Five smart tools for 21st-century gardeners

Water way to go

Keeping plants adequately watered is tricky if there’s no nearby source of water, or indeed electricity, and you’re going away on holiday for a week, and you’re unable to call in any favours from friends or neighbours. This latest iteration of Gardena’s AquaBloom solar irrigation system is designed for balconies or terraces, but has a bunch of other potential applications – small inner-city gardens, raised beds or pots on allotments, even indoor plants. It’s built around a 29cm-wide solar panel that doubles as a control panel and water pump; it takes in water from any available reservoir source – a water butt, a tub, a bucket – and then delivers that water down a network of tubes. Your beloved shrubs, herbs and flowers are then watered slowly, through micro-drip nozzles, to a schedule of your choosing. 

Your shrubs, herbs and flowers are watered to a schedule of your choosing

This system is larger than its predecessors (hence the L) and can care for up to 30 plants. Assembling it is a relaxing way to spend an hour or so. There’s a slightly zen-like, Lego or Meccano quality to it – cutting tubes to length, attaching T-pieces, arranging the network around your plants, placing nozzles at the base of each one and using the provided pegs to keep everything in place. The solar panel can be attached to a vertical surface or hooked over something (eg, the edge of a bucket) but obviously should be facing the sun (it also works indoors, through a window). Thereafter you just choose your programme with a knob twist: watering lengths of between five and 35 minutes, and frequencies ranging from every 12 hours to every 48. 

The nozzles are constructed to let water through at as little as half a litre an hour (which makes 25ml every three minutes), and do so with the kind of accuracy and care that I’d never achieve with a watering can, so there’s an eco benefit too: not a drop is wasted. If sunshine is a little thin on the ground, two internal rechargeable cells will take the strain until the sun has, once again, got its hat on – hip-hip-hip, hooray. 

Shear bliss

A successor to Stiga’s award-winning battery-powered shear, this pruning saw kit comprises a mini chainsaw, 20V battery and charger in a neat carry case. It can cope with 10cm diameter branches, but is a little happier with medium-sized ones (the spec suggests that it can get through 120 5cm-thick branches on one charge). It certainly made short work of removing a sizeable buddleia that was crowding out other plants; we then used it to neatly cut up a stack of 20mm boards to create some much-needed lawn edging. It’s a reassuringly chunky unit, but light enough to affix to the end of an extension pole (an extra £79) for higher branches. I wish my stepladder a happy retirement.

Get shredded

Breaking branches over your knee is neither satisfying nor effective. This battery-powered shredder, roughly waist-high, gobbles up anything up to around 4cm in diameter and spits out neat chunks into an internal bin that slides out, drawer-style. The gears automatically step up for thicker branches, and if clogging is detected it briefly goes into reverse and tries again. It’s easy to operate, with just three buttons, although the counter plate needs adjusting with an Allen key from time to time to keep it cutting effectively. It tips up like a wheelie bin for manoeuvring around the garden and folds down into a box shape for easy storage. (You’ll also need a Husqvarna 36V battery and charger, not included.)

Grace under pressure

Large, high-spec pressure washers can be a little overpowered for patio and paving, spattering muck and drenching bystanders. This more modest 24-bar unit fits into a small canvas holdall thanks to its compressible 20-litre water bag. Fill the bag, dunk one end of the hose (with integrated filter) into it, attach the other to the spray gun and you’re good to go. The nozzle (which can be attached to a 46cm lance or directly to the gun) has four functions: fan-jet, pouring, spot-jet and rotary, of which the latter two seemed to provide the most oomph. It works with Stihl’s AS 2 batteries (sold separately); you’ll need two for cleaning sessions lasting longer than 15 minutes. Perfect for smaller spaces.

Lawn and order

Robot mowers usually require the erection of an unsightly RTK antenna to help them navigate more accurately. This 5,000sq m per day workhorse comes with an antenna in the box, but in regions where Mammotion’s new iNavi service is available (including Great Britain but not Northern Ireland) it’s not needed. As long as the mower has a network connection (WiFi or 4G), it’ll get on quickly and quietly with the job, using satellite signals and 3D vision to mow accurately up to the perimeter before returning to its base for charging. This model has no sweeper for cuttings, but will, if you wish, cut large custom shapes into your lawn for the benefit of anyone arriving by helicopter.

@rhodri