There are few excuses for letting your garden get out of hand. No-mow May has been and gone, fallow years are really only for arable farmers, and while we'll accept a little wildflower patch to keep the bumblebees happy, the rest is in your hands.
But maybe it doesn't have to be? Employ the right tech and you can get away with putting in the absolute minimum of effort while still keeping that outdoor space utterly up to scratch. We've found 5 smart gardening devices that'll take care of all the boring jobs around your garden for you, from sprinklers to compost systems.
Master the grass with Worx & EcoFlow
Robot mowers have come a long way. At the moment, we think the best robot lawnmower is the Worx Landroid M500 Plus, which can manage a slope up to 35 degrees and cover around 500 square meters; give it a few rounds on your lawn, and it'll start looking perfect.
The even lazier choice, though, might be to pick a mower which doesn't require a perimeter wire. The EcoFlow Blade has us pretty excited, employing a super-sensitive GPS locator to know where it is on your lawn. Setup is about as quick an easy as it can be after you've remote controlled it around the edges of your grass once. Make sure you get the waste collection module, too, and ask someone else to empty it for the ultimate in feet-up lawn maintenance.
Remember the water with Eve
During what are likely to be increasingly parched summer months, giving your plants the water they need (and doing so responsibly, without forgetting to turn off the tap) is an increasingly tedious task. So don't do it: put an Eve Aqua between your outside tap and the hose heading to a cleverly placed sprinkler, and you'll be able to give those blooms a drenching precisely when they need it, without any further input from you.
The newest version of the Eve Aqua, its third generation, even expands its capabilities beyond HomeKit to run on the Matter platform, opening up new possibilities for weather-based automations which ensure you won't be letting the water flow in the middle of a storm.
P.S. Make sure you use your water right by avoiding these common sprinkler mistakes.
Make marvellous mulch with Sage
Dealing with a compost bin – and creating the conditions which result in compost rather than horrible rotted slime – is one of the least pleasant jobs the garden has to offer. If you really want to cook up some nutritious extras to mix with your topsoil, you don't even need to leave the house: the Sage FoodCycler (internationally branded by Vitamix and Breville, so check your local listings) can do it, and it takes the grossness out of your kitchen food waste while it's at it.
Basically, the FoodCycler desiccates whatever waste you put into it, vastly reducing its volume. It then grinds it up into tiny chips, and you get an odourless substance which can (after letting it sit for a few weeks) give your soil a boost of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. It's not a replacement for compost, but it's absolutely a handy extra – and it'll keep the flies out of your bin.
Check out our full experience pulverising scraps with the FoodCycler.
Grow glorious food with Harvst
Greenhouses are great, but they demand a lot of space and a surprising amount of effort to keep them watered and get their temperature right. Smart greenhouses, though? None of that.
Harvst's Sprout range offers a number of sizes and a selection of options which can get you growing all year round, if you're so inclined. They'll automatically ventilate to keep the ideal temperature, drip or spray your plants so they don't dry out, and you can link everything to an app so you can feel like a proper gardener even when sat on your couch. Sounds like a plan to us.
