{"id":1234481,"date":"2025-02-24T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T15:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1234481"},"modified":"2025-02-24T10:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T15:30:00","slug":"heres-all-the-tech-i-use-to-grow-a-better-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1234481","title":{"rendered":"Here’s All the Tech I Use to Grow a Better Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"
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We may earn a commission from links on this page.<\/p>\n

Gardening season is approaching faster than it might seem, and like a lot of modern gardeners, I get an assist from technology every year. I use tech to help raise seeds into seedlings, plant them outside, produce a harvest, and<\/em> still have a whole life outside of the garden.\u00a0From weather stations and soil monitors to apps and calendars, here’s all the tech I’m dusting off right now to start getting ready.<\/p>\n

A weather station<\/h2>\n

It begins with the basics. I have a Tempest weather station in my front yard, and a few smart temperature gauges in the backyard. Although you can easily pull weather information from a local weather station (you\u2019d be surprised how many neighbors have them; locate them at Weather Underground<\/u><\/a>), I still find it incredibly helpful to know the real microclimate of my yard. I know when rain, hail, snow is going to hit, and the actual temperature at any time, whether I\u2019m at home or away. For outdoor temperature monitoring, I\u2019ve yet to find sensors that are as hardy as the Aqara<\/u><\/a> or Switchbot<\/u><\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Soil monitors<\/h2>\n

The temperature outside is important for planting, since you shouldn\u2019t place plants outside until the overnight temps are stable above fifty degrees, but soil temperature is just as important. There\u2019s never been great soil sensors before now, but this year I\u2019m trying the ThirdReality Smart Soil Sensor<\/u><\/a> in a few locations.\u00a0 I\u2019m also excited to try the new Moen soil sensors<\/u><\/a>. <\/p>\n

Not only are the sensors going to tell me when my soil is warm enough for planting, they can give important humidity data to my smart watering system\u2014I\u2019ve used a Hydrawise<\/u><\/a> for three seasons and I\u2019m incredibly happy with it. Hydrawise looks and acts like a normal drip or sprinkler control, but it has a wifi module that will connect to your phone and a local weather station and it uses the data to decide whether to water that day, and how much. It’s great to be able to control my drip system from my phone, and get detailed reports on how much water was used.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Garden apps<\/h2>\n

That\u2019s all helpful to know when to plant, but I start seeds inside, and I use a bucket of different tech tools to help. First, there\u2019s the planning stage. You don\u2019t start all your seeds at once, you seed so the seedlings they produce are ready at about the time they can go out into the ground outside. Keeping track of what to plant when can be overwhelming, so I use Seedtime<\/u><\/a> to create a planting calendar\u2014its app and desktop interface are incredibly helpful..\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\n \"A\n <\/div>\n
\n A seedsheet in excel, and the trays they represent<\/span>
\n Credit: Amanda Blum<\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

The seed trays themselves hold 50, 72, or 128 seedlings, and you don\u2019t put a label marker into each cell, which would be time consuming. I use a method taught to me by Meg Cowden of Seed to Fork<\/u><\/a>, and use Google Spreadsheets to keep track of what is in each tray. The trays are numbered and marked with a front and back, and the spreadsheet details what is in each cell of the tray. When I go to plant, I bring my phone with me, or sometimes I print out a sheet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Automations and controllers<\/h2>\n

I\u2019ve discussed at some length how I plant seeds<\/u><\/a> and what I use<\/u><\/a>, but I rely on technology to ensure I\u2019m keeping my seedlings on track. For instance, seedling heat mats ensure the soil in the trays is warm enough for seeds to germinate, but you need to control that heat because if the temperature gets too high, seeds get baked. I use an Inkbird controller<\/u><\/a> to do so. It includes a probe to put into the soil, and then from your phone (or the controller), you specify a temperature range. The controller will turn the heat mat on and off to ensure it maintains the right temperature.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also learned (the hard way) that too much humidity can lead to viruses and other problems in my seed-starting room, so with an Aqara temperature and humidity sensor, I use a Google Home automation to kick on the overhead fan when humidity gets too high. The fan\u2019s air benefits the plants, too, which form stronger stems with a breeze.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Calendars, voice assistants and reminders<\/h2>\n

Outside, the Monty compost monitor<\/u><\/a> reminds me to turn over my compost occasionally when the worms aren\u2019t doing their job. It sends notifications to update me on the status of my compost, which is quite helpful. Truly, reminders are the key to much of my garden success. I have an entire Google calendar that is solely for garden reminders, such as when to plant specific seeds outside, check on plants, or put trellises up. Those reminders stream to my Google Nest speakers and my voice assistant will speak up to let me know if I forgot something.\u00a0Most importantly, the calendar can be repurposed year to year. <\/p>\n

Security cameras <\/h2>\n

I\u2019ve been surprised how much I engage my smart cameras around the yard; yes, they catch critters who can cause damage (I\u2019m particularly aware of neighborhood cats setting up in my garden this year, due to their ability to transmit bird flu), but it\u2019s even helpful during a storm to check on how some fragile plants are doing. I\u2019m excited to test the new Petal <\/u><\/a>cameras coming from Bird Buddy, which use solar power and are installed at plant level. They use AI to report how your plants are faring. I hope to use these to capture weekly updates<\/u><\/a> of my yard from the camera\u2019s positions. I use these photos in wintertime, to decide what to plant each year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Gardening season is approaching faster than it might seem, and like a lot of modern gardeners, I get an assist from technology every year. I use tech to help raise … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1234481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifehacker","category-unfiltered-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1234481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1234481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1234481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1234481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}