This Smart Garden Made Growing My Own Herbs a Reality

The chef-y side of me has always wanted an herb garden. The only problem is I don't have a backyard... or a front yard. It's basically just my two room apartment and a balcony with bad sunlight. So when my partner came home one day with a Click & Grow garden, something lit up inside me. It's ignited my smart garden era.

Over the past six weeks, I've been growing and harvesting basil using this indoor, light-powered smart garden. From strange dirt and seed pod to fully fledged (delicious) leaves, I've watched my babies grow in a way I used to think only possible once I moved to the actual suburbs of Queens or New Jersey.

It's been a fun process, but not without a few flaws. I have some lingering questions about the sustainability of pod growing. Plus if you have good sunlight and a touch more space, it can be just as easy to get a pot, a good indoor soil, and seeds. But if you need the push, a Click & Grow is the perfect product to give it. Here are my thoughts.

The Click & Grow values simplicity over modularity, and this shows in the set up. There's just three required steps. Plug in the garden, insert the self-contained seed pods, and fill with water. No getting your hands dirty or real gardening required. There's no adjusting the grow light's brightness or timer—a cycle will begin automatically the moment you plug it in. This cycle mimics the sun, pushing back the start time each day. I admittedly find myself wishing I had more options on this front, especially ones for dimming the light at night.

Three basil pods come with the starter kit, with all types of pods available to purchase if you want to continue growing. Pick from herbs, flowers, fruits, and vegetables. I can't speak to whether the smaller Click & Grow has the capacity for larger produce like tomatoes and peppers, but it looks like everything on the store is skews small.

The growing phase is just as low maintenance. All you need to do for watering is keep the floating water tank part level. When it dips below, it's time to refill. I fill the tank every two to three days, but I'm a little neurotic about keeping it full so you could go on vacation for longer and survive. After a few days, my seeds had turned into sprouts and from there every morning brought exciting new growth. The kit comes with two extenders that will raise the lights and allow your plants to grow taller. Once they've almost hit the top with that final extender installed, you know it's time to harvest.

This is the part that will require the most research—nowhere does the Click & Grow tell you best practices for harvesting basil and keeping the plant alive. Using the knowledge of the internet and my green-thumbed friends, I've managed to keep my herb garden alive and producing, even if it hasn't hit the same heights since that first harvest. A month in it's still blooming tasty basil, but the returns have already diminished. So far, it's grown excellent garnish for my summer tomato galette and a key component of the red sauce for my favorite eggplant parmigiana.

Growing my own basil, learning how to harvest, incorporating it into my cooking—farm to table all from my kitchen counter—has been nothing short of awesome. All from the confines of my Brooklyn apartment. Even though it lacks the adjustable lamp settings of other smart garden, it's still some of the most fun I've had with a gadget all year.

For $100, the Click & Grow is the ultimate beginner's smart garden—small enough to fit in any apartment. No more excuses, it's time to chef the fuck up and start growing your own herbs.

Click & Grow Indoor Herb Garden Kit

Pros

• No planting or getting dirty
• Easy water system
• Tags for labeling on every pod
• Automatic light cycling
• Adjustable lamp height
• High quality herbs (based on what I've got)

Cons

• The lamp gets very bright
• Only one brightness setting
• Other smart gardens look nicer
• Less plentiful harvests than traditional growing