Smarten up your garden . . . the hi-tech way
SPRing is in the air. Blackthorn and primroses are abundant in the hedgerows, cherry blossoms and magnolia trees are bringing joy to residential streets. Millions of amateur gardeners are dusting down their secateurs and hitting their garden centres. B&Q, the retailer which has enjoyed a boom in sales during Covid, says that sprucing up the garden has become consumers’ number one priority when it comes to home improvements in 2021.
But one trend has really taken off in the past couple of years: smart-tech in the garden. There are lawnmowers that can be controlled from a swipe of your smartphone’s screen — even when you are on holiday. There are digital weather stations, ‘smart’ garden lights and bird feeders that can send images of the goldfinches straight to your phone.
‘i think using technology to help you identify and bring knowledge of the natural world is brilliant,’ says Richard Freedman, managing director of gardenature, which has sold ‘thousands more’ of his bird feeders with hidden cameras since lockdown.
and clever gadgets can help nervous gardeners take their first step, according to Martin laidla at Click & grow. The company makes ‘smart gardens’, which are like the nespresso machines of veg patches — pop in a pod of seeds already mixed into soil, add water, plug in and wait for your tomatoes to grow.
so, which smart garden devices can help you become the next alan Titchmarsh, and which will you want to throw on the compost heap?
MOWER MAGIC Bosch Indego S+ 500, £779, myrobotcenter.com
WelCOMe to the future! This Bosch lawnmower can cut your grass while you enjoy a beer in the kitchen, or even while you are on holiday — it only trundles out of its docking station when the weather forecast predicts it will not rain.
like a normal lawnmower, it cuts the grass using blades, leaving the cuttings on the lawn. Once it finishes, it drives itself back to the docking station to recharge. it is very, very clever.
But it’s not cheap and it did take a full afternoon to set up, involving burying a wire along the perimeter of my lawn, which ensures it knows where to go.
in truth, it’s more suited to lovely, smooth croquet lawns, not bumpy, dandelion infested scruffy patches like mine. still, it is a genuine case of technology making your life better. 4/5
TAKE A RAIN CHECK Netatmo Smart Home Weather Station, £129.99, amazon.co.uk
THe size of a toothpaste tube, you place this in a sheltered spot in the garden and it will send details of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure and forecasts to an app on your phone.
it’s pretty slick and accurate — but it is expensive. This is only for serious weather nuts, who want a hyper-localised forecast. Then again, given we’re now outdoor entertaining in March, it might well be just thing! 3/5
GET A HANDLE ON THE WASH
The Kärcher K 7 Premium Smart Control Home pressure washer (pictured above), £529, johnlewis.com THis is an easy to use, versatile and very powerful power washer. Karcher says you can control it from an app on your phone. But i wondered why i’d dig my phone out of my pocket when i could control the power perfectly well from the buttons on the washer’s handle. 2.5/5
LIGHT IT UP
Philips Hue outdoor 5m shape light, £169.99, johnlewis.com ‘OOH, fancy!’ cooed my nineyear-old, as he played with the app on my phone, changing the colour of the light that snaked through the lavender bush. The thickness of a hosepipe, you can roll it up and place in the undergrowth, run it along a wall, or wrap around a tree.
You plug it in and can control it from an app on your phone, choosing endless different colours. You can even get it to change colour in time to the music you are playing. You can also buy lights (right) that you can stake into soil. all are waterproof and have sturdy, thick (hopefully fox-proof) wires.
The set up is easy, but does require a £40 Hue control panel. But the atmosphere it creates and the ease of use is very impressive. 5/5
WATCH THE BIRDIE
Bird Feeder Camera, £114.95, gardenature.co.uk WanT to watch blue tits and goldfinches in your garden, right up close? This is an elegant, simple bird feeder (left) with a HD camera embedded, and positioned so that you can watch any bird on your television or computer. The set is fairly simple but does require you to run a wire from the feeder back into the house to plug directly into your TV or monitor. 4/5
GROW YOUR OWN The Smart Garden 9, £172, clickandgrow.com
THis is the iPhone of veg-growing: stylish, easy to set up, and pretty expensive. it is aimed at people who love the idea of growing vegetables, but either don’t have the space in their garden, or the confidence to let nature and slugs take their course. it comes with nine little plant plugs — basil, tomato, lettuce — that you slot into pots, which then sit in a basin of water, which you only need to fill up once every four weeks (there’s an indicator telling you when). Plug it in and the plants get the right amount of UV light (from a strip above) to ensure they sprout. Clever, slick and, crucially, it works — all my plants sprouted within five days. 5/5