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A plant sensor that springs into action.Â
Chris Monroe/CNETLike other smart plant sensors, GardenSpace knows when your flowers need a drink. Debuting Tuesday on Kickstarter, this tall garden sentry goes a couple of steps beyond the norm by actually watering your plants for you and spraying away pests.
GardenSpace looks over your garden during the day and takes pics to monitor the health of your plants and water them as necessary. You can use the app to tell GardenSpace what you're growing, and get more detailed care advice as well.
Combining info from an infrared thermometer, an infrared camera and a normal RGB cam mounted on the front of its rotating head, GardenSpace calculates the water stress levels and the general health of your garden. It can monitor up to 100 square feet -- providing customized care to any plant in that radius.
At night, GardenSpace doubles as a sentry, and uses its motion sensors to watch for and ward away critters with a spray of water.
It's solar-powered with a backup battery for a cloudy day, and it's pretty easy to set up -- stake it in the ground and attach an ordinary hose. I got to see GardenSpace in action and it's taller than I expected -- it came up to my waist. That height gives it a bird's eye view of the action and the proper angle to spray water anywhere in its radius.
The app wasn't ready for a demo yet. Supposedly, it'll be able to walk you through any extra care steps you need to give your plant and will also be able to give advice about what to grow and when to plant it.
This plant sensor is pretty tall.Â
Chris Monroe/CNETI certainly like the idea of a smart garden gadget that will take the day-to-day maintenance and guesswork off of my plate. Plus, GardenSpace doubles as a kind of security guard for your garden, so if it fulfills its promises, it'll be much more of an active aid in your quest for a green thumb than the other plant sensors we've tested.
GardenSpace will start shipping to Kickstarter backers at this time next year. You can preorder it now at a discount. At retail, the sensor have a hefty $400 price tag -- so it'll need to live up to its potential to be worth that kind of splurge. GardenSpace will be available internationally, and the US price converts to approximately £300 and AU$500.