While you might think tending to your garden and playing around with gadgets are mutually exclusive pastimes, the two can, in fact, go hand in hand.

Choosing the right gear can help in the backyard, whether it’s a simple soil sensor, a robot that cuts your grass for you or ways to automate watering your lawn.

Some apps can also help your thumbs become greener, too. 

The following are a few ideas to get you started, covering a wide range of needs and prices.

 

Moisture Sensors

 

At just $19, the Suplong Soil Moisture Sensor Meter and its large readable dial can be used for your garden, plants or lawn, to tell you if you’re lacking water or overwatering your soil.

Simply insert the long probe about four inches (about 100mm) into the soil and the sensing probe will instantly do its thing. This doohickey includes watering guidelines for more than 200 plants.

It can be used inside with potted plants, too. No batteries or electricity needed.

 

 

If you want something more techy, the Xiaomi Flower Care Mi Flora Monitor ($42) is a Bluetooth-enabled gizmo that tracks growth of your plants, veggies, or flowers, and provides tips in its companion app, including how to better take care of the species in question.

The real-time sensors read moisture, sunlight, temperature and soil fertility, and can recommend which plants will thrive in specific locations by matching algorithms to a database of more than 5,000 plants and flowers.

 

Weed Whacker on Wheels

 

Hate pulling up weeds? From the inventor of the Roomba, the Tertill Weeding Robot (US$225) runs on solar power and navigates around your garden up to 200 square feet (about 18.5 metres) to kill emerging weeds with its string trimmer (similar to a weed whacker) and specially designed wheels.

No programming or mapping is necessary as it uses height to tell plants from weeds. Plus, it ships with plant and row guards to protect small plants. Push a button and it’ll attack weeds in two to five minute intervals, for one to two hours a day. 

 

 

Watering Solutions

 

For $50, the Diivoo Smart Sprinkler Irrigation Timer lets you control plant watering from anywhere — whether you use the Smartlife app or via your voice with a compatible Alexa or Google smart speaker.

Connect this device to your garden hose — as a kind of middleman between your water supply and sprinkler (sold separately) — and then, using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, you can create watering schedules (when it turns on and off), plus it has an automatic timer with rain delay that lets you postpone watering for one, two or three days. 

It’s ideal for vegetable gardens, flower beds, plants and lawns. 

 

 

Budget permitting, there’s also the new Moen Smart Sprinkler Controller (from $249; for eight zones), which pairs with its Smart Wireless Soil Sensors. Designed to cut down on water use, this solution includes features such as independent zone control and scheduling, automatic weather skip —if it’s raining, it won’t water the grass at that moment, for instance — as notified on the Moen Smart Water App.

Homeowners can save up to 30 per cent more water, more than 56,000 litres annually, compared to clock-based controllers, says the company.

Wireless sensors monitor soil moisture and temperature at varying depths and will automatically adjust watering routines based on a zone’s specific needs.

 

 

Grass Cutting, Too

 

The family of Husqvarna Automowers (from $899) can autonomously cut your grass, but for the first time in Canada the latest model doesn’t require a “boundary wire” to be first installed around the perimeter of the property, or around flowerbeds, gardens and other areas you don’t want cut.

This is possible with the new Automower 450X EPOS ($7,699), the first model relying solely on Husqvarna’s Exact Positioning Operating System, which leverages precise GPS connectivity to stay on your grass, and with custom stay-out zones.

Actually, there are two new models, based on desired cutting height, both for properties up to 2.5 acres (10,000 square metres). It then leaves the tiny grass clippings on top of the lawn (rather than collecting them, which reduces your fertilizer needs and improves your soil, says Husqvarna).

Like its predecessors, it can navigate around obstacles, handle slopes and when it detects its running low on battery power, navigates itself back to the base to charge up and continue the job.

These residential mowers are quiet, too. As quiet as 58 decibels, similar volume as a conversation, says the company, which means you can cut your grass early in the morning or late at night without disrupting your neighbours.

 

 

App It Up

 

Free apps for your smartphone can also help you manage your garden.

A few of our favourites, for both iOS (iPhone/iPad) and Android devices:

• From Seed to Spoon: A comprehensive app for growing and monitoring all kinds of garden delights. A web app is also available for computer users
• GardenTags: A handy app that offers free plant advice from a community of friendly gardeners, along with identification, care tips and tasks
• LeafSnap: It’s all about plant identification. Just snap a photo of the plant, flower or shrub you have questions about and LeafSnap will tell you all about it
• What’s That Flower: A mostly free app that identifies flowers with a photo and lets you filter by colour, habitat, pedals or region
• Gardenize: This app was designed to help you keep track of all the plants in your garden and offer info and tips on caring for them. You can also keep photos and notes here, too

 

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