Smart garden

A smart garden is not a separate system next to the house, but a continuation of the same system inside the fence. The same interface, the same logic: the irrigation, the lawn mower, the outdoor lighting and the pool all know what is happening outside and inside the house.

A smart garden is smart because it measures and makes decisions based on the measurements. Not because it has an app. Most gardens today have three or four separate devices running — sprinklers, lawn mowers, pool technology, gates — each with its own app, and none of them knows about the other. The intelligent garden begins where these are integrated into a system.

Irrigation that pays attention to soil and weather

Most irrigation systems are set to run on a timer: they start at 6 a.m. on Monday, even if it rained the night before. A smart irrigation system instead adjusts to measurements. A soil moisture sensor tells you how dry the soil is, and the weather forecast tells you whether it's worth starting now.

• Separate scheduling for each zone — lawn, hedges and vegetables do not require the same amount of water.
• It doesn't start before or after rain; not even in windy weather, when half the water is gone.
• With a water meter reading, you can see how much water has actually been used and to which zone.
• In case of suspected pipe breakage — continuous consumption when nothing is running — you will receive an alarm and the main valve can be closed.

A robotic lawnmower that doesn't start when disturbed

The robotic lawnmower is convenient on its own, but it can adapt when connected to the system. It doesn't cut wet grass, it doesn't start on Sunday mornings, and it stops when you open the patio door because you're about to go out with the kids. During installation, we lay the boundary wire in accordance with the features of the garden — beds, pool, slope — so that the robot doesn't go where it shouldn't.

Pool, outdoor lighting, gate

The pool water temperature, circulation and filtration schedule can be managed from the same interface as the rest of the house — even in winter, from the heated room. The outdoor lighting adjusts to sunset, not to a fixed time, and can be activated by movement. The gate and entrance lighting can be linked: you won't be looking for the key in the dark when you arrive in the evening.

What a smart garden project looks like

A garden is rarely completed all at once. Most smart garden projects are built in stages, which is why it's important that the first step doesn't preclude the second.

1. Survey. What's out there now, where is the electricity and water, where does the network reach? This determines what can be done without laying wires and what requires a landscaper.
2. The basics: network and power supply. Outdoor access point and protective pipes. This is the cheapest option when the garden is already overgrown.
3. The first area. Usually, irrigation is the one that brings the most savings and the least hassle. The lawnmower and the pool come next.
4. Connection with the house. Then the garden will become part of the smart home: shared interface, shared weather data, shared presence logic.

How is this different from manufacturer apps?

The irrigation system has an app. The lawn mower has an app. The pool technology too. They all work separately — they just don't know about each other, and they don't know about the house. Yabune Home is manufacturer-independent: it combines these into a single system, so you can write rules that affect multiple devices at once.

• During your vacation, the irrigation system runs, the lawnmower works, and the lighting imitates presence.
• The weather forecast is wired once and all three devices use the same one.
• If you replace your irrigation controller, the rules remain — you don't have to relearn everything.

What you should know before you get started

• Network in the garden. Most outdoor devices require Wi-Fi or Zigbee. For large areas, this means an outdoor access point, not a signal beamed from your living room.
• Power supply. Irrigation valves, gate motors, and outdoor cameras all require electricity — it's worth pulling out the protective pipes when building a garden.
• Water pressure and zones. Dividing irrigation into zones is not a software issue: pressure determines how many sprinklers can operate at once.
• Existing tools. If you already have a lawnmower or sprinkler, you probably don't need to replace it — most Gardena, Hunter, and Rain Bird controllers can be integrated; first, let's see if yours is.

Who it's for and who it's not for

Smart gardening really pays off when there is something to control: a larger lawn, an irrigation system, a pool, or a plot of land where you are not there every day. It is a waste to build a system in a small city garden where you water two shrubs by hand — we used to say this in the survey before anyone spent money on it.

What we work with

• Shelly — switching and consumption measurement of irrigation valves, pump and outdoor lighting (Shelly Plus 1PM, Plus Uni), in an outdoor box.
• Bmeters — radio-readable water meters; these are used for zone-based water consumption and pipe burst alarms.
• Marketcom — is the domestic distributor of Shelly, we purchase the devices from them, which is why they have a warranty and supply.