Polski
Rainwater Under Control and Lawns on Autopilot – What's New in Gardens
This week in the gardening industry reveals two faces of modern green-space management: from urban battles against drought and flooding to the home lawn that knows on its own when to water and when to mow. We take a look at what's changing and why it's worth following.
01 · Blue-Green Infrastructure
Pelplin Bets on Blue-Green Infrastructure
On September 29, 2026, the city of Pelplin opened its first-ever rain garden [1]. Located on Starogardzka Street, right next to the Centrum Wspierania Rodziny (Family Support Center), its job is to capture rainwater that, during heavy downpours, used to run off along more than 500 meters of sidewalk instead of soaking into the ground. The secret lies in permeable soil and carefully selected vegetation – together they filter out pollutants before the water reaches deeper into the ground, while also reducing the risk of local flooding after torrential rain.
For the city authorities, this is more than a one-off, isolated investment. Pelplin's rain garden is meant to serve as a pilot for the wider rollout of so-called blue-green infrastructure – an approach that treats rainwater as a resource to be captured and used, rather than a problem to be flushed away through the sewer system as quickly as possible. Given the increasingly frequent droughts and violent downpours plaguing Polish cities, solutions of this kind – relatively cheap to maintain and visually appealing – are gaining popularity among both local governments and green-space designers. It's a clear signal for landscape architects and nursery businesses alike: demand for plants and systems resistant to both periodic flooding and drought will keep growing in the coming years.
It's worth noting that Pelplin is far from an isolated case – rain gardens, infiltration basins, and green tram tracks are increasingly showing up in revitalization plans for small and mid-sized cities that lack the budget for costly stormwater sewer overhauls. For companies offering irrigation systems, drainage materials, or specialized plant mixes, this represents a new and growing segment of public procurement – and a good reason to start tailoring their offering to local government needs now.
Let's move from the urban scale down to the home lawn, where technology has also been keeping busy.
02 · Smart Garden
When a Robotic Mower Meets an Irrigation System
On October 1, 2026, the portal Szkółkarstwo.pl published a guide on coordinating the work of robotic lawn mowers with automatic garden irrigation systems [2]. The problem sounds mundane, but it affects a growing number of homeowners with green spaces: how to schedule both devices so they don't work against each other – since mowing wet, freshly watered grass is a sure way to ruin a lawn, clog up the robot's mechanism, and rack up unnecessary repairs.
The article fits into a broader trend visible in the smart garden segment: devices that used to operate side by side, entirely independently, are increasingly becoming parts of a single, jointly managed ecosystem controlled from one app. Instead of manually fine-tuning mowing and watering schedules through trial and error, users set the rules once, and the system takes care of sequencing the tasks correctly. For manufacturers and distributors of garden equipment, this marks a clear direction for product development – customers are less and less often looking for a single gadget, and more and more often for a complete, integrated garden-care solution that thinks for them.
Importantly, similar coordination challenges also apply to garden lighting, soil moisture sensors, and weather stations – the more smart devices make their way into a garden, the more customers expect them to "talk" to each other rather than simply operate independently side by side. This opens the door for manufacturers offering open integration platforms, rather than closed, single-product apps.
Summary
Summary
Both stories share a common thread: smart management of water and resources – whether on the scale of an entire city or a single plot of land. Pelplin shows how urban planning is adapting to a changing climate through simple yet effective solutions, while the integration of robotic mowers with irrigation shows how technology makes everyday greenery maintenance easier without wasting water or time. We'll be discussing similar trends – from blue-green infrastructure to the latest smart garden systems – live at Warsaw Garden Expo 2027 – the International Trade Fair for Landscape Architecture and Gardening. See you there!
Invitation
Rain gardens, integrated irrigation systems, and robotic mowers controlled from a single app – these are just a preview of the solutions you'll see live at Warsaw Garden Expo 2027. Meet suppliers of blue-green infrastructure and smart garden technology all in one place and talk to them about implementing these solutions on your own property. Book your spot today.
Warsaw Garden Expo 2027Footnotes
[1] tcz.pl — https://www.tcz.pl/wiadomosci/pierwszy-miejski-ogrod-deszczowy-w-pelplinie-juz-powstal-67de4a256275e97b[2] Szkółkarstwo.pl — https://szkolkarstwo.pl/polecane/roboty-koszace-a-system-nawadniania-jak-zaplanowac-prace-obu-instalacji/
This review was prepared by the Ptak Warsaw Expo editorial team.