Root Access: Using Python to Keep My Garden Alive

I keep forgetting to water my plants.

In this talk, I'll walk through building a practical garden watering assistant in Python. A small app that knows your plants, checks the forecast, and tells you whether to grab the hose. No cloud subscriptions, no smart home hardware, just Python doing something genuinely useful.

We'll cover:

• Modeling your garden with a simple data structure and JSON file
• Fetching real local weather data using Open-Meteo (free, no API key required)
• Writing the logic that combines plant watering needs with rainfall forecasts
• Displaying results in a clean, readable CLI output

This is a beginner-friendly talk. We'll start from a blank file to a clean CLI tool you can actually run every morning. If you've ever wanted to take your Python skills outside the browser and into your actual life, this one's for you.

Presented by

Bianca Ploss