So I decided I want some sort of plan in my office. I'm bad at watering things though. The solution? A cactus. An overly convoluted system that uses an arduino, a soil moisture monitor, and a peristaltic pump. Basically I have the arduino programmed to read a soil sample ever 5 seconds. When the water content falls below an acceptable level, it turns on a little pump. When enough water has been pumped from the flask into the plant holder, the pump turns off. Wash, rinse, and repeat. Here's a very basic version that I set up as proof of concept. I'm going to end up making a nicer looking setup, and probably pick up an Arduino Uno or Mini instead of using the Mega I have now.
