Currently, there are three rather delicate, edible plants — thyme, parsley, and arugula — hanging on to dear life on my balcony. They require love and (more importantly) water every day, and despite being at home 24/7 because of COVID-19, I still can’t get a healthy care routine going.
For those of us who have the black thumb of death or living spaces without light conditions conducive to growing plants, an indoor smart garden might be our best (and only) chance at becoming the gardeners we were never destined to be.
The Click & Grow Smart Garden 3 is an all-in-one indoor garden system that provides the light source, food, and water you need to successfully grow fresh herbs, vegetables, fruits, and flowers from inside your home.
⚡ Mashable Score
4.5
Getting started with the Click & Grow Smart Garden 3
When the Smart Garden arrived, the package was smaller than I expected it to be, which was a pleasant surprise because I was concerned with how much space it would take up.
The outside packaging is sleek and minimal, and the inside is much of the same: You have the water tank and light, three plant pods, a couple of light extensions, and the power source. The instructions are printed directly on the packaging and the total setup process takes around ten minutes.
The first few minutes entail taking everything out of the package and adding fresh water to the tank. Instructions say to add “about 1.3 L/44 oz of water,” but I truly had no idea what that meant. As you pour water in, you’ll know the garden has enough when the water level indicator floats evenly with the surface of the tank.
If the water level indicator sits too high, you’ve overwatered it. Oxygen has difficulty traveling through soil when it is constantly wet, and the plant will drown.
Next, you’ve got your plant pods, which look like oversized single-serve coffee containers, and this is where your plants will grow from. Instead of coffee though, the contents include something called Smart Soil, which is made up of natural and renewable materials and doesn’t contain any pesticides. They also contain mineral salts, a common ingredient in organic fertilizers that help promote growth.
The Smart Garden 3 comes with three basil plant pods, but there are dozens of options you can purchase online, including strawberries, tomatoes, peas, lavender, parsley, kale, lettuce, and peppers. Prices range from $9.95 for a 3-pack of individual plants to $23.95 for a number of 9-pack variety mixes.
The latter half of the setup involves placing the pods into the top of the water tank, adding the transparent germination domes (which trap moisture and encourage growth) over the plants, and plugging in the Smart Garden 3 to turn on the LED lights.
Then, you wait.
Luckily, you won’t have to wait long. The day after plugging in the Smart Garden 3, I could already see a few tiny green sprouts, forcing their way through the soil.
A few days went by, and then a full week, and suddenly my basil was bursting through the plastic domes (which you must then remove). Nearly two weeks in and the basil plants were each three inches tall.
At this point, I went back into the original package and retrieved one of the light arm extensions, which adds several inches of height to the LED lights. It’s crucial to raise the lights before the plants get too close and you risk the leaves getting damaged. It happened to a few of my leaves, but I removed them before they could do structural damage to the plant.
During this time, I also refilled the water tank. Although I struggled watering my store-bought plants, the Smart Garden 3 can be placed anywhere in your home where you frequently visit, like the kitchen, so it’s easy to see it and remember to water it. Plus, you only have to add water once every two weeks, which is a much more forgiving cadence.
At three weeks, I added the second and last light arm extension, and at about a month, my basil was inching closer to the highest light option available. It’s amazing what you can grow under perfectly optimized conditions – my plants are nearly a foot tall.
Is the Click & Grow Smart Garden 3 worth it?
After over a month, I tried my first basil leaf. You can harvest at four weeks if you’re fine with various harvesting events and only wanting to snip a few leaves. If you’re looking to make pesto, you should wait until the eight-week mark and harvest it all at once. The taste was better than anything I could get at the supermarket.
At $99.95, the Smart Garden 3 may be less expensive than other gadgets in your kitchen — a high-tech sous vide machine or an entry-level espresso machine will cost more — but it’s not cheap.
There are hydroponic plans you can build yourself, but they require more space and you may need to purchase PVC pipes, large containers, nutrients, grow lights, and irrigation sprinkler heads, among other items. If you’re a seasoned gardener this is a viable option, but for everyone else, it’s probably not.
The Smart Garden 3 grows edible plants in a space- and time-efficient way, indoors in areas with low light. Pods have to be purchased for each plant, but what you increase in cost you gain in design and ease of use. If you’re looking for a convenient way to grow plants indoors, the Smart Garden 3 is a solid choice you can use right out of the box.