the rabbits. A 4" wide rabbit can walk right through the 2-inch-apart wires in the fence. Watching it looks like a scifi move where somebody walks through a wall. We finally gave up on landscaping plants that the deer like.
Click to expand...
Last year I used my skidsteer and pulled out all my landscape shrubs. I was sick of them looking like crap because of the deer. I have found that the dwarf Alberta spruce trees are very prickly and the deer don't touch them.

As far as a fence that wouldn't look good because of the shape and location of the garden area. It is 4' wide and about 70' long and boarders the yard. The motion sprinklers actually worked really well for scaring the deer away. It's mostly the noise they don't like. So I'd still like to research the camera idea.
 
As an Amazon Associate IPCamTalk earns from qualifying purchases.
A Reolink? Then it's a good thing you stated in your OP "I don't really need it to be part of my Blue Iris setup...." because it will likely not play nice with BI.

Note also in the Amazon listing "Frequently returned, See product details and customer reviews." :wtf::confused:
 
TonyR said:
A Reolink? Then it's a good thing you stated in your OP "I don't really need it to be part of my Blue Iris setup...." because it will likely not play nice with BI.

Note also in the Amazon listing "Frequently returned, See product details and customer reviews." :wtf::confused:
Click to expand...
Right......I don't want this camera as part of my main BI setup. Just something cheapo that I can use for three months out of the year. By posting a Reolink cam I was in no way saying it was a quality camera for my setup. I was saying my setup does not require a quality camera. I just need a glorified motion detector.
 
Last edited:
Well I am going to try this cheapo Tapo cam.
It actually has a pretty good sized sensor and is full time color. I have plenty of lighting around that is set up for my color 4KT cams. It has animal/human/vehical detection so I'm hoping I can dial it in for deer/rabbits. If not.......it will go back. This cam also integrates with home assistant so I can create the routine I need to turn on the sprinklers when motion is detected.

This whole plan is actually my ladies idea. This is her setup for her garden. I was just pulled into to help out.
 
As an Amazon Associate IPCamTalk earns from qualifying purchases.
  • Like
Reactions: bp2008
If it is a small garden, I think you can just buy a motion activated sprinkler. But the camera approach is more fun especially when your wife bends down and gets mistaken for a deer.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Keizer
Keizer said:
Well I am going to try this cheapo Tapo cam.
It actually has a pretty good sized sensor and is full time color. I have plenty of lighting around that is set up for my color 4KT cams. It has animal/human/vehical detection so I'm hoping I can dial it in for deer/rabbits. If not.......it will go back. This cam also integrates with home assistant so I can create the routine I need to turn on the sprinklers when motion is detected.

This whole plan is actually my ladies idea. This is her setup for her garden. I was just pulled into to help out.
Click to expand...
Ageed....IMO, that Tapo is a better choice than the Reolink. Just have to accommodate the 9VDC wall wart. If that is an issue, maybe a passive POE injector and splitter setup can supply enough of the voltage over CAT-5e if not too far. I used this to send 12VDC to a camera 60 feet away in a bluebird box for almost 2 years. Unfortunately, the connectors on the 9VDC are most likely NOT the same size as the 12VDC on the splitter/injector set.

Passive PoE Injector and Splitter Kit with 5.5x2.1 mm DC Power Adaptor Connector,Black​

 
As an Amazon Associate IPCamTalk earns from qualifying purchases.
  • Like
Reactions: Keizer
bp2008 said:
If it is a small garden, I think you can just buy a motion activated sprinkler. But the camera approach is more fun especially when your wife bends down and gets mistaken for a deer.
Click to expand...
She was using motion sprinklers before. They were spendy too and one only lasted one season. Plus all the batteries. I personally didn't like the hoses sitting in the sun all summer. They would swell up from the water in there cooking. Plus when you went out to work in the garden you had to sneak up on each sprinkler and turn the dial to turn them off and hope they didn't see you.

The camera has a privacey setting you can trip so it will be way more convenient. Or just toggle off the routine in HA when working in the garden.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bp2008
You can also just search amazon for poe to 9v power and find plenty of 802.3af standard PoE compliant splitters, like this one:


(if you prefer to use a standard PoE switch to power the cam)
 
As an Amazon Associate IPCamTalk earns from qualifying purchases.
  • Like
Reactions: Keizer and TonyR
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom