Small garden at home

I do not think that this is just a fashion, nor that it is fleeting. Growing a small vegetable garden in the middle of the city is certainly a passion for those who have the green thumb, not only for decorative plants, for houseplants, but also for aromatic plants or those to be used for side dishes or vegetarian dishes.

Not always, however, the space available is enough, in gardens or terraces, or the weather is not always suitable for the cultivation and it would be difficult to achieve the greenhouse ad hoc. So, what can we do in these cases?

Modular and multifunctional garden

A company, Green profile, thought about this problem; for years it has been involved in the design, as well as green spaces, also outdoor and indoor vertical gardens. Its proposal is called Ortoalto, design by Gigi and Chiara Tanzi, and is a revolutionary system of modular and multi-functional vegetable garden for growing indoors.

This realization was developed to give a concrete answer to those people who, and they are now so many around the world, want to eat healthy and natural products, grown directly at home, saving considerably, without negative impact on the environment, indeed. For the latter we think of the fact that by growing at home you avoid trips both to purchase and to transport the vegetables to the shop. In this way we will realize how much pollution is avoided.

But consider also the strenuous aspect of cultivation so conceived. The fact that we do everything in a small space, it can sometimes be tricky because the movements can be less free.

Ortoalto was developed to solve these problems and to ensure that such activity continues to be primarily a relaxing and rejuvenating activity as it is done, and not just convenient.

The product is designed exploiting a simple intuition: with the same surface of arable land, if it is placed at a certain height, is even more exploitable than it is when positioned on the ground. The result of this is the right height studied to allow a first processing ground without having to bend down, to add the fact that in this way the vegetable garden provides greater ventilation and better solar radiation as well as greater protection from any damage caused by animals, weather and pedestrian traffic.

To achieve this result, the product is supplied with several accessories: cables support for climbing plants, shade canopy, folding doors, drapes and transparent panels to use in a greenhouse. The folding panels, in particular, allow this structure to be transformed into a comfortable multi-purpose work surface, or to lay a table, a chair of emergency, or even a closet.

Ortoalto is available in two versions, single and double-front, with a wooden frame of thermo-treated ash FSC certified, with various finishes and stainless steel components.

Wireless sensor for the garden and house plants

If you want to rely on the most futuristic technology available to treat your plants with no errors, then Parrot, starting this November, offers Parrot Flower Power, a wireless intelligent sensor, Bluetooth Smart, which connects to your smartphone or tablet to take advantage of a dedicated application that allows you to take care of your plants.

There are four basic criteria for the healthy growth of the plants that this ingenious sensor continually analyzes: soil moisture, light intensity, temperature of environment and fertilizer. This happens both for potted plants than for those planted directly in soil.

No particularly adverse weather conditions can damage Parrot Flower Power, designed to withstand heat, cold, rain and any other weather event. It should be planted near a plant, in or outdoor, in pots or in the ground.

In real time are measured parameters of growth and maintenance of a healthy plant which has been previously written, just use one sensor for each plant, or one for most plants, using the power monitoring device, which acts in a radius of 5-10 cm.

We must therefore make sure that the watering is homogeneous and that sunlight, temperature and drainage conditions are equal for all the plants, as it happens, for example, in a vase on the sill. Monitoring data obtained are stored in the flash memory of the sensor and transfers them via bluetooth to your smartphone or tablet with free app Flower Power, downloadable from App Store.

In this way you will always have real-time description of the state of your plants and can intervene when necessary: you can add the fertilizer that is missing, act if the ambient light is lacking or calibrate the intensity or frequency of watering.

It is thus possible to monitor plants from a library of over 6000 between plants, trees and vegetables, entering in the relevant data and consulting images, requirements and tips on care. Behind this there is the experience of many botanists French, Dutch and Americans.

How does it work? Simple: as soon as the app is launched, the screen of your smartphone or tablet pattern appears in your garden, or all Parrot Flower Power connected and associated plants. In this way it has undergone the vision of the plants, the situation in which they are and of any need. An agenda will show you all tasks to be performed on the same day and the forecast for the following ones: adding fertilizer, watering, and so on.

The update records of important data for the well-being of the plant takes place every 15 minutes, and the recorded data are sent to your smartphone or tablet when it is within 25 meters. The data available in real time via the graphics are transmitted to the Parrot Cloud to be analyzed by algorithms in order to formulate possible interventions to predict.

There are special icons that indicate that data, with a varying color depending on the situation:

• Green: There is no need of any intervention
• Red: immediate intervention (notified via smartphone or tablet).

All this is possible thanks to the collaboration of the company with universities and laboratories, so that they are made accessible to all the discoveries and applications in the field of precision agriculture and horticulture. The colors available are Parrot Flower Power: green, brown, blue. The recommended retail price is € 49.90.