Smart gardens: outdoor automation

We’re used to smart gadgets by now, ranging from phones and televisions to even kitchens and entire homes, but have you heard of ‘smart gardens’?

Modern technology has reached beyond the house to include its outdoor areas, all designed to increase comfort, convenience, safety and of course energy efficiency and the sensible use of natural resources. Here are some of the devices that are transforming modern gardens.

 

 

Weather sensors

If you love your garden and its fragrant, colourful plants, trees and flowers, then weather sensors give a helping hand in assuring your own personal green zone is as beautiful and healthy as it can be. Weather sensors linked to meteorological stations monitor wind, rainfall and temperature to give you the kind of advance warning that helps you make the best decisions in terms of not watering when it’s about to rain, sheltering or covering terraces and more vulnerable parts of your garden in advance of storms and strong wind gusts (reducing damage and breakage), and also assisting in getting the timing for sprinkling, seeding and weeding just right.

 

Automated lawn mowers and smart sprinklers

We’re familiar with automated timer-operated irrigation systems, but now this kind of technology has been upgraded to smart level, with sprinklers that can be controlled from your preferred device, say a smart phone, even when you’re not at home or in a different part of the world. It cuts down on labour (yours or that of a gardener) by ensuring that you can respond to weather conditions or seasons, and manually update the timer settings, or override them completely. It won’t be long before our sprinkler systems will be capable of responding autonomously to sensor-provided information about air humidity, pressure, temperature, precipitation and wind conditions to optimise the timing and use of watering.

Similar but perhaps even better news for those who don’t look forward to classic chores such as mowing the lawn is the onset of the automated lawn mower. Essentially a robotic device much like that beginning to gain traction within the home, it uses sensors to literally cut a path across your lawn and keep it neat and trim. With the right settings, you can even create the kind of pretty patterns usually reserved for professional football pitches – leaving you free to admire this electrically charged, noise and petrol fume-free beauty of modern technology without getting your hands dirty.

 

Outdoor lighting and entertainment

Again, the indoor revolution in lighting is mirrored in a similar explosion of possibilities and efficiencies in the outdoor parts of your property. This means especially adaptable colours, tones and levels of lighting and luminosity that suits a particular area or occasion. It’s fully adaptable and can be controlled from your smart device, meaning that a pathway or backyard pool area usually enjoying soft, ambient lighting can be made brighter and even warm up the party mood with colourful lights that dance in tune with the music when you’re aiming for fun entertainment. What’s more, smart lights can come on without you even being at home, take many different forms, sizes and can be placed in water if you like. Not only energy efficient but in many cases even solar powered.

Remember how the Kindle made reading out in the sun a possibility for those who love their electronic devices? Well, there are now clever televisions and projectors that allow you to watch TV outdoors, and in the sun. It’s the perfect combination of barbecue, cocktail, poolside fun combined with movies, sports and children’s programmes, and thanks to weather-proof Bluetooth speakers the sound is right there, all around you, just like in your home cinema. Of course, you’ll probably be using the latest smart grill, BBQ or smoker to do the cooking while you focus on entertaining your guests and having fun.

 

 

Smart gardens prove that there is much more to today’s gardens than simply landscaping and keeping your natural green zones and flowerbeds in tip-top condition, so contact the La Menara team for any questions you have about green fingers, outdoor renovation/construction projects and the latest electronics in gardens.