[tomashubelbauer]

There is a very real band which one could call ESPgarden where it is not worth setting up LoRa or similar because the Wi-Fi can just about make it, but not quite to be reliable. I've found success with Wi-Fi extenders which aren't very good, but are just good enough to be able to be able to let some of my garden reach the network.

[ianburrell]

There is BLE Long Range (also called Coded PHY) which is Bluetooth with range of 1km. I bet that would be perfect for outdoor sensors. Longer range and lower power than Wifi, and Bluetooth ecosystem.

I couldn't find any devices that support it yet.