How does your garden grow?  

Undoubtedly our outdoor spaces are extensions of our homes and do wonders to boost our wellbeing. A recent 2022 study conducted by mental health charity Mind indicated that some 7 million of us have taken up gardening and are spending more time in our gardens since the pandemic, and the UK population spent a whopping £18.6bn on gardens in 2021

As our gardens mean more to us and we spend more time in them, taking care of them becomes crucial too. 

Intelligent irrigation systems are the answer to an energy-efficient way of tending your outdoor sanctuary. 

Smart irrigation includes rainwater harvesting, filtration, ground moisture monitoring, local weather, and forecast monitoring, all working together to create intelligent zoned irrigation systems that learn and adapt. 

Your plants, grass, gardens, courtyards, or even whole fields will never be under-watered or over-watered again!

Traditional irrigation and watering systems work manually, which means a lot of pre-planning or simple time clocks linked to the watering pipes. A truly smart system will monitor all aspects of the current local weather and forecast what will happen over the next week.

What does this look like in practice?

Using Rainwater for Automatic Garden Watering 

Harvested rainwater can be pumped to sprinklers in your garden and even used for things such as washing your car. The monitoring of your rainwater tank takes place via an ultrasonic sensor. If there’s insufficient water in the tank, the pump is automatically switched off, and the garden is watered using the mains water supply. 

Water is transported to sprinklers using a suction pump. This pump is configured to activate based on the time of day automatically. It can also be activated at any time using the Loxone App.

Popup sprinklers

No ugly sprinklers ruining your beautifully tended lawn! When water is pumped from the tank and the respective valve opens, a popup sprinkler will rise from the ground. As soon as the valve has closed again, the sprinkler disappears into the earth. 

Even more impressive, though, is that the sprinklers will remain off if rain is forecast or if it has already rained that day, thanks to consistent monitoring via the Loxone Weather Station and Weather Service.

Weather Monitoring.

Monitoring is achieved with a small weather station that constantly monitors wind speed & direction, rain, humidity, temperature, light level, dew point, etc. The intelligent irrigation and watering system will know when to come on in each zone and when to sleep. Each weather station purchase comes with a ten-year subscription to the Loxone Weather service.

Examples of weather monitoring in action include.

If there were a lot of rain for two days, the controller would hold back on any watering for 72 hours.

If there was a week-long heatwave, the system could add 30 minutes of watering each day.

If rain were due tomorrow afternoon, the controller would hold the watering schedule for 24 hours and continue to monitor for precipitation.

Clever. Never go to bed kicking yourself that you forgot to water the roses again! 

Elevating Your Outdoor Spaces

While water-saving and weather monitoring are fantastic means of keeping your garden in tip-top shape, don’t forget the design aspects. In the same way, we would consider lighting and sound inside our homes. Thinking about designing these aspects for our garden spaces helps elevate them to virtual extensions of our houses, providing an additional relaxation and entertaining space. 

You can learn more about the Loxone Smart Irrigation system by watching the video below or contacting us today to discuss your project. Did you know we also have two intelligent home demo rooms? Our demo rooms provide a unique opportunity to experience all aspects of a smart home for yourself! Book your smart home experience here.