Smart garden tech: the innovations you should know about for 2024

The trick to a bumper strawberry harvest is to keep the plants watered just-enough but never-too-much. And this self-watering planter sorts that Goldilocks moisture level with zero hassle, with a water reservoir so the plants can take up just as much water as they need. It’s easy to top up through the front opening and means no water is wasted. Made from recycled plastics, the tall legs also keep your prize crop away from pesky slugs and other nibblers.

Love to grow your own? The Germie is a compact, reusable kit designed to provide optimal conditions for seed development, encouraging good root growth and allowing easy extraction without damaging your baby plants. Made from locally sourced recycled plastic and fully recyclable, it’s guaranteed for 10 years and available in three sizes.

This next-gen electric barbecue has a nifty auto-clean function so your grill is always spick and span and ready to go. Thanks to the power of pyrolysis, any excess fat or burnt matter is quickly incinerated by direct heat to leave the grill spotless. And while we shuddered at the thought of a grill powered by electricity, we can’t help but imagine how easy a quick alfresco fry-up would be with TRU-Infrared technology that ensures a constant cooking temperature across the grill, as well as retaining moisture within the food, and a smart dial for accurate temperature control.

As our gardens and homes increasingly become part of the same hybrid living space, we’re seeing lots of outdoor versions of traditionally indoor stuff. This freestanding design captures the sun’s energy in the sleek base and simply connects to a hose for free warm water.

Made sustainably from waste wool, these pots are strong, easy to store and, best of all, plants love them too – the wool naturally repels slugs and snails and encourages water to condense at the roots. And if you want to pop the plant in the ground, pot and all, it’ll eventually decompose into bio-rich plant food. Given that up to half a billion plastic plant pots are sent to landfill every year because they can’t be recycled, these are a win-win for your conscience too.

Sleek, UV resistant, frostproof and lightweight, the Beton range of containers from apta.co.uk are everything we want a planter to be, plus they’re made from 100% recycled materials and are fully recyclable at the end of their lives. The finish mimics on-trend concrete and they’re available in black, grey and sand tones, and in round, tall, cube and cone shapes, looking good enough to use indoors as well as out. They’re durable too, with a 10-year guarantee.

Now chore-busting robo mowers have hit mainstream gardening, we’re starting to see all sorts of innovations. This techy design not only operates with wire-free boundaries, all managed via an app, it has an additional sweeper kit, which means it can do a quick clear-up of leaves and other debris in a jiffy. Thanks to omnidirectional wheels, it’ll breeze up and down 50% slopes and navigate obstacles with ease, and it’s super-efficient, taking 130 mins to charge for a 240-minute cutting time.

There’s long been a compromise with bird box cameras – the unit needs to be plugged in, which usually means siting the box in a spot close to the house where birds may prefer not to nest. No more, thanks to this wireless solar-powered design. The compact camera with wi-fi connection comes with a solar panel and 4m lead so that you can enjoy real-time action with minimal intervention. Crisp HD colour video complete with a built-in mic and infrared camera ensure you never miss a cheep!

Thanks to an innovative airflow system, this stylish firepit burns wood so efficiently, it produces minimal smoke so there’ll be no more shifting your patio chair to avoid the whiffy plumes. With a black enamel outer bowl and stainless-steel inner, the sturdy stainless-steel base also doubles as a removable ash tray, making clearing out a  
cinch.

Wow! You can bask in the warmth and mesmerising beauty of this game-changing patio heater guilt-free as it’s fuelled by sustainable wood pellets. Just load the pellets into the hopper, light the burner and the glass tube will fill with dancing flames for up to an hour.

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