6 Tips for a Smarter Garden
With many of us spending more time in our gardens recently and summer (hopefully) just around the corner, we thought we’d share 6 tips for transforming any garden into a smart garden.
Tip #1: Intelligent Irrigation
Let’s be honest, most of us don’t water our gardens as often as we probably should. Think back to the summer of 2018, green grass became somewhat of a commodity due to the lack of rain. However, an intelligent irrigation system could have helped prevent this. Loxone can help you forgo the hosepipe in favour of a less manual irrigation system – allowing you to automate sprinklers according to a schedule, or according to the weather forecast.
Tip #2: Water Tank Monitoring
One popular way of remaining environmentally friendly is to use a tank to collect rainwater; then on days without rain to use this to water the garden. Normally there is no way to know how much water has been stored in the tank other than manually looking. However, with Loxone, intelligent monitoring can quickly and easily be implemented so that you’ll always know how much water is stored. If you have a pump, this can also be automated so that it’s only turned on if there is a predefined amount of water in the tank.
Tip #3: Mood Lighting
Smart lighting is no longer something that should only be considered indoors. Lighting is one of the most distinct ways to bring a garden to life – the right lighting can take a garden from special to spectacular. This can, of course, be automated so that atmospheric lighting only comes on when it gets dark.
The great things about gardens is that lighting can be implemented in a wide variety of areas. So regardless of the shape or size of the garden, there will almost always be an opportunity to add some smart lighting – whether that’s along paths, on the exterior walls of the house, uplights placed in the ground or even in and around a swimming pool.Â
Pro-Tip: In our “Smart outdoor lighting” Use Case you can find out exactly how to implement mood lighting in a garden.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words – so here are a few examples of smart garden lighting:
Credit (c) Hufsky Photography
Tip #4: Perfect sound in the gardenÂ
In the UK when our few weeks of summer finally arrive, we love to have BBQs, gatherings or simply like spend some quality time in our gardens. However, often getting the music to play quickly and easily is a sticking point. However, we recommend simply adding the garden as a music zone for your house. This will allow you to nip to the kitchen to grab another drink without missing a beat since you can set up your music to play in two places at once or to ‘follow’ you as you move between areas in your home.
Also, if you are having a party or BBQ in the garden, there’s no need to worry about missing a guest or a delivery at the front door. With Loxone, you can play a doorbell sound through your garden-based speakers.
Tip #5: Automatic Shading
In gardens without natural sources of shading, it’s important to still have some form of protection from direct sunlight. With Loxone, any electric awnings can be intelligently automated taking into account things such as the outside temperature, the position of the sun etc. The Miniserver will automatically take care of shading you in your garden however, should you want to manually intervene you can do so at any time through either the Loxone App or the Remote Air.
Tip #6: Outhouse Automation
It’s not just the main garden that can be automated. Many gardens have some form of ‘outhouse’ that can benefit from Loxone technology: the greenhouse, summerhouse, pool house or boathouse. Even the humble garden shed.
Garden offices are becoming popular with those who want to work from home, but either do not have the room for a dedicated area in the house or just want a quiet zone with zero chance of impaling their foot on a piece of lego. The Loxone Miniserver can automate the heating to ensure it runs on a schedule that works for you. That means that if you’re sitting down to work at 8 am, your little cabin will already be warm and welcoming. There’s no need to worry about excess energy bills either, as the system can automatically switch off the lights and lower the heating after you’ve left.
– Special Tip –
Create Automation
Loxone is the perfect solution for creating intelligent automation in projects of all kinds – whether it’s in smart homes, commercial premises or custom applications.
Become a Loxone Partner and start using Loxone as your automation solution in all manner of projects. You’ll find more information on our Partner Program Page.