Indoor gardens are a godsend for people who do not have their own outdoor space but would like to make their homes more “green.” There are also people who would like to grow their own herbs and use them in their cooking. Whatever the reason, having a messy indoor garden or having indoor plants die on you is now a thing of the past, thanks to products like Click and Grow and AeroGarden.
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Click and Grow
Click and Grow promises you the ability to successfully grow herbs and plants of your choice, even if you have managed to kill all the plants you had in the past. Click and Grow has special plant capsules, their own special soil, and LED lights to help your seeds grow even when you keep them indoors. You do not have to be a green thumb and you only need to put in a little effort to have healthy herbs in no time.
When you get your Smart Garden from Click and Grow, you just put the plant capsules into the soil and then add water. After that, plug in the Smart Garden and that’s it.
You can choose from several configurations of Click and Grow. There’s the standard Smart Garden 3, which features the adjustable LED lamp good for three plants. For those who like a variety of herbs, you can get the Smart Garden 9, which allows you to have up to nine plants.
For those people who want more, there is the Wall Farm, which can hold 51 plants, and the Wall Farm Mini, which is a smaller version that can hold up to 34 plants.
Pricing
The Smart Garden 3 is less pricey, but Click and Grow offers you the option to subscribe to their plant capsules. You would get a new three-pack plant capsule every two months, allowing you to replenish your herb garden after you have harvested it. The subscription will give you the Smart Garden 3 and at least six three-pack plant capsules which altogether are half the price if you buy them all separately.
The Smart Garden 9, on the other hand, is mid-priced. But with a plant subscription, you get 18 three-pack plant capsules and the Smart Garden 9 that are budget-friendly.
The Wall Farm and Wall Farm Mini are sold in kits. You can choose to grow flowers or herbs, or have everything you need for a nice salad or buy the leaves you can use to make tea.
Looks and design
Click and Grow uses a lightweight plastic material for its products. Do not let that turn you off, though. When you have the Smart Garden 3 on a tabletop or a countertop, it looks really sleek. It comes in muted color choices, too – white, beige, and gray – so it blends right in with your current decor.
Smart soil
One of the most important components of Click and Grow is the smart soil. It has all the nutrients and components that plants need in order to grow healthy. The smart soil is able to release the nutrients at the right amounts at the right time, helping your plants grow from seeds to sprouts to full bloom. The soil is pH balanced and has little pockets of oxygen, allowing your plants to get the nutrients from the wet soil.
Other features
Click and Grow has other features needed for healthy plants. These are:
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- Grow lights. Click and Grow uses grow lights, which mimic sunlight. Grow lights provide your plants with light for 16 hours, helping with germination and healthy growth. The built-in timer would automatically turn the lights off for 8 hours to mimic nighttime. These LED lights use only anywhere from $4 to $7 of electricity yearly.
- Watering tank. The beauty of Click and Grow is that you do not have to remember to water your plants every day. The water tank automatically waters your herbs, flowers, and plants. You only need to refill the water tank periodically. For example, the Smart Garden 9 needs you to refill only once a month.
- Biodomes. Click and Grow has biodomes that create a greenhouse effect to help your plants grow even without taking them outside your home.
Refills
Another great thing about Click and Grow is the wide variety of plants that you can grow. If you want a decorative indoor garden, you can choose to plant flowers such as Busy Lizzie, lavender, moss rose, French marigold, petunia, and others. If you have a passion for cooking, you can grow herbs such as rosemary, marjoram, basil, peppermint, thyme, among others. You can even get everything you need to whip up a delicious salad such as wild strawberries, kale, chili peppers, mini tomatoes, and green lettuce.
There are currently close to 50 plants that you can choose from, and Click and Grow continuously adds to these choices. All refills come in packs of threes.
If you have another plant in mind and Click and Grow does not offer that, you can buy the Experimental Refill. This refill does not contain seeds but has a more advanced version of the smart soil that is guaranteed to grow anything.
What you would love about Click and Grow
One of the things that most people hate about indoor gardens is the fact that it could get really messy. Imagine having soil splatters or little mud puddles on the table or counter when you water the plants. That is not a problem with Click and Grow. Everything is kept clean and tidy.
You also do not need to put in a lot of work and water your plants every single day. You do not even have to wonder whether you are watering them too little, or too much and whether you are giving them too little or too much sunlight. You only have to fill the water tank from time to time, and it takes care of watering your green babies with the right amount, at the right time, and at right intervals. Click and Grow also has grow lights that mimic sunlight and make sure your plants get just the right amount of it.
Click and Grow has a very minimalist design, making it look nice with anything.
But that is not what you would love most about it. Click and Grow gives you everything you want in order to grow the plants that you choose. You do not have to worry about little seedlings giving you hope then suddenly dying on you, and you only have to care for your indoor garden sporadically. Yet even if you do not spend too much time, you will be able to get the healthy herbs and flowers. Go ahead, show it off to your friends and they would think that you have the greenest thumb in town.
Final word about Click and Grow
If you are a beginner, or if you are someone who has not spent a lot of time growing plants, or just someone who cannot seem to grow plants successfully, the Click and Grow would be a great idea for you. It allows you to easily grow healthy herbs and flowers without worrying about the quality of your soil, daily watering, and everything else that comes with gardening.
It looks good and it works as well as advertised. But there are some things that could have been better. For instance, the plant box itself could have been made with sturdier materials. The grow light comes with arms that you have to add in as the plant grows or the LED lights will burn the leaves. And because they are made of plastic, the arms might feel like they are ready to break at any time.
Another factor to consider is that it can be quite expensive. With its price, the Smart Garden 3 is basically just soil, light and a plastic plant box. The fact that it costs as much as a SmartThings Hub, you would wish that it was more high-tech.
Nevertheless, this is a highly recommended product that also comes with a wide selection of refills, allowing you to continue growing plants for as long as you want.
Aerogarden
Like Click and Grow, AeroGarden allows you to grow your own herbs, greens, and vegetables. Germination is guaranteed and the system gives you everything you need to ensure that you remember to water your plants and feed it some nutrients.
AeroGarden is a purely hydroponics garden, so there is no soil involved. You just add more water when it’s needed and the plants will continue to grow.
Most AeroGarden models have a control panel that shows you the level of water and nutrients, as well as the amount of light that your plants are getting. Aside from allowing you to manually turn the light on or off, reminding you to add water or nutrients, the control panel also keeps track of the number of days that your plant has been growing and gives you great tips on how to grow your plants better. The control panel also features a digital clock.
The AeroGarden mobile app acts as a second control panel. This means that you can get reminders and be able to operate the lights even when you are away. Through the mobile app, you can get different reminders such as “add water” or “add nutrients,” reorder supplies or get gardening tips. You can also connect to your favorite social media platforms via the app.
If anything, AeroGarden is the best when it comes to choice. There are several AeroGarden options available, and each one differs in:
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- Number of plants accommodated. Depending on the model you choose, an AeroGarden can accommodate anywhere from 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, to 24 plants.
- Growth height. Different AeroGardens can let your plants grow anywhere from 6, 10, 12, to 24 inches.
- Grow light. All of AeroGarden’s grow lights use energy efficient LEDs, ranging from 10 watts to 60 watts.
- Control panel. You have a choice from a touch screen, interactive LCD screen, or push-button control panels.
- Finishes. Looking good comes second nature to AeroGarden, which offer a variety of finishes including stainless steel, red stainless, platinum stainless, matte, plastic, copper stainless, high gloss plastic, black, white, red, or teal.
- Wi-Fi. There are currently four AeroGarden models, the Farm, the Farm Plus, the Bounty Elite WiFi, and the Bounty WiFi, which connects to your Wi-Fi network and works with the free mobile app.
- Price. There is an AeroGarden for every budget. They also have a kid’s garden!
- Seed kits. There are several seed kits available (the 3-pod seed kit, 12-pod kit, and the 14-pod kits.) Each kit contains the self-contained ready-to-grow seeds, the nutrients needed, grow domes, and a growing guide. There are also grow-anything kits that allow you to grow your own seeds.
Comparing Click and Grow with AeroGarden
AeroGarden has more seed varieties than Click and Grow. Apart from seed kits for the same herb, vegetable, or flower, they also offer seeds according to themes. For example, there’s the pizza herbs kit that allows you to get all the herbs you could use to top a pizza; cocktail herb blends, gourmet herbs, spring flowers, English cottage, a combination of tomato and pepper, and other themed offerings.
Click and Grow relies on their special soil, as well as on their LED grow lamps. AeroGarden uses the grow lamps as well as an aerator pump. The grow lamps help with photosynthesis and runs on an automated schedule, while the aerator pump circulates the oxygen, water, and nutrients for your plants.
AeroGarden can prove to be more expensive than Click and Grow, especially if you consider that you would need to refill it after a few months. Vegetables are often harvested after 6 months, while herbs last for a maximum of 4 months.
also requires more work than Click and Grow. With Click and Grow, all you need to do is to make sure the water is refilled and that the grow lamp is high enough that it does not burn your plants. AeroGarden needs you to be more involved, but it takes the guesswork out of growing healthy plants.
Click and Grow is for those who want to keep things simple. From its looks to the colors it uses, it is the no-nonsense alternative for those who want indoor gardens to be painless and easy. On the other hand, AeroGarden gives you everything that you might want from Click and Grow, such as the ability to get reminders on your smartphone, or something more trivial such as having a great looking red planter on your tabletop.
 
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