By combining common components from hobby markets and a micro-computer, it's now possible to build an automated vertical hydroponic garden for indoor growing 2.0 that would make even Přemek Podlaha R.I.P. roll his eyes (and he's seen some plants). It looks like a weird radiator, but that doesn't matter, the main thing is that it works. And what is this hydroponic thing? Those who don't know or like to get stuck on details can find info on wiki here. The rest of us more experienced ones move on. 
You know the feeling, you really want to do some gardening, but because of the freezing weather you're either just at work or hiding behind the stove? If that's you, then hallelujah and we have a GREEN tip for you. But watch out, this is only for those who aren't afraid of a little home DIY. The idea didn't come from us, it came from Paul Langdon of BLT Robotics and he calls it the Robotic Urban Farm System (RUFS), which is basically a robotic garden. Vertical hydroponic gardens have a capacity of "up to 160 plants" on about 8 meters. PVC pipes and gutter parts are used for the frame in its construction. These are simply components that you can easily connect and process using basic tools according to the manual (except for one step that requires an electric hot air gun). After assembly comes the integration of Arduino Microcontrollers for control and Raspberry Pi for automation and monitoring. 
The RUFS automation itself is a bit more complex, but on the other hand it's based on commonly available Arduino and Raspberry Pi components,
so anyone who knows their way around has, colloquially speaking, almost got their salad sorted in the bag.
The Arduino and Raspberry Pi components (we wrote about it here) monitor the life-giving environment (temperature, humidity, light intensity) of the robot garden and alert about conditions around the unit. They are also used for automating "irrigation" and also for monitoring and controlling nutrients in the water, as well as monitoring proper pH values. RUFS is also planning to use a smartphone application, where using the Raspberry Pi, which is the garden's web server, you'll monitor and control the entire system from the pub or from that terribly important Friday meeting that the boss-maniac organizes at 4:45 PM. 
Unfortunately, the god of gardens - Vertumnus - hasn't yet blessed our World with a final interface for gardening 2.0 management. According to rumors, it's supposedly in the development phase. API and SDK haven't been released yet either. I understand, gardening without an API isn't the same. But on the other hand, our grandmothers-gardeners also didn't know or don't know what an API is and they also have lettuce, so be more patient.
Simply patience brings roses, or in our case lettuce.
We at Greenhousing are now fine-tuning Raspberry Pi on an aquarium. Once we're done with that, we'll get into gardening. Keep your fingers crossed for us, we'll let you know. Oh and you don't have to grow just tomatoes and lettuce. More about the robo-garden in English here. Red and Zed