18 of the best garden gadgets for 2022

By Verity Burns

Published: Thursday, 16 June 2022 at 12:00 am

For those of us lucky to have a garden at home, of course we want to make it as comfortable and entertaining as possible. So to help jazz up your outdoor space, we’ve pulled together some of the best garden gadgets to give you some inspiration.

We love cool gadgets and as ever, tech companies are right on hand with gardening gadgets to help us get our outdoor areas working smarter and looking better.

From gardening tools, like mini chainsaws and smart sprinkler systems to portable projectors and al fresco cooking kits that simply make our gardens more enjoyable places to be, our pick of the best gardening gadgets you can buy will help you turn your outdoor space into the place to be this summer.

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18 of the best garden gadgets

Innr Outdoor Smart Lighting

For the get-togethers that go on long into the evening, Innr’s range of outdoor smart lighting should help to keep the party going past sunset.

Choose from pedestal lights, spot lights and lighting strips for a setup that works for your space, then control them all using the Innr app on your phone.

This allows you to choose when they come on, programme an automated schedule, build your lighting into a smart home routine and choose what colour you want them to be. You can even adjust them using your voice with Alexa or Google Assistant.

They work on the Zigbee protocol, so you’ll need a control hub that support this. Some of Amazon’s more recent Echo family, like the 4^th Generation Echo, the Echo Studio and the Echo Show 10, already have Zigbee support built in, but otherwise installing the Philips Hue Bridge or Samsung SmartThings Hub will do the trick.

Innr’s range of lights come in groups of three but can be expanded up to 10 using one control box, or use several different control boxes if you’d like to control different lights separately. With a bit of tech know-how they’re easy enough to install, but will require an outside plug, so that’s the only bit you’ll need an electrician for.

Gardenature smart bird box

For the tech-loving birdwatcher, a smart bird box is perfect for getting to know the feathered friends inhabiting your garden. Gardenature do a few different options, but we like the range of IP camera bird boxes, which can stream live HD video from inside the birdbox to your phone or tablet.

You’ll usually need to run a single cable from the birdbox back to your router, but if you have outdoor mains power a bit closer – in a shed or outbuilding – the company also sell powerline adapters that can push your internet signal through your electrical ring main and saves you running cables for metres and metres.

Sonos Move portable speaker

Sonos has been one of the best multi-room systems you can buy for your home for some time. However, as its speakers have always been reliant on Wi-Fi and mains power, the garden has been left out of the party.

That is, until recently. The Sonos Move is a portable speaker that can be used inside and outside the house, thanks to having both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth built in.

That means that when you are within your home’s Wi-Fi, it can be used as part of your multi-room system, or you can use it with Bluetooth away from the home and stream directly from your phone.

It offers 10 hours of wire-free playback, is waterproof to IP56 and has a handy handle for carrying it where you need. When it’s time to charge it, just pop it back on its charging ring and it’ll be fully charged in three hours.

As you’d expect from Sonos, it sounds fantastic, helped along by the Move’s Auto Trueplay functionality. This learns a little about the environment it’s playing in and adjusts the sound to make sure it’s sounding its best.

It’s on the pricey side compared to some other wireless speakers but its performance more than justifies it – particularly if you’re looking to set up a multi-room system in your home.

Looking for something smaller and cheaper? The Sonos Roam could do the trick.

Anker Nebula Mars II projector

For summer movies al fresco, why not invest in a portable projector like the Anker Nebula Mars II.

We like the Mars II because it has everything you need it to in a single box, making it really simple to get started. That means you can expect built-in Wi-Fi for access to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and BBC iPlayer, a decent enough speaker for sound and a rechargeable battery that’ll give it four hours of runtime away from a plug.

Set up is straightforward too, with automatic focusing and keystone correction, so all you need to do is point it at a blank wall and let the projector do the rest. It’s capable of projecting a picture up to 100 inches with a resolution of 720p HD, though we’d recommend keeping it smaller than that for the best picture.

We’d also suggest waiting until it’s as dark as possible to kick off the movie. The light output is only 300 lumens so it isn’t going to be the brightest picture you’ve ever seen, but with convenience and ease-of-use on its side, it’s perfect for adding a bit more fun into those summer nights.

Cooper Cooler drink cooler

Ice cold drinks are a must on a warm day, but when the fridge is full of food from the BBQ and you’ve got thirsty guests, you might find your fridge space you have available is unable to keep up with the demand.

Whether it’s a can of Coke, a beer or a bottle of wine, the Cooper Cooler will take your warm beverage and make it ice cold in a matter of minutes. All you need to do is load it up with ice and water, choose the drink you want to chill and set it going.

The Cooper Cooler will rotate your drink (gently – there’ll be no explosions once you remove it from the cooler) and spray it with ice cold water to get it to the same low temperature throughout. The result is a fridge-cool beer in a minute, or a bottle of wine in around six minutes. Absolute game changer.

Weber Connect Smart Grilling Hub

Summer time means BBQ time, and if you’re in charge of the cooking, you’ll know the pressure of getting the meat cooked just right.

BBQ kings Weber have thankfully come up with a clever bit of tech that means you can get it spot on every time, and also give you a bit of freedom away from standing next to the grill.

The Weber Connect acts as a step-by-step barbecuing assistant, keeping you in the know when the burgers need flipping and sausages need turning.

It comes with two probes for placing into the meat you’re cooking, but can host an additional two to keep an eye on four different pieces of meat at any one time. These will monitor the temperature of the meat and, with the Weber Connect app, will walk you step-by-step for getting it cooked right every time, including different guidelines depending on how you want it cooked.

It works over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and can work with your current BBQ, so no need for an overly expensive overhaul to tech-up your BBQing.

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Ooni Koda 12 pizza oven

BBQs might be the king of the summertime feast, but eating proper stone-baked pizza al fresco? Count us in.

The Ooni Koda 12 is a gas-powered pizza oven that is ready to go out of the box and much less faff than messing around with wood or charcoal. All you need to do is hook it up to the gas, pop in the accompanying stone-baking board and you’ll be ready to cook in it within 15 minutes.

Reaching temperatures of up to 500°C, it’ll cook your home-crafted pizzas in just 60 seconds so there’s no dilly dallying either.

Of course you don’t have to stop there – you can also use the Ooni Koda 12 for roasting fish or vegetables and cooking steaks if that takes your fancy. The adjustable heat control dial allows you to set it to temperatures that will work for the food at hand.

Once you’re finished cooking up a feast, pop the stone-baked board out for cleaning, fold away the legs and the Ooni Koda 12 is nice and compact for easy storage in a shed, or even in your kitchen.

Kitsound Diggit outdoor speaker

If you’re looking for a more affordable Bluetooth speaker to set the soundtrack to your BBQs, the Kitsound Diggit is made for the great outdoors – quite literally.

It comes with a removable stake for sticking it into the ground and 360-degree sound from dual opposing drivers for spreading your music in all directions.

Want a more expansive sound? Buy two and you can simply tap them together to create a stereo pair for a more immersive soundscape.

It has tough IP55 resistance to dust and water and an LED downlight for adding a bit of a glow to your night-time garden party. Its wooden design looks the part too, so it is stylish enough to be taken inside when you retire for the evening.

Gardena smart irrigation control

Keeping your garden watered is important if you want to keep it looking its best. There are two ways of doing that – standing there for hours with a hose or setting up a sprinkler system to do it for you.

The Gardena Smart System takes the hassle out of keeping your lawns and flowerbeds watered, with a healthy dose of tech. There are a few different parts to the system depending on exactly how green-fingered you want to be, but the sprinkler works through a smart gateway that connects to your router via ethernet or Wi-Fi, and then the water control unit, which you connect to your outside tap.

Once all hooked up and connected to your Wi-Fi, you can control the system via an app on your phone. You can choose to start the watering manually, or you can set it up on a schedule to start automatically. You can even take it one step further and add one of Gardena’s smart sensors to your setup, which can judge when your soil is getting too dry and make the decision on when to water by itself.

Bosch ISIO cordless hedge trimmer

Looking to get your garden in tip top condition for a summer of social gatherings? This cordless ‘shape and edge’ hedge trimmer from Bosch is multi-functional as you can easily switch between the grass and shrub shearer so you’ve got the right tool for the job at hand. So if you fancy a go at shrub sculpture art work to really impress the neighbours, or you just want to tidy up the edge of your lawn, this garden gadget should be a useful shed item.

The battery runs for up to 50 minutes, so you can zap your way around the garden without tripping over cables as you go.

Solo Stove bonfire fire pit

This nifty and minimalist fire pit is a handy garden gadget to have to hand when the chill kicks in late at night. There’s no need for fans or batteries, you’ll just need some dry hardwood such as birch or oak.

It’s a firepit promising low smoke and a beautiful flame thanks to the company’s patented technology. There’s an air vent at the bottom of the fire pit and thanks to the double walled design, the air going through the wall becomes incredibly hot. This air pushes through over the fire, and reignites the smoke for a more efficient burn. This secondary burn should allow for a more enjoyable, less smoky experience.

It’s portable too, so it’s ideal for popping in your campervan for weekends away. A great tool for toasting marshmallows too.

Arlo Ultra security camera

Security gadgets are a must if you’re interested on keeping an eye on your home when you’re not able to – and that includes the garden, where intruders may try to enter your property or shed. Not all cameras are cut out for the great outdoors though, so there are a few things to think about, like weatherproofing, power and picture resolution.

The Arlo Ultra is a fantastic option – it can be used indoors and outdoors thanks to its durability and is convenient to fit thanks to it being completely wireless. Even better, you get two cameras in the pack, so you can cover off your inside and outside security in one.

Getting it set up is simple – all you need to do is connect the hub station to your router and the rest is wire free. The battery in each camera should last 3-6 months, depending on usage, and is fully charged again in 3.5 hours.

Video can be recorded at up to 4K resolution so pictures should be crystal clear and there’s a security light built in to each camera that’s triggered by motion, to give its excellent night vision a helping hand if needed. There’s even a siren you can sound remotely from your phone – just in case you spot something you don’t like.

The app is stacked with features to help tailor the camera to suit your needs, but a lot of the more in-depth functionality comes as part of Arlo Smart – Arlo’s advanced security subscription.

It’s worth it. With Arlo Smart, the cameras can tell the difference between humans, animals and vehicles and can tailor its notifications to suit. That means you can choose to only be notified if it spots a human, for example, rather than pinging your phone with an alert every time the neighbour’s cat passes through your garden.

Masterlock Biometric padlock

Keeping our gardens safe is as important as keeping our homes safe, but so many of us often neglect to secure sheds and outbuildings with the same consideration as we would our front door. When you consider expensive items like tools, lawnmowers and bikes are often kept here, they can be a target for criminals – so security is important.

Masterlock is a company that specialises in security products and we really love the techy edge that they’ve added into a range of their products for flexibility and convenience. This is the biometric padlock that saves you the faff of remembering where you left the keys, with fingerprint unlocking. You can store up to 10 fingerprints too, so all the family can get access – plus there is a keypad, for combination unlocking in case of any problems.

Of course it’s fully weatherproof, and has a super-secure body that is resistant to sawing and cutting. The battery will last for a year, and when you need to change it, it’s just a standard CR2 battery you’ll need to replace it.

FirePit+ Wood & Charcoal Burning Fire Pit

Campfires look great in movies, but that’s because they leave out the bit where the lead actor spends two hours trying to light the thing, and the next two days trying to stop smelling like a peat bog. The FirePit+ takes the hassle out of building a fire, while eliminating most of that pesky smoke and making it safer too.

The gadget from Biolite upgrades your campfire by adding some air jets to the mix. Air tubes line the bottom of the fire basket and these channel a fresh supply of air to your burn with the help of a battery-powered fan. This makes for a hotter, and therefore cleaner, flame that generates less smoke.

The hyper-efficient flames burn for 30 hours on the lowest setting and 7 hours on the highest so your evening of al fresco entertainment won’t be cut short. We really like the addition of the X-ray mesh which allows for 360 degree air flow. This means everyone in the group can enjoy the warmth equally and see what’s going on, which is not always the case with all portable fire pits.

Another stand-out feature is the free Bluetooth app which allows you to control the size of your flames through your phone. So you don’t even need to leave your cosy spot to check on the fire.

If your friends become peckish, this garden gadget can be transformed into a hibachi-style grill. Whether it’s sausages or marshmallows you’re cooking up, all you need to do is lift the fuel rack and chuck in some charcoal and you’re ready to go!

Everdure 4K outdoor electric ignition cooker

As outdoor cooking appliances go, they don’t get much sleeker than this. From the mind of Heston Blumenthal, this garden gadget is an electric ignition charcoal BBQ cooker, which allows you to cook your favourite BBQ treats at temperatures as low as 110 degrees Celsius, to over 400. So you can slow cook lamb all day, or rapidly scorch a veggie kebab – just select your preferred temperature on the digital display.

Press the fast-flame ignition button and you should be ready to go in 10 minutes, so its contemporary design should allow for a faff free and efficient BBQ hosting experience. It’ll work for pizzas too, so while it’s on the expensive side, you’ve got a lot of freedom in terms of deciding what to cook when enjoying the outdoors.

Meater 50m Long Range Smart Wireless Meat Thermometer

We love Meater, it takes the stress out of cooking meat. It’s a food thermometer with Bluetooth built in. This means you can monitor the temperature of your meat while you do other things, like enjoy a few cold drinks with friends.

Meater measures both the internal temperature of your food and the temperature outside it, and uses both pieces of information to tell you how long it’s going to take to get your steak to medium-rare, sounding an alarm when it reaches the desired temp (around 65°C).

So if you’re keen to show off your cooking skills in the garden as well as the kitchen, this wireless thermometer could do just the trick.

With an extended Bluetooth range of up to 50m, this handy BBQ gadget allows you to monitor the temperature of your meat over Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and via Alexa.

And if you’ve not already fallen for this kitchen gadget, the product is (the two dreamy words we always want to find when we’ve got a mountain of dishes to get through) dishwasher safe.

GTA 26 Cordless Garden Pruner

It’s a mini-chain saw, what more do we need to say? Ok, well, if you need convincing, this garden gadget from STIHL can be used for cutting trees, shrubs and garden waste and with a high chain speed of 8m/s, you’re looking at quick, powerful and clean results. Practicalities aside, it’s hard to deny how much fun this looks! That treehouse you’ve always been meaning to build is suddenly a lot more appealing.

The non-slip, rubberised handles allow for accurate control and the lightweight design makes it easy to carry. Another helpful feature is the readable LED charge level indicator which tells you how much battery you have left.

As well as the lithium-ion battery and the charger, the set also includes a convenient carry bag so if you fancy helping out a friend, you can easily pack up your kit and hop across to their garden. And we reckon you’ll be looking for any excuse to spend an afternoon getting to grips with this exciting tool.

DEX FIT Level 5 Cut Resistant Gloves

Gardening can be a dangerous game (especially if you do it with a chainsaw) and there can be a risk of injury when you’re pruning, slicing and cutting. Luckily the Cru553 range is here to offer a helping hand.

The DEX FIT gloves protect your hands from cuts, abrasions and punctures while being thin enough to let you move freely. Level 5 cut resistant protection is the extreme level of safety you’re after if you work with blades, box cutters, plastic sheets and glass.

With durable foam nitrile coating, comfortable 3D stretch and a thin lightweight 13-gauge, this garden gadget has been designed with both safety and comfort in mind. And of course style has not been left out either.

What’s more, these snazzy gloves are not solely for garden use. They can be used under water for activities such as spearfishing or diving, or if you’d rather stay on land, you could wear them for climbing or even preparing food. Whatever you’re doing, you’ll not need to miss any calls as, conveniently, the gloves are compatible with touch screens.

If red doesn’t do it for you, the gloves are also available in green, blue, grey and black. With five different sizes to choose from, ranging from XS to XL, you can make sure you find the perfect fit.

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