Smartest garden in the Netherlands: this way you save a lot of water

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smartest garden in the netherlands
smartest garden in the netherlands

Erwin continues to make his garden smarter. This time it is time for the finer irrigation work. And he tells you more about the cockpit of the entire system: the Gardena app.

The Gardena Smart System is the perfect solution to make your garden smart. Because the system is linked to the accompanying Gardena app , you can optimally care for every garden with minimal effort. Sounds good, right?

Irrigation

In the previous video , Erwin connected the water pump to the valve boxes and the pipes went into the ground to five different zones. The grass has now been laid, the trees are in the ground and it is now the turn of the plants. For the irrigation of this, Erwin switches to the finer work: the sprinklers and the micro-drip system.

Nozzles

The Gardena recessed swing sprinkler (it’s like James Bond) comes up by itself when the water is turned on. The sprayer can swivel almost 180 degrees and has no less than three different spray positions: wide, medium and straight. The sprinkler is also continuously adjustable in length, width and height. The oscillating sprinkler is very suitable for lawns, and thanks to the different positions and settings, the sprinkler can handle both rectangular areas and more irregular shapes.

Five nozzles

Erwin’s lawn is straightforward and not that big. He therefore dug in two sprinklers. He has set one so that he sprays less widely on one side, so that his adjacent patio stays dry and the other is set up so that Erwin’s entire garden is taken, but the street is not. If you have a larger lawn than Erwin, you can connect up to five sprinklers. At least if you have connected the sprinklers to the smart pump just like Erwin, or if your outside tap has sufficient water pressure.

Drop by drop

Erwin continues with his border. If he were to water it with such a large sprinkler, it would get wet, but not in the right place. The water then seeps off the leaves, while they need water at the roots, under the leaves. Gardena has devised the Micro-Drip-System for this . This allows you to water in a very targeted manner and literally drop by drop, exactly where it is needed. And it is also very sustainable, because that way you save up to seventy percent water.

The Gardena micro-drip system has a very wide range, with all kinds of drippers, pipes and connections for hedges, shrubs, plants and crops.

Smart sensor

Erwin uses tubes in which the drippers have already been incorporated. It starts at a water supply point in each zone, connects the pipe and uses pipe holders to guide it where it is needed. Very simple, anyone can do this. But one important part is still missing: the Smart Sensor . This sensor measures the soil moisture and the soil temperature. It is the final link in the Smart System and provides feedback on when the soil is moist enough and irrigation in that zone can stop or a spraying cycle can be completely skipped. So you save water again with this sensor.

Nice and flat

Erwin has five zones in his garden and in each zone he pokes a Smart Sensor in the ground. The sensors are designed nice and flat so they can also be placed in his lawn, the robotic lawnmower can drive over them without any problems.

Watering schedule

Now that all the pipes and sensors have been installed, one last step is needed that ensures that Erwin no longer has to worry about watering his garden: setting up the Gardena app . All watering components, the Irrigation Control, the smart pump and the sensors have already been added to the app, time to make a watering schedule. You can make this schedule very easily with the help mode of the app, it asks you seven questions about the situation in your garden: what kind of soil is it, how many hours of sunshine do you have in your garden, are your plants in the garden or in a pot? , and so on. Once you have answered these questions, a tailor-made schedule will roll out of the app.

Three optimizations

Then there are three optimizations that the system also takes into account: the weather forecast (in case of rain, extra watering is of course not necessary), sunrise and sunset and the sensor of course. If it indicates that the soil is moist enough, it does not need to be watered. Finally, Erwin chooses to set the automatic mode for the water pump, then the pump switches on when there is a demand for it in the system, and switches off automatically when possible. In this way Erwin has a permanent view of the state of his garden in the app. In addition, he has entered the plants in his garden in the Gardena plant library, where he can find more information and care tips about his plants.

It doesn’t get any smarter

The Gardena app is also compatible with Apple HomeKit and Amazon Alexa and you can connect it to your other smart services and devices via IFTTT. Erwin, for example, is adding his outdoor camera to the app, so that he will soon be able to view his garden from his holiday address. It doesn’t get any smarter. The watering of Erwin’s smart garden is now complete. But that’s not all, in the following video, he goes to the Sileno City – robot mower to work.

In the video above, Tom Groot of Eigen Huis & Tuin tells you even more about Gardena ‘s Micro-Drip-System . For example, did you know that you can also use this system on your balcony, in front of your hedges or in your vegetable garden?

Tom shows in a few steps how simple it is to install the micro-drip system:

  1. You place the drip hose where you want it: in your borders, your flower boxes or your vegetable garden.
  2. Then you connect the hose to a water point. This can be a pump, but also an outside tap
  3. The small holes in the drip hose then ensure that your plants are watered drop by drop.
  4. And if you use the Gardena Smart Sensor in addition to the drip hose, it ensures that watering takes place at exactly the right time. The sensor senses how moist the soil is, and whether or not extra water is needed.

With this system you not only save a lot of water, but also a lot of time.