I love stuff like this. I recently[0] put some raspberry pis and beaglebones to work monitoring my plants (though my own solution is not as smooth as this, and I didn't opt for photo capability).

My robogardeners alert me via push notification on my phone when e.g. my basil needs watering, and I can issue them commands to set water/dryness thresholds via IRC.

[0] https://0x85.org/raspi.html