One of Europe’s leading manufacturers of battery powered domestic lawnmowers and garden machinery believes the combination of digital technology, battery power and high fuel costs will force a total rethink about the way the British mow their lawns and look after their gardens, with wireless technology charting the way forward.

STIGA is one of the leading brands of battery powered garden equipment in the UK and mainland Europe and believes the greater connectivity they now build into their equipment will increasingly encourage customers to follow on from the ‘smart home’ developments that are sweeping throughout the West into the garden.

Italian lawncare expert, Fabio Banin, works at STIGA’s headquarters in Veneto in Northern Italy. He works closely with the company’s R&D division and believes that digital and battery powered technology will take over gardening with automated watering and mowing in the future.

He says: “It is clear that wireless connectivity and energy efficiency will be the future.  We are seeing the ‘smart home’ continuing outdoors. Digital is taking over gardening.  We are also seeing increasing numbers of garden owners wanting to control their garden tools via apps. They also want products that are more convenient such as robotic mowers without the boundary wire.

“In the UK you have STIGA battery operated tractor mowers as well as other hand tools that run on the same batteries. You already have robotic mowers that work with specially developed algorithms and without the need for a cable.”

STIGA UK’s Gary Whitney broadly agreed: “We already have much of this technology within our current range. There is no doubt that robotic lawnmowers are taking an increasing market share in the UK and this will continue. The role of battery power, in lawnmowers in particular, has been given the most enormous boost by the steepling rise in fuel costs. We already have a full wireless controlled robotic mower and the products of the future will reflect this move towards Britain becoming a nation of ‘smart gardeners’.”