[Gys]

Some device that I can put in my garden and will send status reports on bird kinds and the state of the plants (the article mentions tomato plants giving something audible if dehydrated) would be really awesome. Especially in relation to weather, time of day, day of the year, etc.

[subpar]

The birders are super ahead of the curve. Check out this Rpi implementation of BirdNet: https://github.com/mcguirepr89/BirdNET-Pi

Some other options for low-cost backyard sound/biodiversity monitoring are:

https://www.openacousticdevices.info/ https://carbonrewild.com/