It’s 2023, and technology has seeped its way into nearly every aspect of our lives. This has made doing regular, monotonous tasks relatively easy and convenient. You might have a Roomba that automatically vacuums your floors while you are at work or a smart doorbell that alerts you when something shady is happening outside your house. However, while smart technologies have been widely adopted into many facets of our daily life, there’s one area that’s yet to fully realize the potential of a smart ecosystem: smart gardening.
There are many levels to domestic gardens. You could have a tiny space allocated on your balcony to house a small family of vegetables, or if you’re like me, you may have an entire area assigned to growing your greens. You could even take it a step further and have your own massive greenhouse. Whatever the case, implementing a smart gardening system can have amazing benefits that will make you wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.
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How to Level Up Your Garden with Smart Gardening
First, let’s get a clear idea about what smart gardening is. I hate to burst your bubble if you’re thinking of a system where an AI gardener tends to all your plants while you do absolutely nothing. We aren’t there yet, but smart gardening essentially bridges the gap between you and your garden to make your and your plants' lives easier.
In a nutshell, smart gardening makes maintaining a garden much more convenient and accessible.
Benefits of Smart Gardening
Now let’s talk about why you should “smartify” your garden. The main benefit of implementing a smart garden is that you can get away with not having green fingers. Moreover, you don’t need to get deep into the technicalities of running an old-school garden if you have a smart system that takes care of the grunt work.
For example, let’s say you have set up a smart irrigation system in your garden. It has been programmed to water your plants regularly or if it senses a lack of moisture in the surrounding soil. Having a system like this greatly reduces the work you have to do and keeps your mind at ease whenever you have to leave town for an extended period of time.
Smart gardens also have huge benefits to the planet as well. If we take our earlier example, a smart irrigation system can guestimate the amount of water the plants need within ounces. So, you can rest easy knowing that your plants are not overwatered or underwatered. Furthermore, you won’t be adding extra chemical fertilizer into the soil, which will end up being washed away and polluting the environment. What’s more, think of how much money you save by not overwatering your plants! If you were to do this manually, you’d always do one or the other; and if you add up the amount of water you save by having a smart irrigation system—you’d feel pretty good about the service you’ve done to the Earth.
Another important benefit to smart gardens is that they make your plants healthier. When you have automated systems that water your plants, regulate the pH of the soil, and fertilize, leaving you with the manual chore of pruning; your garden will begin to thrive with minimal effort – well, sort of. A smart garden can always take care of your plants with a level of consistency that we can’t even hope to match.
While it’s true that your garden won’t die if you don’t care for it with absolute precision, it won’t prosper as much as you hope, either. A smart garden allows your plants to be in the best shape possible and produce a healthy harvest.
Setting Up Your Smart Garden
Before we get into the brass tacks, let’s address some things you need to know before diving into the world of smart gardening systems.
Going out and buying every “smart” gardening tool is… counterintuitive. You must first assess your existing garden and determine which areas can actually benefit from the upgrade. Furthermore, you should also take the size of your garden into account. If your garden is just a few pots on your balcony, you probably don’t need an elaborate smart irrigation system. So, once you have a good idea of which aspects of your garden you want to upgrade, it's time to discuss the budget.
Technology is pricey. Especially niche home automation components like what we’re in need of. If you go picking your smart garden upgrades willy-nilly, your budget can easily balloon out of control. If you’ve actually got the money, great. If not—you might want to take a more careful approach as to how you go about upgrading your garden. My suggestion is that you start small. Select an area in your garden that you want to upgrade, and go from there. This way, you’ll get a feel for how smart you want your garden to be without having to manage an entire platoon of automated systems at once.
This next point might sound a bit contradictory but bear with me. Don’t buy the cheapest devices you can find; even if you’re on a budget (especially if you’re on a budget). While it may be tempting to buy that smart plant monitor that only costs a third of the recommended option—it’s not a wise choice. Most cheap devices have very poor build quality, are inaccurate, and will most definitely break after a few uses. In the end, you’ll have spent more money on replacing cheap devices than you’d have spent on something more expensive!
So always buy a device in a midrange or higher price point, and always, always check for reviews online. As I mentioned earlier, don’t worry about covering your entire garden in one go, start small, and you’ll have a much easier time upgrading.
Choosing Technology To Help You Create A Smart Garden?”
Now that you have a budget allocated and an idea of how you want to upgrade your garden let’s look at some tools you can get to make a smart garden.
Smart Sprinklers: This is probably one of the biggest game changers when it comes to making a smart garden. A proper smart sprinkler will have scheduled irrigation patterns, leak detection, and alert systems, automatic water-saving measures, and adjustments for changes in the weather. With a good smart sprinkler in your gardening arsenal, say goodbye to standing around in harsh weather while you hose down your plants. The cherry on top is that most smart sprinklers can even be controlled from your phone! If you have an irrigation system with zones, I recommend exploring the Rachio 3 Bundle. If you are using your house's outdoor water outlet, I recommend the Orbit 21004 B-hyve Smart Hose Faucet Timer with Wi-Fi Hub, Compatible with Alexa
Plant Monitors: In my opinion, checking on your plants individually to see if they’re progressing well is one of the most tedious aspects of gardening. With a smart plant monitor, you can track moisture levels, humidity, lighting conditions, and even soil pH balance.
Expandable Pots: These are really handy if you have plants that undergo drastic changes in size throughout their lives. Expandable pots can gradually get bigger with your plant, meaning you won’t have to trouble yourself with repotting.
Smart Lawnmowers: a smart lawnmower is basically a Roomba for your lawn. It will travel around your lawn/garden, ensuring the grass stays trimmed while avoiding obstacles. If you have a bigger garden with a lawn, this is a cool tool that will save time.
Home Automation Apps: The thing that ties all the aspects of smart home automation (including gardening) is the app used to control everything. When it comes to smart gardens, you have a whole host of different apps at your disposal; there’s the standard home automation stuff from Google, Apple, and Amazon, as well as proprietary apps from manufacturers that only support their devices such as plant monitors and irrigation systems. There are also DIY apps that utilize IoT systems that let you run an open-source smart garden. I’ll go into details on such systems in a later post.
What Are Indoor Smart Gardens?
Smart indoor gardens have been popular in recent years, and it seems like almost everyone has one at this point. But what exactly are they? And why are they so popular?
For the uninitiated, an indoor smart garden is essentially a micro greenhouse that lets you grow fresh produce all year round. It comes with built-in irrigation, lighting, and monitoring systems which means that you really don’t have to do much aside from the initial setup. Most of them even come with pre-seeded plant pods! Moreover, most indoor smart gardens even have specific settings that adjust their conditions to accommodate fruits, vegetables, and flowers.
Indoor smart gardens can act as great entry points for anyone wanting to get into gardening, their hands-off approach to growing plants takes the edge off for anyone without any gardening experience. Moreover, even if you’re a seasoned gardener, an indoor smart garden can be a great way to dip your toes into the world of smart gardening before upgrading your main garden.
One of the best parts about indoor smart gardens is their size. The most popular ones can easily fit on a kitchen countertop (there are also larger models that can fit many more plants). They also come in handy during the winter if you want to grow a patch of basil right in your kitchen without needing to step outside whenever you need to make a salad.
While they can vary in price, indoor smart gardens are generally costly. The good thing is that almost all the indoor gardens out there look really cool and will blend in well with your home décor. Here are some of the best indoor gardens you can buy:
Click & Grow Smart Garden 9 PRO
The Click & Grow Smart Garden 9 PRO is easily the most well-rounded indoor smart garden we found. This is the complete package with nine seed pods, an extendable LED arm up to 23.2 inches (although you have to buy it separately), and a smart irrigation system.
The irrigation system is particularly impressive on the Smart Garden 9. It holds 1 gallon of water in its tank, which will last you about three weeks! The system also monitors the moisture content of the soil and adjusts accordingly– it even keeps track of nutrient levels. What sets this irrigation system apart is the fact that it uses Capillary Precision Irrigation or CPI. Most other smart gardens use hydroponic systems, and the difference is palpable. A CPI system allows for granular control of the moisture content in soil by deploying water and other nutrients at specific intervals best fitting for the plants.
The Smart Garden 9 PRO also has LED grow lights that can be set on and off with sunlight. You can also adjust the lights using the app or simply by using hand gestures.
At $290, the Click & Grow Smart Garden 9 PRO offers a lot of versatility and convenience, as well as ample seed pods to grow your own mini herb garden right in your kitchen.
Rise Gardens Single Family Garden
If you’re looking for something bigger, Rise Gardens has covered you with their Single Family indoor smart garden.
This is quite bigger than the Smart Garden 9 PRO, with a footprint around the size of a large bookshelf. But the garden uses its extra volume splendidly. It has space for over a dozen plants and comes with 16 seed pods, including basil, sage, and cherry tomatoes. There’s plenty of space between the garden bed and the LED panel to allow your plants to reach their full height—no extension arms are needed! What’s more, the larger footprint of the garden bed means that your plants will be less cramped, allowing them to flourish much better.
Rise Gardens also includes plant food, which contains various additives and nutrients that regulates the water's pH. There’s also a separate seed “nursery” that you can use to grow your seedlings in before transferring them to the main garden.
The build quality of the garden is also quite nice, with a metal and wood construction for the garden bed and wooden beams supporting the LED panel on top. Once you’ve set up the garden, a process that should only take about an hour or two, you can start logging into the Rise app and begin monitoring your plants. The ease of use of an indoor smart garden of this size is a big plus, especially considering the large harvest you will enjoy a few months down the road.
The Rise Gardens Single Family Garden costs $679, which is quite hefty—given that you can build an even bigger outdoor smart garden for a fraction of the price. But this is definitely a worthy buy for anyone who wants a well-rounded indoor garden that’s not just a glorified salad bar.
VIVOSUN Z206 Wi-Fi Control Smart Garden
Now let’s take a look at a more budget offering. Not everyone can or is willing to splurge hundreds of dollars on an indoor smart garden, I get it. If you’re a gardener who’s balling on a budget and wants to satiate your curiosity towards indoor smart gardens, VIVOSUN is your best bet.
At $90, the Z206 smart garden has many features that the big boys offer without the exorbitant price tag. It’s got a 21-watt LED arm that can extend to a height of up to 21.3 inches, built-in fans that can keep insects away, and a large 7-liter water tank that can last over a month. Since it’s aimed towards a budget crowd, the Z205 uses a hydroponics system for irrigation, which in my opinion, is quite clunky compared to the Capillary Precision Irrigation systems of the more premium smart gardens. The Z206’s water tank also has a see-through section to check the water level, which you can do using the app.
That’s right; the Z206 smart garden has a full-fledged app that uses Wi-Fi to provide readouts on your garden. VIVOSUN offers a pretty comprehensive feature set for the price, but keep in mind that its build quality, ease of use, and life span won’t be as good as its pricier competitors.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a smart garden worth it?
Absolutely. Regardless of whether you’re looking for an indoor smart garden or a more elaborate outdoor one, smart gardens elevate the gardening experience to a whole new level. You can harvest way more than you would by traditional gardening methods, all while keeping your plants healthier and being a lesser burden on the planet!
How much electricity does an indoor smart garden use?
It depends on the model of the garden you buy. Smaller smart gardens use very little for their LED panels (5 to 6 watts), while larger smart gardens can use upwards of 25 watts.
How often should I water my smart garden?
You don’t have to “water” smart gardens in the traditional sense. The built-in water tanks take care of the irrigation independently, according to the patterns you have set (or the ones determined by the plant monitoring systems). However, you have to refill the water tanks once the water depletes, which usually takes two weeks to a month.
Conclusion
In conclusion, upgrading your garden with smart technologies can bring numerous benefits, from improved plant health and water efficiency to reduced labor and waste. Investing in technologies such as drip irrigation systems, smart sprinkler controllers, soil sensors, and plant monitoring systems can take your garden to the next level and achieve more sustainable, productive, and enjoyable gardening experiences. Whether you are a seasoned gardener or a novice, there is a smart gardening solution that can help you reach your goals and optimize your resources. So why not try smart gardening and see the difference it can make for you and your plants?
