Scotts Miracle-Gro Launches Connected Yard App
The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company announced its “Connected Yard” platform, Gro, at the 2016 SXSW Interactive festival. The Connected Yard platform will know what the recent weather and rainfall has been, what types of plants are most likely to succeed in each location, what the local soil type is and what to do at each stage of the season. Previously complex tasks will be presented instead as bite-sized, highly visual, personalized instructions. It will offer the same type of advice a friendly, expert gardener would suggest, if they lived next door and give people the confidence to try new things. Gro software is enhanced by connecting into Internet of Things hardware. Gro’s hardware partners in the “Works with Gro” program are a hand-picked combination of sensor and water controller manufacturing partners. Their hardware feeds information into Gro software, making it even more aware of the condition of the yard, starting at first by focusing on water usage. Launch partners 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. No longer will sprinklers run when it is raining. No longer will people over or under water. Critical in drought markets, but useful all across the country, moisture sensors and smart water controllers could save millions and millions of gallons of water if widely adopted and could substantially cut water use dramatically all across the nation. The Connected Yard is an open platform, and Scotts Miracle-Gro is eager to align with companies and particularly start-ups in the smart water and gardening space who want to connect their imaginative hardware solutions to Gro. For more information visit www.getgro.com.
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