Automate your gardening for a total hands-off experience

Editor’s note: This story was originally published on June 28, 2023.

When her family makes the move to their homestead in Brownfield, Lisa Canale Trachtman plans to use some of its 15 acres to grow fresh vegetables. The trouble is, even after moving to Maine, Trachtman is going to have to spend roughly every other week out of state so her son can get needed medical care.

“I want to grow as much as I can for us but I am one person alone,” Trachtman said. “My husband has no interest in it.”

So Trachtman is looking for ways to reduce the time she has to spend in her garden without sacrificing what she can grow. If that means automating certain garden chores, she’s all for it especially if it means saving time and effort as she nears retirement.

“It’s very important for me to save time and effort,” Trachtman said. “Especially during the times when I am not going to be physically there.”

Trachtman is planning on installing timers for irrigating her gardens and being proactive when it comes to weed control by using ground cover to keep weeds from growing in the first place.

“I have to think it through,” she said. “I want to prevent weeds because I can’t spend all the time weeding.”

But there’s more she can do.

A number of products on the market have been designed to reduce the time and effort it takes to grow vegetables and flowers. From simple water timers and ground cover to advanced robotic technology, these days it’s possible to take a hands-off approach to gardening.

Weed control

It’s not entirely hands off, but a little extra work with some ground cover when starting a garden can save a lot of work throughout the season.

Putting down sheets of black plastic and landscape fabric are two popular ways of controlling or even preventing weeds. When you first plant your garden, you can lay the plastic or fabric between your rows of seeds. You can also cover the entire garden with the material and then poke holes to make openings to plant seeds.

This will keep weed seeds from germinating or, if they do, smother and kill them before they can grow. Either way, you are going to have a lot less weeds to pull throughout the season.

Watering

Your garden is going to need to be watered — and it won’t always be at times that are convenient. Automatic watering systems can take that chore when you can’t or simply don’t feel like it. There are a range of automatic waterers from the very simple to the more complicated computer operated system. What they all have in common is you can set them and then pretty much forget them.

The simplest timers attach directly to your hose or outside faucet and run out to a sprinkler or garden irrigation system. They can be manually programmed to turn on and off at the times of your choosing.

Some of the more advanced timers can detect changes in sunlight levels and adjust themselves if more or less water is needed for the garden. If your crops need the different amounts of watering, there are timers that can be attached to multiple hoses to create multiple garden areas.

The most advanced timers work with your smartphone or computer. This way you can keep an eye on the weather and, if needed, adjust the watering timers if you need to from a remote location.

Smart gardening

Smart gardening combines your green thumb with Bluetooth technology connected to your smart home system or smartphone. Without ever having to go outside you can check how your garden is doing and keep track of plant and soil health.

It does this by using a variety of smart devices.

A smart sprinkler, for instance, lets you set a watering schedule, but it does not stop there. A sensor in the sprinkler will let it know when particular plants need watering and then gives it just the right amount. They can also adjust to conditions so they are watering at the optimal times.

Sensors also track light, humidity, soil moisture and nutrients. All that information is sent to your phone via an app and can take a lot of the guesswork out what to add when to your plants to get the best growth. Smart devices can also be linked to grow lights that will turn on when it decides your plants need a photosynthetic boost.

Robots

To spend as little time in your garden as possible, you can let robots do most of the work. Yes, for real A company in California has developed Farmbot , a robotics worker designed for the home gardener.

Farmbots only work on raised beds. But once it’s set up, Farmbot does all the work like planting, watering, weeding and generally keeping tabs on what’s growing.

Meanwhile, you supervise the robot on the web app that pairs with the robot. Farmbot even takes photos you can review  if you don’t feel like looking out the window at its work.

Be ready to shell out between $1,400 and $4,000 depending on what size you need for your garden space.

If Farmbot breaks down, replacement parts can be made on a home 3D printer with designs supplied by the company.

Trachtman plans to spend this summer and fall preparing her garden area and planning what to plant next season.

She’s looking forward to homesteading and growing food in Maine, and excited that technology is going to free up some of her time.

“I was planning on spending the time in my garden,” she said. “But now I need being-with-my-son time.”