A Connected Garden Can Reap More Of What You Sow

You don't have a green thumb, but your devices might.

Before we enter the connected home to see what's within, we can pause a moment and look around at lays without: the beautiful gardens and lawns that many of us want to have.

Growing a garden or lawn can be a lot of hard work. Since plants can’t communicate, you’re left guessing whether you ought to water them more, fertilize the soil or transfer them to a sunnier spot.

If you find yourself accidentally killing your plants, maybe it’s time to hand over the controls to somebody else. Make that something else—connected devices that use quantified data to nurture your plants into their most verdant and fruitful selves.

If you’d like to have vegetables, flowers and herbs that practically grow themselves, you’re certainly not alone. In 2013, Internet of Things gardening Kickstarters blossomed all over the Web like alfalfa sprouts. The most prolific has been Click & Grow, which earned eight times its funding goal—over half a million dollars to fund gardening devices.