You might be surprised at just how much installing a home weather station can mean for the success of your garden and flowerbeds. And for your peace of mind too!
It’s funny how there can be a gadget you never owned, but suddenly wonder how you ever lived without. And that is exactly the case with our home weather system.
In fact, we rely on it more than we ever thought possible to help keep our plants healthy and safe. Here’s a look at the benefits of installing a home weather system – and how easy it is to do!
The Benefits Of A Home Weather Station
When it comes to gardening and the weather, the two couldn’t be more connected. Rainfall, temperature, and other key weather factors play pivotal roles in the success and production of plants.
Especially when you know exactly what your specific flowerbeds and gardens are experiencing.
For instance, how cold it gets in the evening can be the difference between a plant that is damaged by frost or a hard freeze. As can knowing how much rain just fell, or how much as fallen the last few days or week.
Throw in knowing the humidity, light intensity and the UV index, and it can arm any gardener with powerful information. And in many cases, that knowledge can help save the day!
A Surprise Freeze – How Installing A Home Weather Station Can Save The Day
That is exactly what happened to us this past year, when our weather system saved a large portion of vegetable transplants in our garden.
It was one of those nights where the temps were forecast to bottom out at 44. With that in mind, we went to bed with no worries about our tender young plants.
So imagine our surprise when the weather alarm went off at 2 a.m. notifying us it was 35 degrees. Apparently, the weather folks had somehow missed that forecast! (never happens, right?)
It prompted an early morning visit to the garden to cover our vegetable plants. And in the process, saved them from an almost certain death.
The temperature ended up dipping all the way to 29 that night. And the surrounding frost/freeze would have surely stunted or killed them off completely. (See : How To Protect A Garden From Frost)
Why Home Weather Stations Are So Important
A home weather system’s value of course goes far beyond just telling you the temperature. Especially when they can measure rainfall, humidity and more – to your exact specific location.
Knowing just how much rain fell today, or in the last week is a great way to know if any watering needs to be done. And as we all know, rainfall can vary a huge amount within a mile or two. So knowing what fell exactly on your garden is truly a big deal!
Installing A Home Weather Station
We utilize an Acurite Atlas Weather Station for our home unit. Acurite makes a whole line of weather stations to fit nearly any need or budget, and best of all, we love how easy they are to install.
To set up, you simply need to mount the weather station unit, and set up the display – that’s it! Although you can purchase a mounting pole, we used an existing post in our yard to mount the unit 5′ feet off the ground.
It is important when mounting any weather station to place it in a range to measure the true air temp. Mounting too close to the ground can result in false readings from the heat of the soil. Anywhere from 4′ to 6′ high is best.
Beyond that, it is as easy as setting up the home base inside to connect to the unit. One of the things we really like about our unit is that it allows for a wireless range up to 330 feet from the in-home display. That leaves plenty of room to place the sensors in the garden where they can show the exact conditions of that space.
The Remote Option
Specifically, we us the Acurite Atlas Weather Station With Wi-Fi Remote version on our farm. With it, we are able to receive the weather data right to our smart phones in addition to the in-house display, which is great for setting up temperature or weather alerts like the frost story above.
The Acurite Atlas weather station measures temperature, rainfall totals, humidity, wind speed, wind direction, light intensity, UV index, and even lightning strikes.
Yes, I will admit it can get a bit addictive looking at all the weather stats. But they really do come in handy when it comes to our garden. And it truly has been such a help in watering and protecting our plants. Happy Gardening – Jim & Mary
Jim and Mary Competti have been writing gardening, DIY and recipe articles and books for over 15 years from their 46 acre Ohio farm. The two are frequent speakers on all things gardening and love to travel in their spare time.
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