Adding ZWave devices to my Home Assistant smart home

There are some quirks related to running standalone Home Assistant (HA) from a Docker container. I found that the route to enable support and add a device using ZWave is not well documented for this HA configuration, especially for someone new to and unfamiliar with ZWave.

Running ZWave JS server #

My biggest bugaboo was that…

Without a ZWave hub on the network, a standalone ZWave server is needed to mediate the ZWave network and communicate with HA. I was able to run an official zwavejs/zwave-js-ui container image, and pass my ZWave USB dongle device through to “/dev/zwave”.

Autumn Leaves Are Free Money

“Leaves build soil, conserve water and best of all, control weeds. By using leaves as your compost and mulch you are restoring nutrients to the soil that leaves used in order to grow…They’re like a bank account that never runs dry.”

greenwichfreepress.com: Leaves Improve Gardens Autumn-atically

I always mow my leaves into my lawn. Keep your leaves, they are free money! I also think its crazy that people pay landscapers to cut their lawn short, remove the clippings and kill the beneficial “weeds” like clover, and then further pay to water and fertilize because the lawn is too short, the soil stays bad, and the grass becomes reliant on the overapplied nutrients. We should all be trying to minimize our turf grass anyway: Lawns Are an Ecological Disaster