High-tech summer: Garden gadgets to get the most out of the outdoor life

Summer is here, in as much as Irish summers ever are. With that in mind, we have been looking at the tech essentials to help keep your garden — both indoor and out — in tip-top condition and ready for entertaining in the next few months.

Plant life

Has anyone managed to keep a basil plant alive for more than a few months in their kitchen? If so, we’d like to know the secret, because after that ours give up the ghost.

Tech may have the answer to our kitchen garden woes, however, with an array of automatic planters and watering systems that should be enough to keep even the most delicate of herbs going for a decent length of time.

The Veritable Smart Garden (€250) is one way to make sure that your plants manage to make it through the summer. Not only will it automatically water and feed your herbs, it also uses a specially tuned LED to help your edible plants grow. It has a reservoir of water you fill occasionally, and the plants themselves are grown in special lingots that contain organic seeds, soil and the necessary nutrients. There are more than 70 varieties of plants you can grow in the smart garden from these lingots, from herbs and edible flowers to baby herb salads and vegetables.

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It doesn’t even need natural light to grow the plants; the LED has been specially tuned to colours that promote quick growth of plants. That said, it will need to be near a power supply. The light is automatically controlled and stays on for 16 hours a day to imitate the natural daylight cycle.

If you want something a little cheaper but equally effective, the Botanium system (€60) offers another option. Like the smart garden, it is self-watering, so you don’t have to worry about killing your plants through neglect. There isn’t a built in light, but you can achieve a similar effect by placing it under an LED bulb, and all you need to do is occasionally remember to drop some of the Botanium liquid nutrients into the plant. It has its own growth medium, so no soil-borne pests or problems to worry about either.

The benefit of both these systems is that with a bit of light, you can use them for growing plants all year round — you won’t be limited only to summer.

Garden care

There’s a lot to be said for robot lawnmowers. Not only can you put your feet up and watch the mower get to work while you relax, but they can actually help your lawn’s health, too.

That’s because the robots leave all the clippings on the grass to act as a fertiliser or lawn feed. The grass doesn’t get long enough to leave any visible clippings behind, and the small amount that’s there will feed your lawn, making it healthier over a period of months and improving its overall quality. That also means you don’t have to deal with large piles of grass when you are done.

They’re also relatively quiet as they work, so there will be no disturbing the neighbours at an ungodly hour when you decide it’s time to cut the grass. You can set the mowers on a schedule and let them go.

They aren’t perfect, though. For a start, you’ll still have some areas of your garden you’ll have to sort out yourself — such as edges around flower beds, around garden furniture or sheds, areas the mower can’t fit into, for example.

That’s because the devices usually require the installation of guide wires in your lawn to tell your mower where it can go — and where it can’t — and the robots will only go a certain distance past those wires.

You will also have to fish the robot mower out of your flower beds occasionally, or off a child’s toy or two when it gets stuck. If your garden has some treacherous slopes, the mowers might struggle too.

If the idea of getting an army of robots to do your bidding appeals, there are plenty of options out there, depending on your budget. Husqvarna is an expert in this field, with the Automower range offering devices that will mow everything from your garden lawn to a football pitch.

You may not need enough range for a football pitch, but the Husqvarna Automower 405x (€2,110) will sort out a decent-sized lawn, and then return to its base to charge before starting again. The Husqvarna range also uses GPS for navigation and security. If someone picks up the mower, not only will it trigger the security alarm, but you will get an alert on your phone and you will be able to track the mower’s location.

A slightly cheaper option, depending on the size of your lawn, is the Flymo Easilife. This can handle lawns from 200sq m to 500sq m, and has all the main advantages of the Husqvarna, such as app control and pin protection for your security. In fact, Flymo is part of the Husqvarana group, so you are getting all the knowledge of the robot experts for a cheaper price.

Other manufacturers offering robot mowers include Bosch and Hyundai, although there are a lot of smaller, less-well-known brands getting in on it too.

Outdoor eating

Irish summers may not always be the best for outdoor eating, but if the past couple of Covid-riddled years has taught us anything, it’s that it’s good to get out in the fresh air. So why not dust off the trusty barbecue and get cooking?

Not all of us are particularly skilled in this respect, though, so any extra help is welcome. Barbecue expert Weber has developed a series of smart grills that will help you get the perfect steak or chicken every time. The technology is built right into the grill, with a display for temperature so you can watch the cooking temperature, and alerts sent to the smartphone app to tell you to turn the steak or remove the chicken from the heat.

The Weber Spirit EPX-325S is the gas-fired version, starting at €1,153, but you can also get a wood-pellet barbecue with the technology built in.

They’re not cheap, although no Weber barbecue is, whether smart or not. The gas-fired Genesis EX-335 will set you back €2,099, although the Genesis II EX-315 GBS Smart Barbecue is a more palatable €1,299.

If you already have a barbecue or don’t want to spend that much money on something that will lie idle for six or seven months of the year — depending on your commitment — you can pick up sensors that will help guide you through the cooking process. The Weber Connect Smart Grilling Hub (€168), for example, will prompt you to grill, flip and remove your burgers and steaks from the heat. The hand-held device has two elements: the hardware, which comes with two probes — one for the meat and one for the ambient temperature in the grill — and the app, which directs you through cooking. You can use it with any barbecue, or even in the kitchen indoors.

Outdoor audio

No gathering is complete without some music. Choose your speakers carefully, as you want something that will cope with the odd turn the Irish weather can take — in other words, it should be waterproof — and perhaps a bit of sun without disintegrating. If it will be a more permanent outdoor feature, you also want something that will blend in with the surroundings.

The Kitsound Diggit Outdoor Speaker (€50) will work both indoors and out. It is waterproof, with an IP55 rating for water and dust. It also comes with a removable anchor so you can secure it in the garden, or the sand if you are at the beach. The wood look gives it a more natural feel so it will blend in outdoors and also look good on your shelf.

An Irish-made option is the OneSonic Quattro (€220). It’s IPX6 rated, so will withstand a stream of water, but has no dust rating. It’s sturdy, too, and provides some powerful audio. On a full charge you will get 12 hours of playing time. And in an emergency, you can also use the speaker as a powerbank to charge your mobile devices.