I use a programmable watering system that can be controlled by computer, iPhone, many devices , called b-Hive.
If it rains the weather report is programmed into the system and doesn’t water. The same for drought conditions the program reports if soil is dry or to much water. It takes the quessing game outta watering, especially during the current climate change. Helps to know just how fast the soil dries out in high temps during the summer since our climate change our temps are now hitting 90’s to 100 temps in the PNW. Which were extremely unusual in the past.
Very hand dandy when it’s vaca time.
i once had an automatic fish feeder. i made sure it was set up and tested before i went away for a few weeks and asked a friend to watch the tank to make sure it didn't get too low on water. came home to fish tank about half empty, the water was pea green and all the fish food was gone (it should have been enough to last a few more weeks).
amazingly enough the fish were fine.
what this has to do with plants and watering i'm not sure other than to say perhaps watering technology has come a long ways further in the past 25 years...