Home automation is not limited to controlling the interiors of your smart home but also the outdoors, be it your garage, lawn, garden, or backyard. This year has seen some interesting smart home accessories launched to control your outdoors – a concept we like to call smart garden automation.

Smart garden automation has a line of accessories including smart weather stations, plant sensors, smart sprinkler systems, lawn mowers, rain sensors, and so on. Smart home products companies have gradually worked to make every accessory compatible with Apple’s HomeKit.

The latest addition to the outdoor home automation is Rachio 3 smart sprinkler controller that added Apple HomeKit and Siri voice support.  A Rachio app offers zones and scheduling customization. It has gone a step further to make your garden ‘smarter’ by using hyperlocal weather to control sprinklers. With the new Flow Meter, the smart sprinkler will know how much water your yard is getting given your home’s water pressure. Its new Weather Intelligence Plus will also help make this smart sprinkler more accurate than before.

Earlier this year, Orbit integrated its B-hyve smart hose faucet timer with HomeKit and released a new version of B-hyve smart sprinkler timer. Its features certainly made all Apple fans happy since the faucet and sprinklers can be controlled by all Apple devices including iPad, iPhone, and the Apple Watch through the HomeApp and Siri.

Elgato extending it’s Eve line of home automation accessories by launching Eve Aqua in May 2018. The Eve Aqua, integrated with HomeKit, controls the watering system of your garden through both hose faucets and sprinklers. Elgato calls it the “smart water controller” which is justified because the Eve Aqua does its job well. It’s a small device that is installed between the faucet and the hose and can be turned on or off with the HomeApp. You can control the Eve Aqua with Siri.

Moving from the watering system, Philips extended its Hue outdoor lighting system this year by launching its HomeKit-enabled products Hue Calla and Hue Lily. The Hue Calla is designed to illuminate doorways and pathways while the Hue Lily is a range of spotlights meant to light up the lawn or garden. Philips Hue Smart Spotlight offers colorful outdoor lighting as well. Both products connect with Hue Bridge by Philips to control each light. It can also be controlled and timed using Apple’s smart home app, Siri, and PowerHouz.

We are hoping that there are more exciting HomeKit-compatible smart garden accessories launched before 2018 ends.