Depending on what you want to do, maybe you don't need to overcome it. I'm a fan of these, which are "automated", but require no electricity: https://www.blumat

Depending on what you want to do, maybe you don't need to overcome it. I'm a fan of these, which are "automated", but require no electricity: https://www.blumat.com/classic/uber-classic https://www.blumat.com/classic/uber-classic I haven't tried these, but they might be more suitable for an outdoor garden, and I've heard good things: https://www.blumat.com/tropf/das-tropf-blumat-system/vorteile https://www.blumat.com/tropf/das-tropf-blumat-system/vorteil... I think there's a way to hook the latter up to mains water if you have a big install. Basically, the soil moisture determines the watering rate via diffusion through a clay cone. I was getting all ready to rig up some custom raspi sensor based watering thing when I found this and realized that my way would have been waayyyy more maintenance headache, more expensive, and probably not work as well.