A Guide to Smart Gardening

As spring rapidly approaches in the northern hemisphere, our thoughts return to the garden—and how to produce maximum bloom at minimal manual labor.

Below are a few gadgets that will get your garden green without turning your fingernails brown.

Edyn

"Forewarned is forearmed" is solid advice, and the philosophy behind Edyn, a smart sensor that will keep you in the know on how your garden grows. Simply stick the Edyn in your soil and the device will track current conditions (light, moisture, humidity, nutrition), cross-reference that data with meteorological information about your region, and provide you with advice and insight tailored to your specific garden, including what fertilizer to use or what plants would thrive in your dirt. When paired with the Edyn Smart Valve sensor, the system will work in conjunction with all the collected soil information to automatically water your garden, ensuring that your soil is never over- or under-watered.

The Edyn Garden Sensor is available for $99. The Edyn Water Valve is available for $59.

Rachio

For the expansive—or sensorless—garden, Rachio provides automated and intelligent watering that integrates with your existing irrigation system. In addition to offering sprinkling on demand, via a smartphone-based app, the Rachio provides a customized watering routine that accounts for plant type, soil type, sun exposure, topography and more. Not only will this watering schedule be automated, but it will adjust on the fly as Rachio coordinates with a vast network of weather stations and alters irrigation depending on the forecast.

The Rachio is available for $199 to $279, depending on system generation and additional features.

Tertill

A good garden needs a strong defense against weeds but the vigilance necessary is enough to drive even the most dedicated gardener into a more indoor activity. Fortunately, there’s now a better way. The Tertill is a solar-powered robot from the creator of the Roomba that automatically patrols your garden, cutting weeds that sprout, via a wacker-like cord, and keeping other invasive plants from even getting that far by crushing them with purposefully designed wheels. Best of all, Tertill does all this while leaving your garden’s desired plants alone by picking its victims based on growth height.

The Tertill is available now for pre-order for $249, with expected delivery in May 2018.

ScareCrow

Rogue flora is not the only impediment to a healthy garden—invasive fauna can also keep your plants from reaching potential. Be it a bird, rabbit, deer, skunk or squirrel, a woodland pet can become a woodland pest when it comes to your garden. ScareCrow keeps intruders away via automated intelligence, establishing something like a tower-defense around their plots. Users simply place the pillar-like ScareCrow pointing outward from the plants they wish to protect and the device takes care of the rest. When an animal hoves into the ScareCrow’s range of vision (a 1,200-square-foot area), the motion-activated monitor will automatically spray a short burst of water, freaking out the forest critter and sending it back from whence it came. Best of all, no one, plant or animal, gets hurt.

The ScareCrow is available for $49 per stake.