We independently research and compare every product. If you buy through a link, we may earn a commission. How we test →
Tested this season

Raised Bed vs Container Gardening: Which Is Right for Your Yard?

If you’re starting a vegetable garden this season, the first real decision isn’t which tomato variety to plant — it’s whether you’re building raised beds...

2026 review 1 full growing season Updated July 2026
Raised Bed vs Container Gardening: Which Is Right for Your Yard?
Top picks

Best robotic mowers worth buying

Picked for durability, assembly time, and value per season of use.

Explore

Browse by category

Latest

Fresh guides & reviews

Patio furniture materials compared: teak, aluminum, and wicker
Outdoor Living

How to Choose Patio Furniture That Survives Your Climate

Most patio furniture is bought in a showroom or on a product page, where every material looks equally durable. The…

Raised garden bed versus container garden comparison
Gardening

Raised Bed vs Container Gardening: Which Is Right for Your Yard?

If you’re starting a vegetable garden this season, the first real decision isn’t which tomato variety to plant — it’s…

Comparison of a rain barrel, above-ground cistern, and underground water tank used for residential rainwater harvesting.
Landscaping

Rain Barrels vs Cisterns vs Underground Tanks Explained

Once you’ve confirmed rainwater harvesting is legal where you live, the next question is almost always about scale: do you…

Evapotranspiration diagram showing how weather affects lawn watering needs.
Water Systems

How Smart Irrigation Controllers Work: ET, Weather & Watering Explained

If you’ve ever wondered how a smart irrigation controller knows when to water — even before your lawn starts looking…

Technical Knowledge

Frequently Checked Yard Specs

RTK (Real-Time Kinematic) GPS pairs a fixed base station on your property with satellite positioning to reach centimeter-level accuracy — far tighter than a phone's regular GPS. It removes the need for a buried boundary wire, but most RTK mowers (including the Mammotion LUBA 2 AWD) still require a physical RTK reference station mounted somewhere on your property with a clear sky view. Newer models are moving to "NetRTK," which pulls correction data over 4G/Wi-Fi instead of a physical base station.

Not necessarily. On the LUBA 2 AWD, for example, the 38° (80%) figure is the main-lawn slope rating — the edge-cutting slope rating is lower, around 24°, because the mower's wheels have less traction right at a boundary. If your property has steep banks specifically at the lawn's edge, plan those as no-go zones rather than assuming the headline spec applies everywhere.

The EPA's WaterSense program states that replacing a standard clock-timer controller with a WaterSense-labeled smart controller can save an average home up to 15,000 gallons of water annually. Precision systems that replace spray patterns entirely, like Irrigreen's digital sprinkler heads, advertise up to 50% less water use versus traditional overlapping sprinklers — that figure comes from the manufacturer, so treat it as a ceiling rather than a guarantee for every yard.

Pure satellite-based RTK positioning can lose accuracy under dense canopy. This is why most current-generation mowers, including the LUBA 2 AWD, pair RTK with a camera-based vision system — when satellite signal gets blocked, the mower falls back on visual navigation to keep its position. Coverage under heavy, continuous canopy is still the weakest scenario for any GPS-based system, regardless of brand.

No — rules vary by state and sometimes by municipality. Most states allow residential rain barrel collection without a permit, but a few have historically restricted it due to water-rights law. Always check your specific state and local water authority before installing a collection system, especially if you're in a state with more complex water-rights history.

It depends on the brand and model. Some controllers include lifetime weather-data access with the hardware purchase; others, especially systems using cellular/4G connectivity for remote control, may include a set number of free years before a renewal fee applies. Check this specifically before buying if remote/away-from-home control matters to you.

Editor's Top Pick

RTK vs LiDAR vs Boundary Wire: How Robotic Mowers Navigate Your Yard

If you’ve started shopping for a robotic mower, you’ve probably run into three unfamiliar terms in…

Read the guide