Gizmodo: garden

Husqvarna Panthera Leo Concept Mower is Electric-Powered and LCD-Equipped

Adrian Covert — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 03:00:00 EDT

Growing up, I hated mowing the lawn. My backyard was huge, my allergies were bad and I was stuck with a temperamental push mower. If I had this battery-powered Husqvarna mower, however, I would have begged to do yard work.

The best part of this the Panthera Leo mower isn't the electric-powered design, or the recyclable materials it's made of. No, it's the LCD monitor and sensors, which work together to tell you what speed and height you should mow at, plus inform you when you're on too steep a hill or about to hit an object. And the mower lasts two hours on a single charge.

Jalopnik says Husqvarna plans to put something similar into production within five years (basically, forever). But seriously, I would have driven this thing to school every day if I had one. Trust me. Oh, and check out more pics over at [Jalopnik].

RainwaterHOG Looks Great While Collecting Mother Nature's Liquid Givings

John Mahoney — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:30:00 EDT

The RainwaterHOG is a design-y rainwater tank (yes, there is such a thing) that collects rain to re-use in the garden, give to your dog or fill up your Super Soaker without draining the mains. Most people don't save rainwater because they don't want a giant open bucket/mosquito-larvae farm on their porch. But now, you can store it away in a nice recyclable virgin polyethylene tank. Each HOG holds 47 gallons, and they can be linked up with each other. [RainwaterHOG via PopTech]

Frellstedt Light-Up Bench: Illumination For Bums

Kit Eaton — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:00:00 EDT

Kind of the inverse of the psychedelic LED effects we showed you earlier, this relaxing Light Bench is maker Frellstedt's idea of the future of seating. You know, the future where even garden furniture uses up electricity and contributes to global warming. Okay, it's stuffed with LEDs, so it only consumes 95W, but you know what I'm saying. With its shifting, selectable color patterns, it's way too nice to end up in all but the best municipal parks, where it'd just keep tramps awake in the wee small hours. Ed. note: In case you didn't get it, "bum" is a double entendre. [Trendir]

Cordless Propane Mosquito Trap Gives You Al Fresco Bug Jerky

AddyDugdale — Wed, 21 May 2008 06:30:00 EDT

Effective over up to an acre of land, this battery-powered garden gadget allows you to commit mass mosquito-cide using a tank of propane. Silent and odorless, the trap emits octenol (something that mozzies find sexy, aspazzarently) to lure the beasties close to the machine. Once there, a vacuum gathers them into the "removable catch basin", or death pan, as I like to call it, where they are dehydrated, giving you the potential to serve mosquito, midge, black-fly and sand-fly biltong at your barbecues. Cost is $500, and the mosquito trap will run for up to three weeks on a 20-pound propane tank. [Hammacher Schlemmer]

Add Some Laughs To Your Lawn With Little Green Men

Kit Eaton — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 05:52:49 EST

Much as I think all lawn ornaments should be heaped into a pile and blown to kingdom come, I think I could spare a corner of my garden for these tiny chaps and their crashed spaceship. Disappointingly not made from exotic metals recovered from the Roswell crash site, they are instead made of weatherproof resin. The 9-inch space ship and two 7-inch aliens are available for $49.95, or 3000 Flanian Pobble beads. [What on Earth via Nerd Approved]

S(tool) Turns Garden Fork into Garden Chair

Benny Goldman — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 17:10:00 EST

It's been a long summer day tending the garden and you need to sit down, but there is no chair in sight. If only you were using the S(tool), then you wouldn't have to worry about finding one. Designed by Langton Stead, the S(tool) is a bent wood handle with two garden forks on either side. All you have to do is shove them into your lawn, and BAM!, instant chair. The perfect gift for the laziest green thumb you know, it's available directly from the designer, though no word on price. [Langton Stead via productdose]

Solar-Powered Fairy Lights Make Your Christmas Cheap and Green

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 07:34:08 EST

We've seen solar-powered LED ski suits and interactive solar-powered roof tiles and now you can add that Christmassy touch to your garden with these solar-powered fairy lights.They feature 50 bright white LEDs, and charge automatically during the day to give you around nine hours of light at night. They will set you back $29.95, which is a little steep, but the bulbs will last 10,000 hours, which is enough for several years' fairy-lit evenings. Praying for sun around Christmastime will have never felt so normal. – Kit Eaton
[Hammacher Schlemmer via Oh Gizmo]

Afterglow Luminous Chair is Made from Recycled Milk Jugs

Addy Dugdale — Thu, 24 May 2007 06:11:25 EDT

The Afterglow chair, designed by Douglas Homer, is the perfect present for the entomologist in your life. Allow me to do a little bit of sexy scene-setting for you. It's a balmy summer evening and you and he/she have been making the bug with two backs for—ooh, almost seven minutes now (and that was doing it twice).

While you lounge in the afterglow, sated and unashamed, that special insect lover in your life is studying the Afterglow on the porch, checking the creepy-crawlies and roaches that climb with wild abandon over its HDPE surface. There's an armless two-seater as well as an ottoman if you really want to glow to town. – Ad Dugdale

Afterglow HDPE chair [NOTCOT]

Weed Burner: No, Not That Kind

Travis Hudson — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 12:43:07 EDT

Pulling and spraying weeds is so old fashion. Seriously, how are you going to get respect in your lawn if you have to excruciatingly hurt your back just to rid the lawn of weeds? I'm sure all of the other weeds are pointing and laughing at your pathetic attempts. The Weed Burner lets you smoke the weeds, legally. This small, lightweight device has an attached propane bottle and is essentially a miniature flame thrower. Stick it above the weed and burn away.

Don't have weeds? Buy one anyway. There is an attached control valve that regulates the amount of flame. Sounds like boatloads of fun to me. It is available for $35 over at the 'Zon. – Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via OhGizmo!]

Solar Powered Heated Garden Shower

Jason Chen — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 17:36:26 EDT

Wash off all that pool chlorine and your kids' pee pee with this solar powered ~~golden~~ garden shower. On a sunny enough day, connect the shower up to a garden hose, wait 30 minutes, and the shower will heat up the water up to 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). There's enough hot water for 5 showers—more if you like your showers just luke-warm.

Available from the UK for $900. – Jason Chen

Solar Powered Garden Shower [Coolest Gadgets]

Clips: Building the AeroGrow Kitchen Garden

Joel — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 15:34:57 EDT

We'll be reviewing the AeroGrow Kitchen Garden in a couple weeks, after we've given it a chance to work its horticultural magic. Until then, enjoy this short Clip detailing the assembly of one of the more interesting kitchen gizmos we've run across in a while.