Welcome to 2026! After our holiday break, we started the year's first Second Breakfast livestream with a project that began during the early days of the pandemic: turning the Garden Now IoT project into a real community garden for ServiceNow fans who love plants.
From Personal Project to Community Vision
In 2020, while staying at home, I started collecting houseplants like many others. My hobby grew fast, and soon I had over 30 plants taking over my space. Then, my colleague Jason McKee suggested using ServiceNow to monitor the plants, inspired by his pool monitoring setup. That's how the Garden Now project started.
But this idea was always meant to go beyond just my living room.
The original goal was a community garden where ServiceNow developers and fans from around the world could connect through their love of plants and gardening. Picture opening a portal and seeing gardens from everywhere: developers in Prague, consultants in Texas, and community members in India, all sharing their plant stories and sensor data on one platform.
Now, that vision is finally coming true.
The Challenge: Scaling for Events
The current system works well for people using their own ServiceNow instances. But bringing this to events like CreatorCon, developer meetups, and Knowledge comes with some unique challenges:
The Old Way (Too Complex)
- Download firmware manually
- Wire up ESP8266/ESP32 boards and sensors yourself
- Configure on your own PDI or dev instance
- Navigate API key authentication
The problem is that not everyone wants to wire up components, use breadboards, or manage their own instance. We needed to make this easier for everyone, while still supporting those who enjoy working with hardware.
The New Vision (Three Use Cases)
- Event-Provided Devices: Arrive at the event, claim a pre-configured sensor, use your phone to pair it, link it to a plant, and you're all set.
- Bring Your Own Device (BYOD): For hardware enthusiasts, you can build your own sensor using our open firmware.
- Take-Home Experience: After the event, you can set up your device for your home WiFi and continue monitoring your plants.
The Technical Transformation
OAuth Authentication Revolution
We switched from API keys to OAuth 2.0 device authentication for better security. Now, there are no cleartext credentials stored in ServiceNow tables. Devices use a secure pairing process, much like connecting Netflix to a new TV:
- User claims a device in the portal
- System generates a unique pairing code and passphrase
- User connects to the device's WiFi access point
- Enter pairing code and passphrase
- Device authenticates and receives OAuth token
- Done! Device can now securely send data to ServiceNow
OAuth Authentication Flow
Service Portal Experience
We created detailed Service Portal widgets, since UI Builder didn't meet our needs, with features like:
- Tabbed interfaces for device claiming and plant association
- QR code generation for both device claiming and WiFi pairing
- Real-time pairing status updates
- Dashboard views of all your sensors and plants
The Magic of QR Codes
Here's a simple workflow for events:
Physical Sensor → QR Code Label → Scan → Portal → Claim Device → Second QR → Connect to Device WiFi → Pair → Associate with Plant
The second QR code automatically prompts your phone to join the device's WiFi network, so you don't have to search through many similar "plantmon-XXXX" access points at a busy event.
Architecture Overview
The system follows a clean architecture:
System Architecture
User Layer
Service Portal providing mobile-friendly interfaces for claiming, pairing, and managing devices
Device Layer
- ESP8266/ESP32 D1 Mini boards
- LilyGo HighGrow sensors (the ones you might've seen at CreatorCon)
- Custom firmware supporting multiple sensor configurations
- BYOD support for community-built devices
ServiceNow Platform
- CMDB for device, plant, and garden relationships
- Metric Base for time-series sensor data
- OAuth 2.0 framework for secure device authentication
- Automated cleanup jobs for expired pairings
Integration Layer
MidServer for pre-event device preparation and bulk configuration
The Live Demo
During the stream, we did a complete end-to-end demonstration:
- Flash firmware to a device (watching serial monitor output)
- Device checks in automatically—appears in ServiceNow as "unclaimed"
- Navigate to portal, claim the device with a passphrase
- Scan QR code to connect to device WiFi
- Enter pairing code from portal
- Watch magic happen—device pairs, receives OAuth token
- Associate with plant (I chose my Euphorbia)
- Verify relationship in CMDB—device monitors plant, plant monitored by device
The whole process only took a few minutes!
Community Garden: The Dream View
The highlight of this project is the Community Garden page, which is a world map showing gardens from ServiceNow community members around the globe. Each dot stands for someone who is taking part:
- View gardens by location
- See what plants people are growing
- Explore sensor data from around the world
- Connect with community members who share your interests
Kristy's vision of Community Garden
Privacy is very important. Users control how much information they share, and location data is generalized to protect privacy.
What's Next?
We're actively building toward deployment at upcoming events. The backlog includes:
Portal Enhancements
- Dark mode implementation
- Improved widget headers showing active tabs
- "My Plants" and "My Sensors" detailed views
- Re-associating sensors with different plants
- Clearing and re-pairing devices
Hardware Integration
- Label printer integration for pre-printed QR codes and device information
- Support for additional sensor types
- Firmware customization guides for BYOD builders
Event Preparation
- Bulk device configuration workflows
- Pre-event WiFi setup with PRECONFIGURE_WIFI mode
- Troubleshooting guides and support documentation
Join the Community Garden
This project is not just about sensors and data. It's about connection. It's for ServiceNow professionals who code during the day and grow tomatoes (or houseplants) at night. It's about sharing the joy of seeing a plant thrive, or learning from what didn't work. Most of all, it's about building something together.
Whether you like building custom sensors, enjoy simple plug-and-play monitoring, or just want to see what others are growing, there's a place for you in the Community Garden.
Resources
Want to see the current version? Check out the lab guide to see what we've built so far. Keep in mind, this is the legacy system. The new, streamlined experience is coming soon!
Stay tuned for future streams where we'll build out portal features, test the label printer integration, and hopefully 🤞 get ready for the first large-scale event.
Special Thanks
Huge thanks to:
- Jason McKee for the original inspiration and custom firmware
- @laszloballa and @ersujandutta (welcome to the Developer Advocate team!) for joining the stream
- Our amazing community members watching live and providing feedback
- Claude (the AI assistant, not just the platform name!) for helping architect the OAuth flow and generate those beautiful Mermaid diagrams
Follow along with future Garden Now streams on our Second Breakfast series!
© 2026 ServiceNow Community. Built with ❤️ for plant-loving developers everywhere.
