HARDWARE
GROW GROW GADGETS
■ HOZELOCK CLOUD CONTROLLER How many times have you seen a garden sprinkler happily gushing away, in the middle of a downpour? It’s a complete waste of water and electricity. There are plenty of sprinkler systems that can be timed to operate automatically throughout the day, but these don’t take into account weather conditions, and unless you’re standing there to turn them off manually, they just carry on regardless. The Hozelock cloud controller offers a more intelligent watering set-
up. The supplied tap unit wirelessly connects to the partner app on your IOS or Android phone through the supplied hub, creating a secure system with no pairing required. The app then allows you to remotely control watering schedules, no matter where you are. At work and the heavens open? Cancel the early evening watering with one tap. On holiday and notice the temperature in Jersey has ramped up to 30 degrees (just your luck!); simply up the water volume by 50% to combat parched peas or
shrivelled spinach. The app also links to a weather service, and offers push notifications alerting you to a change in predicted weather patterns. All you need to think about is what to pick for dinner. The Hozelock Cloud Controller is £114.99 from www.argos.co.uk
■ CLICK & GROW SMART GARDEN 9
Don’t have a garden or balcony but would still like to grow some healthy greens? The Smart Garden 9 is small enough to sit on a windowsill or kitchen counter, but can produce an impressive amount of edible fayre, including (but not limited to) mini tomatoes, wild strawberries, lettuce, chillies and a whole smorgasbord of herbs. To say this is space age gardening is not too far from the truth; the supplied ‘smart soil’ is inspired by NASA technology and the garden has built in sensors to monitor oxygen, water and nutrients, along with LED grow lights to encourage quick germination and speedy growth. It doesn’t sound too organic does it? But with no pesticides or BECAUSE QUALITY MATTERS
harmful chemicals involved, everything produced is completely natural. The Smart Garden 9 runs on mains electricity and features 9 growing areas,
coming complete with smart soil, adjustable grow lamp and enough basil, mini tomato and green lettuce seeds to get you started. Simply fill the water tank, plug in the plant capsules, switch on the power
and walk away. No watching or watering is required, this is zero effort cultivation. The Smart Garden 9 is £199 from www. conranshop.co.uk.
77