🌱 Notion Garden Care for Home Assistant

Manage your garden with Notion and automate reminders with Home Assistant. Track watering, fertilizing, and pruning schedules for all your plants in one place.

✨ Features

• 🌿 Automatic Setup - No coding required, everything happens in the Home Assistant UI
• 🗄️ Auto-Create Database - Integration creates the Notion database for you
• 📅 Smart Reminders - Never forget to water, fertilize, or prune
• 📊 Self-Healing Dashboard Card - Drop custom:garden-care-root-card in any dashboard; discovers plants at runtime
• 📍 Area-Based Bulk Care - Group plants by HA area and water/fertilize/prune an entire area at once
• 🖼️ Area Background Images - Area section headers use your HA area picture automatically
• 🏗️ Responsive Grid Layout - Plants arranged in a multi-column grid, one column per area
• 🖱️ Clickable Plant Cards - Click the plant name to open the HA more-info dialog
• ➕ Add Plant Form - Add new plants from the dashboard; entities refresh automatically
• 🤖 AI-Powered Plant Addition - Add plants with automatic care info using your AI assistant
• 🔄 Bidirectional Sync - Update Notion from Home Assistant and vice versa
• 🪴 Example Plants - Pre-configured templates to get started
• 📱 Mobile Friendly - Works on all Home Assistant apps

Extended Plant Information

• ☀️ Sun Exposure - Track light requirements (Full Sun, Partial Sun, Shade)
• 🍅 Harvest Info - Record harvest months and notes
• 🌻 Companion Plants - Get planting suggestions
• 🚫 Bad Companions - Plants to avoid planting nearby
• 🐝 Bee Friendly - Mark pollinator-friendly plants
• ⚠️ Toxicity Warnings - Safety info for pets and children
• 🌱 Lawn Care - Track aeration and sanding schedules
• 🔄 Lifecycle - Perennial, Annual, or Biennial
• 🌡️ Hardiness Zone - USDA zones 1-13
• 🪴 Soil Type - Sandy, Loamy, Clay, etc.
• ⚗️ Soil pH - Acidic, Neutral, or Alkaline
• 📏 Height - Expected mature height
• 📈 Growth per Year - Annual growth rate
• ❄️ Winterize - Winter protection requirements

🚀 Quick Start

Step 1: Create a Notion Account (if you don't have one)

1. Go to https://www.notion.so/signup
2. Sign up for a free account (email or Google/Apple)
3. Complete the onboarding

Step 2: Create Notion Integration (2 minutes)

1. Go to https://www.notion.so/my-integrations
2. Click "+ New integration"
3. Fill in the required fields:
   • Name: Home Assistant Garden
   • Associated workspace: Select your Notion workspace
   • Type: Leave as Internal
4. Under Capabilities, enable at minimum:
   • ✅ Read content
   • ✅ Update content
   • ✅ Insert content
5. Click "Save"
6. Copy the token (starts with ntn_...) from the Secrets tab

Note: Make sure to select your workspace and enable all three content capabilities — without them the integration cannot read or write your Notion database.

Step 3: Create a Page in Notion (1 minute)

1. Open Notion and create a new blank page (e.g., "Gardening" or "Home Assistant")
2. Connect your integration:
   • Click "..." (three dots, top right)
   • Select "Connections" → Add "Home Assistant Garden" → Confirm
3. Copy the page URL from your browser

Step 4: Install & Configure in Home Assistant (3 minutes)

Install the Integration

Option A: HACS (Coming Soon)

1. Open HACS → Integrations → Search "Notion Garden Care" → Install

Option B: Manual Install

cd /config/custom_components
git clone https://github.com/pfalzcraft/notion-garden-care.git
cp -r notion-garden-care/custom_components/notion_garden_care .
rm -rf notion-garden-care

Restart Home Assistant.

Setup in UI

1. Go to Settings → Devices & Services
2. Click "+ Add Integration" → Search "Notion Garden Care"
3. Follow the setup wizard:
   • Screen 1: Paste your Notion token
   • Screen 2: Paste your page URL
   • ✅ Keep "Create database automatically" checked
   • ✅ Keep "Add example plants" checked
   • Click Submit

That's it! 🎉

The integration will:

• ✅ Create the "Garden Care" database in Notion with all properties and formulas
• ✅ Add 5 example plants (Tomatoes, Rose, Apple Tree, Basil, Lawn)
• ✅ Create aggregate sensors and individual plant sensors in Home Assistant
• ✅ Register frontend resources automatically (JS cards loaded on every dashboard)

Step 5: Configure AI Agent (Optional - Recommended)

1. Install a Conversation Agent (if you don't have one):

   • Settings → Devices & Services → Add Integration
   • Add one of: OpenAI Conversation, Google Generative AI, Anthropic, or any other AI agent

2. Connect to Garden Care:

   • Settings → Devices & Services → Notion Garden Care → Configure (gear icon)
   • Select your Conversation Agent → Submit

3. Add Plants with AI:

   • Use the Add Plant form on the dashboard, or:

   action: notion_garden_care.add_plant
   data:
     plant_name: "Lavender"

   The AI fills in all care details tailored to your local climate using your HA location settings.

Step 6: Assign Plants to Areas (Recommended)

After setup, assign each plant sensor to a Home Assistant area to enable area grouping and bulk care:

1. Settings → Devices & Services → find a plant sensor → click it
2. Click the Area field → select or create an area
3. The garden-care-root-card groups and grid update automatically on the next browser refresh

Tip: Set an area picture in Settings → Areas — it becomes the background image of that area's section header card.

📊 What You Get

Sensors

Aggregate Sensors (always created):

• sensor.notion_garden_care_database - All plants from Notion
• sensor.plants_to_water - Plants needing water today
• sensor.plants_to_fertilize - Plants needing fertilizer today
• sensor.plants_to_prune - Plants to prune this month
• sensor.active_plants_count - Total active plants

Individual Plant Sensors (one per plant):

• sensor.garden_care_tomatoes — shows status, all care dates, and attributes

Each plant sensor state is one of: "OK", "Needs Water", "Needs Fertilizer", "Needs Pruning".

Sensor Logic

🚰 Plants to Water — "Next Water" date is today or in the past
🌿 Plants to Fertilize — "Next Fertilize" date is today or in the past
✂️ Plants to Prune — current month is in the plant's "Prune Months" list
🌺 Active Plants Count — "Active" checkbox is checked

Actions

Update your plants from Home Assistant (11 actions available):

# Mark single plant as watered (today)
action: notion_garden_care.mark_as_watered
data:
  entity_id: sensor.garden_care_tomatoes

# Mark plant as watered on a specific date
action: notion_garden_care.mark_as_watered
data:
  plant_name: "Tomatoes"
  date: "2026-01-20"

# Water ALL plants in a Home Assistant area at once
action: notion_garden_care.mark_as_watered
data:
  area_id: balcony

# Mark plant as fertilized / pruned / harvested / aerated / sanded / mowed
action: notion_garden_care.mark_as_fertilized
data:
  entity_id: sensor.garden_care_rose_bush

# Update any Notion property directly
action: notion_garden_care.update_plant_property
data:
  entity_id: sensor.garden_care_tomatoes
  property_name: "Water Interval (days)"
  property_value: "5"

# Add a new plant using AI
action: notion_garden_care.add_plant
data:
  plant_name: "Lavender"

# Refresh data from Notion
action: notion_garden_care.refresh_database

Action Parameters

All mark_as_* actions accept one of:

• entity_id — select a plant sensor
• plant_name — plant name as a string
• page_id — Notion page ID
• area_id — HA area ID → updates all plants in that area at once

Plus an optional date (YYYY-MM-DD, defaults to today).

AI-Powered Plant Addition

Configure an AI conversation agent (OpenAI, Google AI, Anthropic, etc.) and the integration will automatically fill in:

• Plant type, lifecycle, hardiness zone, soil requirements
• Sun exposure, watering and fertilizing schedules
• Pruning and harvest months with instructions
• Companion plants, toxicity, bee-friendliness
• Care guide URLs, winter protection, special notes
• All tailored to your local climate via your HA location settings

Automation Blueprints

Set up reminders in seconds via Settings → Automations & Scenes → Create Automation → Start with blueprint:

• Garden Care - Watering Reminder (daily)
• Garden Care - Fertilizing Reminder (daily)
• Garden Care - Pruning Reminder (monthly)

📱 Dashboard

Setting Up the Dashboard

The integration does not create a dashboard automatically — you add the root card to any existing dashboard yourself.

1. Settings → Dashboards → open your dashboard → Edit (pencil icon)
2. Add a card → choose Manual card (YAML editor)
3. Paste:

type: custom:garden-care-root-card

4. Save. The card discovers all your plants and areas automatically — no further YAML configuration needed.

Tip: Place the card in a full-width section (or set the view to panel: true) so the grid can use the full screen width.

How the Root Card Works

custom:garden-care-root-card is a self-contained card that:

• Auto-discovers all plant sensors from hass.states at page load — no YAML regeneration needed
• Groups by HA area using live hass.entities / hass.areas data
• Responsive grid — one column per area, adapts to any screen width
• Area background images — uses your HA area picture as the section header background
• Rebuilds automatically when plants are added or area assignments change

Plant Care Card

Each plant card displays:

• Clickable plant name — click to open the HA more-info dialog
• Area label — shown below the plant name; updates live when area assignment changes
• Type-specific icon (flower, tree, vegetable, herb, lawn, etc.)
• Next and Last dates for Water, Fertilize, Prune, Harvest (lawn: Aeration, Sanding, Mowed)
• Overdue indicators highlighted in red/orange
• ⓘ Info button — shows all plant attributes in a popup
• Action buttons — Water / Fertilize / Prune / Harvest with loading and success feedback
• Delete button — removes the plant from Notion with inline confirmation

Add Plant Form

At the top of the dashboard:

• Enter a plant name → click Add Plant
• AI generates the full care profile
• Duplicate protection — won't create a plant that already exists
• Auto-refresh — triggers refresh_database automatically so the new plant appears without a manual reload

Area Sections

Each HA area gets its own column with:

• A header card showing the area name and bulk action buttons
• The area picture (set in Settings → Areas) as background with a readable overlay
• All plants assigned to that area stacked below

Plants not assigned to any area appear in a separate column at the end.

🌱 Notion Database Structure

The integration creates these properties automatically:

Basic Info

• Name - Plant name
• Type - Plant, Tree, Shrub, Vegetable, Herb, Lawn
• Active - Is the plant still active?

Note: Location is not a Notion field. Use Home Assistant Areas instead — assign each plant sensor to an area in Settings → Devices & Services → (entity) → Area. This enables area-based grouping and bulk actions.

Watering

• Water Interval (days), Last Watered, Next Water (auto-calculated ✨), Water Amount

Fertilizing

• Fertilize Interval (days), Last Fertilized, Next Fertilize (auto-calculated ✨), Fertilizer Type

Pruning

• Prune Months, Prune Instructions, Last Pruned

Harvest

• Harvest Months, Harvest Notes, Last Harvested

Plant Characteristics

• Lifecycle, Hardiness Zone, Soil Type, Soil pH, Height, Growth per Year, Winterize

Companion & Safety

• Companion Plants, Bad Companions, Bee Friendly, Toxicity

Lawn Care

• Aeration Interval (days), Last Aeration, Next Aeration (auto-calculated ✨)
• Sanding Interval (days), Last Sanded, Next Sanding (auto-calculated ✨), Last Mowed

Notes & Links

• Care Instructions, Special Notes, Notes
• Care Instructions URL, Prune Instructions URL, Harvest Instructions URL

Sun & Environment

• Sun Exposure - Full Sun, Partial Sun, Partial Shade, Full Shade

🎯 How It Works

┌─────────────────┐         ┌──────────────────┐         ┌─────────────────┐
│  Home Assistant │◄────────┤   Notion API     ├────────►│     Notion      │
│   Integration   │  Sync   │   (REST)         │  Create │    Database     │
└─────────────────┘         └──────────────────┘         └─────────────────┘
        │
        ▼
  Plant sensors created
  Aggregate sensors updated hourly
  Actions + automations available
  `garden-care-root-card` displays plants grouped by area

📝 Example Use Cases

Morning Routine Automation

automation:
  - alias: "Morning Garden Report"
    trigger:
      - platform: time
        at: "07:00:00"
    actions:
      - action: notify.mobile_app
        data:
          title: "Good Morning! Garden Update"
          message: >
            🌱 {{ states('sensor.active_plants_count') }} plants total
            💧 {{ states('sensor.plants_to_water') }} need water
            🌿 {{ states('sensor.plants_to_fertilize') }} need fertilizer

Water an Entire Area

automation:
  - alias: "Evening Balcony Watering"
    trigger:
      - platform: time
        at: "19:00:00"
    actions:
      - action: notion_garden_care.mark_as_watered
        data:
          area_id: balcony

Dashboard Button

type: button
name: Water Tomatoes
tap_action:
  action: perform-action
  perform_action: notion_garden_care.mark_as_watered
  data:
    plant_name: Tomatoes
icon: mdi:watering-can

🐛 Troubleshooting

Dashboard card shows no plants

1. Reload the integration: Settings → Devices & Services → Notion Garden Care → ⋮ → Reload
2. Hard-refresh your browser: Ctrl+Shift+R
3. Verify sensors exist: Developer Tools → States → search for sensor.garden_care_

The custom:garden-care-root-card discovers plants from hass.states at page load. If sensors exist but plants don't appear, ensure the card is loading its JS resources (see below).

Cards don't appear (custom element errors)

The integration auto-registers both JS files as Lovelace resources on startup. If you see "Custom element doesn't exist":

1. Reload the integration
2. Hard-refresh your browser (Ctrl+Shift+R)
3. Open Developer Tools (F12) → Console and confirm you see:

   PLANT-CARE-CARD         Loaded
   GARDEN-AREA-CARD        Loaded
   GARDEN-CARE-ROOT-CARD   Loaded
   

4. If the messages are missing, check Settings → Dashboards → ⋮ → Resources — both entries should be present. If not, reload the integration again.

Integration doesn't appear

1. Verify files are in custom_components/notion_garden_care/
2. Restart Home Assistant
3. Check logs: Settings → System → Logs

Sensors show "Unavailable"

1. Check Notion connection: open page in Notion → "..." → Connections — "Home Assistant Garden" should be listed
2. Verify your Notion token is correct
3. Call notion_garden_care.refresh_database
4. Check Home Assistant logs

New plant doesn't appear after adding

The Add Plant form automatically triggers a database refresh after creation. If the plant still doesn't appear after ~30 seconds, call notion_garden_care.refresh_database manually, then hard-refresh your browser.

🤝 Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your changes
4. Open a Pull Request

📄 License

MIT License — see LICENSE for details.

💬 Support

• Issues: GitHub Issues
• Discussions: GitHub Discussions

☕ Buy Me a Coffee

If you find this integration helpful, consider supporting the development:

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Made with 🌱 for gardeners who love automation

No Python knowledge required · No YAML editing needed · Just works ✨

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