When I was growing up, each summer saw us moving up to the mountains for 3 months and into a nice house with a small garden. Every few days, my father would spend his afternoons watering the different plants, flowers, and trees, making sure each one got the attention it needs. However, there were days when taking care of the yard was either too time-consuming either too tiring, conflicting with social events, requiring he maintains it even when he was exhausted after work, and so on. We've debated installing a central sprinkler system, but held off on it for a few reasons. One of those was the lack of easy and smart automation.

That's why I was all smiles when I read about the Blossom 8. Apparently, the company, Blossom, already has a smart watering controller on the market, but it's releasing a smaller one now. The original Blossom supported 12-zone sprinkler systems, the Blossom 8 can go up to 8 which should be enough for many smaller homes and yards. There are a few other differences too, which you can check here.

So how does the Blossom 8 work? After a quick installation thanks to its irrigation valve sensing, it taps into the local weather forecast and takes into account conditions and rainfall to program the existing sprinklers while still letting you modify some settings and control for variables depending on vegetation type in your yard. That should take the guesswork out of automating your sprinklers and lower your water consumption while at it.

Blossom mentions the fact that it doesn't need to connect to other home automation systems as a benefit, but I'm not sure I agree on that point. It might be cause for less hassle, but I think it definitely would have been a bonus if you could integrate it with other smart home gadgets. Instead, you can only use Blossom's Android and iOS apps to manage the system.

The Blossom 8 will ship in May of 2016 for an MSRP of $129, but if you preorder it now, you can get it for $99. The bigger 12-zone Blossom usually costs $199, but it's lately been hovering around $150 on Amazon and the company has a bit of a hush-hush sale on its website for 9 at the moment. Both discounts are due to World Water Day so they may not last long.

Alternate title: Sprinkle Sprinkle Little Yard, Blossom Got You All So Smart

Source: Blossom 8

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