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The future garden

Jan 1999

I once had a frivolous conversation with a journalist about how our homes would change in the future with new technology. Eventually we came to the garden and the only future technology I could think of was robotic lawn trimmers. But we kept chatting and had some more thoughts. Even in the semi-natural setting of a garden, there is much that can be done.

Surely gardens are a place to get back to nature. Why would we want technology there? The fact is that our gardens already use a wide range of genetically enhanced plants and flowers, state of the art fertilisers and soil conditioners, fancy lawnmowers and automatic sprinkler systems. So what can we expect next?

Fibre optic plants would add a touch of enchantment to a garden and be a good substitute for more conventional lighting. Home security may also make use of video monitors in the property perimeter, and these may communicate by radio or via cables buried in the ground. These many other appliances in the future garden, including the various armies of microbots will also need communication. These robots will do a range of jobs from cutting the grass every time a blade gets more than 3 cm long, weeding, watering, pollination or carrying individual grains of fertiliser to the plants that need it. Others will fight with bugs or tidy up debris, or remove dying flowers to keep the garden looking pristine. They could even assist in propagation, burying seeds in just the right places and tending fore them while they become established. The garden pond may have robot ducks or fish just for fun.

Various sensors may be inserted into the ground around the garden, These would warn when the ground is getting too dry and perhaps co-ordinate automatic sprinklers. They could also monitor the chemical composition, advising the gardener where to add which type of fertiliser or conditioner.

With all this robot assistance, the human may design the garden and then just let the robots get on with the construction and maintenance.

Another obvious potential impact comes in the shape of genetic engineering. While designing the genome for custom plants is not quite as simple as assembling Lego blocks, we will nevertheless be able to pick and choose from a wide variety of characteristics available from anywhere in the plant and animal kingdom. We are promised blue roses that smell of designer perfumes, grass that only needs cut once a year and ground cover plants that actually grow faster than weeds. By messing about with genes we can thus change the appearance and characteristics of plants enormously, and while getting a company logo to appear on a flower petal might be beyond us, the garden could certainly look much more kaleidoscopic than today's. Eventually, we will probably reach a level of technology where genetics could become a hobbyist activity, but it is more likely that the dangers involved would encourage legislation to prevent this.

But we are not limited by the Lego bricks provided by nature. Nanotechnology will eventually allow us to produce inorganic 'plants' . You may buy a seed and drop it in the required place and it would grow into a predetermined structure just like an organic seed, taking the materials from the soil or air, or perhaps from some additives. However, there is almost no theoretical limit to the type of 'plant' that could be produced this way. Flowers with logos are now possible, but so are video displays built into the flowers, so are garden gnomes that wander around or that actually fish in the pond. A wide range of static and dynamic ornamentation could add fun to every garden. Nanotechnology has so many possibilities, there are almost no ultimate limits to what can be done apart from the fundamental physics of materials. Power supplies for these devices could use solar, wind or thermal power.

On the patio, there is more scope for video displays in the paving and walls, to add colour or atmosphere, and also to provide a recharging base for the robots without their own independent power supplies. Flat speakers could also be built into the walls, providing birdsong or other natural sounds that are otherwise declining in our gardens. Appropriately placed large display panels could simulate being on a beach while sunbathing in Nottingham.

All in all, the garden could become a place of relaxation, getting back to what we like best in nature, without all the boring bits looking after it in our few spare hours. Even before we retire, we will be able to enjoy the garden, instead of just weeding and cutting the grass.