These Smart Devices Can Transform Your Garden
Gardening has been proven to be good for your physical and mental health. There’s sunshine, exercise and fresh fruits and vegetables. However, gardening can be time- consuming, and smart devices can take some of the burden off your gardening responsibilities, leaving you free to do what you truly enjoy. These devices don’t just free up time – they can often provide you with valuable data, meaning you can be more specific about your garden’s needs. There are plenty of new products on the market this year that can make outdoor living a little smarter.
Compost monitors can make composting easier to understand
At a basic level, composting is simply the accumulation of organic waste; If the ratio of nitrogen and carbon is approximately the same and there is enough heat, compost is obtained. Sometimes worms contribute to this. However, the market for composting devices is huge, and I think most people still just throw organic materials in there and cross their fingers. A device like Monty , which was just released in the States, can help make things less confusing. Monty looks like a smart probe; you stick it on top of the compost pile and then connect it to the Monty app. I have found that Monty only really works when the compost heap is open and not in the compost bin. Once Bluetooth is connected, Monty will let you know the status of your compost and how to fix anything that’s going wrong.
Smart weather stations provide hyperlocal weather data
You can, of course, get the weather forecast from your local newspaper or Weather.com , and you might get lucky and have an official weather station relatively close to you. But if you live a little further from the airport where these stations are usually located, the weather won’t be very accurate. Most people don’t know (I certainly didn’t) that there is a vast network of private weather stations. You can access this network if you have a device that uses weather data, such as a smart sprinkler system. I found a station a block away and such hyperlocal information about when it started raining and how strong the wind was really set up my irrigation system. I really wanted to try it out for myself, so I added Tempest this year. Installation took less than a minute and I attached it to the top of the fence. I get alerts when it starts to rain and what the wind looks like, a very accurate heat index, air quality readings and more. An added benefit was that if you sync it with Wunderground , which is easy to do, you’ll get ad-free access to Wunderground.
Wireless soil sensors make precise watering possible
Soil sensors are complicated things. The environment (humid, dirty) makes it difficult to maintain sensor accuracy over time. Even smart sprinkler systems usually require underground wiring to the sensors, which means digging. There are several brands that make wireless sensors, which means you can measure hydration levels in different areas of your garden throughout your yard and adjust your watering accordingly.
Wireless soil sensors worth trying:
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ECOWITT WH51 Soil Moisture Sensor , $22.99
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Moen Smart Wireless Soil Sensor , $69.99
Let the robots do the dirty work
Just as a robot vacuum cleaner roams the ground looking for trash, there are robots that roam your garden looking for weeds, namely Tertill . As much as I love smart technology, my main problem with Tertill is that it requires a lot of space between plants, which I don’t have. However, if you maintain a pristine and spacious garden, then having a robot to do the weeding sounds fantastic. Farmbot takes it one step further and automates absolutely everything. The robot on the track constantly runs around the top of the garden, analyzing what is growing using “Farmduino”, a modified Arduino running in an open-source language. It measures soil moisture, nutrients, even soil height, as well as the health of your plants and weeds. It can be attached to almost any raised bed and requires no programming knowledge. I haven’t tried it and after seeing it a few times on social media I was skeptical. However, looking at the documentation, I think it can provide accessibility as well as help people learn about gardening. Although this idea is not feasible for a home user on a large scale due to cost, it is great.
Robotic lawnmowers work better than I expected
Although grass lawns are terrible for the planet , your soil, native beneficial insects, and the water table, people still have them. Robotic lawnmowers are a fast-growing vertical, and after testing a few of them over the past few months, I was surprised at how effective they actually are. They’re expensive, but if you assume you mow as much as you vacuum, the price starts to make sense.
Robotic lawnmowers worth considering:
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Mammotion Luba 2 starts at $1,899.
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Segway Navimow from $999.00.