Will the Gardena SILENO free work in a garden with tall trees and hedges?

It depends how much of the lawn is shaded from the sky. The GARDENA smart SILENO free steers by satellite positioning with RTK corrections, and Gardena lists no camera or LiDAR to help when that signal is weak. Open lawns suit it best; a plot boxed in by tall conifers, a large tree canopy or a three-storey house is a harder case.

RTK works by comparing satellite signals with correction data to fix the mower's position to within a few centimetres. When trees, walls or dense hedges block part of the sky, the receiver sees fewer satellites and accuracy drops. In practice that tends to show up along the edges of a lawn and in shaded corners, which are also where the mower is closest to borders and fences.

Some points worth checking before you buy:

• How much of the lawn has open sky overhead, especially near the edges.
• Whether narrow side passages run between the house and a tall fence.
• Whether you're happy to exclude a few difficult spots as no-mow areas in the app.

If your garden is heavily shaded, a mower that combines satellites with a camera may cope better. Gardena's own GARDENA smart SILENO sense does that, though it's rated for a smaller lawn. Our navigation guide explains the differences between RTK, vision and LiDAR systems.