- Gardening and growing your own plants is a rewarding activity, but it’s not the easiest practice to master, especially when you lack time or patience and when there are factors you can’t control such as amount of sunlight.
- The Click & Grow Smart Garden ($ 199.95) is a self-watering system that allows even the most amateur gardeners to quickly and effortlessly grow herbs and vegetables.
- It does so without using GMOs, pesticides, insecticides, or other harmful substances, putting you in full control of the food you grow and consume.
- We tried it and were impressed with how well it worked and how truly effortless the process was.
Though I personally don’t possess a green thumb, I’ve always envied those who do successfully nurture their plants. Traditional gardening takes skill, patience, and work that pay off in beautiful and delicious results, but can be intimidating to beginners or unappealing to busy people.
Anything that makes growing plants easier and gives me a semblance of gardening credibility is intriguing to me, so when I learned about the Click & Grow Smart Garden, I was eager, albeit a little nervous, to give it a try. The Click & Grow claims to be a zero-effort device that promises maximum results, and about a month into testing it, it’s clearly lived up to its mission.
Here’s what it’s like to grow herbs with the Click & Grow Smart Garden.
I set up the Click & Grow Smart Garden 9, which comprises three parts — a base that holds the seed pods and water tank, an LED light strip, and arms to connect the base to the light — in our office in all of 15 minutes. After filling the four-liter tank with water and inserting each soil capsule into a pod, I plugged the garden into an outlet. The light is pretty bright, and it runs for 16 hours on, eight hours off, so if you plan on keeping it in your bedroom, you should plug it in for the first time right after you wake up.
My garden of green lettuce, mini tomatoes, and basil (three of each, for a total of nine plants) was up and running on March 5, and as you can see from this photo below, by March 28, they had already made significant progress.
I’m continually impressed by how quickly the plants are growing, and based on their comments, so are all of my colleagues who pass by the desk and check up on their progress every day. A combination of factors contributes to this fast, seamless growth:
- “Smart Soil” that creates the perfect environment for plants to thrive: This NASA technology-inspired soil releases nutrients in sync with the plant life cycle, keeps its own pH balanced, and employs tiny oxygen pockets to guarantee plants get ample breathing room and nutrients even when the soil is wet.
- Strong, non-wasteful LED lights: The LED light system only requires six watts of energy, which equals an $5 annual electricity bill of running the garden. It’s a consistent and strong source of light that anyone not fortunate enough to live in the select few perpetually sunny areas of the world will appreciate. Scarce or unpredictable sunlight is a frustrating factor of gardening that we can’t control, and this light system is a foolproof way to combat potential inconsistencies.
- A large, self-watering tank: You don’t need to individually water each plant and wonder if you watered it too much or too little. Instead, you just pour water into the subtle opening in the corner of the base. You’ll know whether to refill the tank once the water fill indicator reaches a low point. Though I didn’t keep track of the exact periods of time between tank refills, I do know that it was less than I expected. Unlike with traditional plants, it was completely fine if I didn’t think about the water consumption for days on end.
Thanks to these elements, I could just sit back and reap all the benefits of a sustainable food garden without even breaking a sweat. For additional support, such as how to cut or transplant your plants, the Click & Grow website is filled with helpful resources. I found that they answered all my questions succinctly and prevented me from diving into the complicated rabbit hole of gardening that’s filled with irrelevant information.
Lettuce, tomato, and basil aren’t the only things you can grow with the Click & Grow.
Though the Smart Garden 9 already comes with this complimentary set, more than 40 refill capsules are also available for purchase. You can choose from a wide variety of delicious herbs and vegetables, including chives, cilantro, dill, sage, oregano, parsley, thyme, kale, leaf mustard, chili pepper, and sweet pepper.
These fresh ingredients are just an arm’s reach away on your kitchen countertop as you cook. Since the soil doesn’t contain any harmful, unnatural substances like GMOs or pesticides, and you watched them grow with your own eyes, you have the peace of mind that they’re better for your body than a container that you picked off a grocery store shelf.
Finally, having the Click & Grow in our office was simply visually and mentally enriching.
It brought some greenery to our desk space and was a breath of fresh air every day we walked into the office. I enjoyed staying on top of its progress and it was exciting to see the plants grow over the weeks. I felt an undue amount of pride about my little plants — even though I barely had to do anything to make them grow and thrive.
Also check Weed Eater Hero Website.
