The Best Matter-Compatible Garden Equipment

With the Matter standard hitting the scene almost two years ago, we've seen the market flooded with smart home staples like plugs, sensors, and light bulbs. Now with the basics covered, manufacturers have begun turning their attention to other important aspects of our daily lives—which includes the great outdoors.

But what exactly can Matter offer in an outdoor setting? In this guide, we'll discuss how you can implement Matter into your garden, porches, and patios, and give you some recommended products to help get you started.

What Can Matter Do For Your Garden?

You've no doubt seen all the various ways that smart home devices bring convenience and security to your smart home through voice controls and automation. Matter-compatible products for the outdoors do pretty much the same—albeit with additional capabilities and protections. 

Looking for a way to light up darker areas around your home? There are many Matter-compatible outdoor string, path, and light fixtures available. Want to add an extra layer of security to entrances? Outdoor motion sensors can do just that through timely alerts and can be used to toggle other devices.

Matter-compatible outdoor products also open the door to whole new automation possibilities. For example, devices like the Tapo Matter Outdoor Smart Plug can handle higher electrical loads meaning you can finally put your pool pump or fountain on a schedule.

In the near future, Matter products will also be able to take over lawn and garden watering duties. The recently released Matter 1.3 specification added support for water management devices such as sprinklers, faucets, and rain sensors so we should be seeing these devices on the market soon.

What to Look For in Matter-Compatible Garden Equipment

Although everyone's outdoor needs will vary, we believe that carefully considering budget, features, and platform will help guide you to the best product for your smart home.

• Budget: Matter devices can cost a pretty penny. If budget is a concern, you can save by reusing older lighting and garden equipment with a Matter-compatible outdoor smart plug.
• Features: For outdoor usage, it is crucial that you only use products with a certified Ingress Protection (IP) rating. These will help to ensure that your investment—and your home—is protected.
• Platform: Matter makes it easy to use accessories across platforms, but some devices may require additional hardware. You can avoid potential roadblocks by looking out for references to hubs when shopping around.

The Top Matter-Compatible Garden Equipment

Whether you are looking for an outdoor power solution, lighting, or security sensor, we've got you covered with a few of our favorites.

Philips Hue Econic White & Color Ambiance Outdoor Smart Pathway Light

As its name suggests, the Philips Hue Econic Pathway Light is the perfect Matter-compatible solution for illuminating outdoor walkways. This low-voltage pedestal-style light produces up to 590 lumens of peak brightness per unit, and with available extensions, you can cover runs of any length.

Like other Philips Hue products, the Econic also supports the ability to display over 16 million colors, so it also doubles as a decorative light for the holidays. And while it is a little pricey—especially when you factor in the required Hue Bridge—IP 44 weather-resistance and 25,000-hour life expectancy will ensure your investment is protected year-round.

Tapo Matter Outdoor Smart Plug

Tapo's P400M Smart Wi-Fi Outdoor Plug transforms your older garden lights, equipment, or decorations into Matter-compatible products in an instant. Just plug your devices in, scan the Matter pairing code with your preferred app, and then sit back and enjoy scheduling, automation, and more.

The P400M sports two independent smart outlets—each supporting loads up to 1800 watts—which you can toggle via a voice assistant, app, or the on-device buttons. On the inside is a powerful Wi-Fi radio capable of transmitting data up to 300 feet away, and IP65 weather-resistance features allow operation in temperatures ranging from -4 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit.

Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights Pro

If you love to put on an outdoor show during the holidays but hate the hassle of stringing lights and taking them down at the end of the season then Govee has a smart solution for you. The Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights Pro forgoes traditional string light styling in favor of a puck lighting system designed to stay up all year long with built-in IP67 weather resistance.

Each puck provides up to 50 lumens of bright whites and colorful lighting and since each is addressable, you can use them as accents for your home during non-holiday periods. Govee's lights are available in multiple finishes in starter kits with lengths up to 200 feet, and an easy-to-use splicing system allows for a truly customizable installation.

Eve Motion

The Matter-compatible Eve Motion Sensor performs double duty for your home with timely security event notifications and the ability to activate other connected devices. For instance, the Eve Motion sensor can notify you when someone is lurking around at night, and toggle a porch light to shine a light on the subject. 

In addition to Matter, Eve's motion sensor supports the latest wireless networking standard—Thread—which helps conserve battery life. With Thread onboard, the Eve Motion can also join other smart devices to form an ultra-reliable home network that provides lightning-fast response times without a vendor-specific hub.

Nanoleaf Essentials Matter Smart Multicolor Outdoor String Lights

Cafe lights are everywhere these days, and the latest versions—including this set from Nanoleaf—are finally beginning to incorporate Matter. The Nanoleaf Essentials Smart Outdoor String Light set includes 20 RGBWIC LED bulbs along a span of 49 feet, each spreading 55 lumens of fun onto porches, patios, and other garden areas.

While they give the appearance of glass with their striking design, Nanoleaf's lights are made to withstand the elements with an IP67 water resistance rating and shatterproof bulbs. Matter-over-Wi-Fi connectivity ensures basic compatibility with Alexa, Google, Apple Home, and SmartThings right out of the box, and the Nanoleaf app enables extras like dynamic scenes and music syncing.

Eve Weather

The Eve Weather shrinks down the classic weather station into an incredibly compact device that gives you a true look at the conditions just outside your door. Eve's tiny weather wonder tracks temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure and puts measurements front and center on its built-in e-ink display.

As with the Eve Motion, the Eve Weather connects to your smart home over Thread, enabling lengthy battery life despite running on a single 2450 coin cell. And with the Eve Weather being IPX4-certified, you can mount it just about anywhere with the included hardware without needing to worry about potential damage.

Bring Your Garden to Life With Matter-Compatible Equipment

Matter is slowly but surely making its way to the great outdoors with easy-to-use devices for all sorts of categories. If you need a simple remote for your outdoor pumps, decorations, or lights, we recommend the Tapo Matter Outdoor Smart Plug with its two independently controllable outlets.

For the ultimate light show this holiday season, we suggest putting up a set of the Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights Pro. These Matter-compatible lights offer tons of fun colors and scenes, but the best part is that you can leave them up year-long without them sticking out like a sore thumb.