Gadgetory

we're out here celebrating the start of spring by taking a closer look at smart garden tech and how it's evolved over the past couple of years so without further ado here's the state of the smart garden let's start with plant sensors as a category as of March 2018 plant sensors are trending down I thought this category would be the darling of the smart garden they're relatively cheap 60 bucks 100 bucks anyone can use them you can stick them in your indoor garden your outdoor garden for a potted plant for a one but a lot of the big-name plant sensors I've reviewed like the parrot flower power and the Eden Garden sensor are no longer available so what the heck happened to this once-promising category well they kind of got caught in the middle they didn't give enough details for experts and for beginners they cost probably still a little bit too much now let's talk about robot lawn mowers as of right now robot lawn mowers are holding steady they used to be very expensive and tedious to set up as of right now they're very expensive and tedious to set up they are taking off a little bit more in Europe and companies around here are adding technology like GPS to robot lawn mowers so we may see a leap and then hopefully as this category grows you start getting options that are a little bit more accessible as of right now it's still cool it's still promising but it hasn't really fully matured as a category next let's talk about smart weather monitors I thought these things were way too niche to survive and especially now that smart plant sensors are dying off but as it turns out smart weather monitors are holding steady they were a niche product they're still a niche product but people that are really interested in hyper local weather data are still very interested in and we are seeing some improvements more and more the smart weather monitors are working with other smart home gadgets like your Amazon echo or your Google home so there's still niche but they're actually getting a little better lastly smart sprinklers again these things didn't used to excite me as much as plant sensors because you an in-ground sprinkler system to make use of the product and there are a hundred to two hundred dollars at least but believe it or not smart sprinklers are trending up as it turns out if you already have an in-ground sprinkler system getting a smart sprinkler is a really good option these things watch the weather for you they set your sprinkler schedule for you and they make controlling your sprinklers a whole lot easier and as a result these things are spreading more and more companies are offering them they're getting more and more feature-rich and demand continues to grow I talked to a few smart sprinkler companies and people are replacing their old dumb sprinkler controllers for smart options even when the old ones are still working so because smart sprinklers are kind of a no-brainer upgrade they as a category are taking off so will continue to keep an eye on these categories as they grow and evolve and we'll put them to the test here at the scene at smart home to see which ones can help us make our own garden grow