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Introducing the Connected Yard

2/20/2018

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company has something smart up its sleeve, and it's looking like an innovative step forward for the lawn and garden category.


The company unveiled its new  "Connected Yard" platform at the 2016 SXSW Interactive festival in Austin, Texas, which centers on a platform called Gro.


"The Connected Yard marks the first time the Internet of Things steps outside," said the company in a statement. "The Smart Home now broadens its footprint, with the yard as the next natural step in harnessing technology on behalf of consumers."


"Gro welcomes everyone into the garden, helping them to succeed," said Patti Ziegler, chief digital and marketing services officer. "Our Gro application will suggest interesting and fun project ideas. We will give people great advice on what to do, and how to do it, based on their exact location and the time of year. We will increase the ability of all gardeners, but particularly new gardeners, to succeed in having healthy lawns, gorgeous flowers and shrubs, and tasty home-grown vegetables."


The Gro platform will be capable of understanding recent weather and rainfall, the requirements for different types of plants in different parts of the yard, information about the local soil type, and appropriate seasonal instructions for lawn care.


Hardware partners that helped make the technology possible are a combination of sensor and water controller manufacturing partners. They include smart water controllers Blossom, Rachio, Green IQ and Lono, and soil sensor companies PlantLink and Parrot. These technologies enable the careful monitoring and control of watering levels, adjusting for the soil's moisture content and the weather forecast. That means no more wasted water, or sprinklers running in the rain.


According to the company, moisture sensors and smart water controllers could save millions of gallons of water if widely adopted and could substantially cut water use dramatically all across the nation -- not just in drought-afflicted regions like California.


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