Adding soil moisture sensors

Why bother?

A wilting plant and an overwatered plant can look identical in a photo — root rot mimics drought. Soil sensors break the tie. With sensors in the ground, reviews check what the soil actually says before proposing more water, which prevents the most expensive beginner mistake in lawn care.

What to buy

• Ecowitt GW1206 kit (~$49): the WiFi gateway plus your first WH51 soil sensor.
• Extra WH51 sensors (~$15–17 each) — one per area you care about; most yards are well covered with 4–6.
• Make sure everything is the North America 915 MHz version.

Where to put them

• One in your most sun-baked lawn area (the first to dry out).
• One in a shaded lawn area (the first to stay soggy).
• One in each bed you love — under roses, hydrangeas, vegetables.
• Push the probe fully into the root zone; keep lawn probes near bed edges so the mower clears them.

Connecting to Lawn Focus (beta — assisted setup)

The gateway posts readings straight to Lawn Focus — no extra hub needed. During the beta we provision your upload key and walk through pointing the gateway at it together (about 10 minutes in the Ecowitt app). After that, tell the app where each sensor lives and readings show up zone-tagged everywhere: the Zones tab, photo reviews, and watering proposals.