Click and Grow Smart Garden 3: Review

Recently, we received a Click and Grow Smart Garden. I saw it online one day, and thought it was pretty cool. I decided to try it out. Does it live up to its promise of growing fresh herbs and flowers without maintenance? Read on to find out.

What’s a “smart garden”?

A smart garden is a garden that takes care (mostly) of itself. A lot of people hear the word ‘smart’ and assume that it connects to the internet, but most smart gardens, like the Click and Grow, do not have anything to do with the internet. It’s ‘smart’ in the way that it manages the light timer, has wicks to water the plants, and has ‘plant pods’ for you to easily plant.

The Initial Setup

When you receive the garden, it comes neatly packaged in a relatively simplistic box. Opening the box, one of the first things you see is a “get started” guide. When products do not include this, or do not show it front and center, things can get a bit tricky, even if that product works well. The setup process is simple, there are only a few pieces in the box.

You have to grab the main part of the garden, where you insert the plant “pods” and fill the water, and put it flat on a surface. There is also a light arm portion of the garden. This part is the only component that is actually plugged in. It’s a heat light that has an automatic schedule. There is a slot on the main garden to stick it on, and installing it is a relatively simple process. As your plants grow taller, you can add height extensions to the light arm.

Planting the Pods

Once the initial setup is all done, you still have to actually insert the plants. Inside the box, there are multiple cups. These are shaped to fit inside holes to the water tank. Plus, they have a wick sticking off the bottom so the roots of the plants can get water. The garden itself comes with three pods of basil, but since that only takes a few weeks to grow, I recommend purchasing more when you order the garden. They have various mixes on their website, that contain multiple different plants, like “Fruits and Veggies” or “Salad Greens”. Once you put the pod in the cup, you have to put the lid of the cup on, this makes the plant grow straight up, so you don’t end up with a weird wavy plant. After you do this, you put on a germination dome. Germination occurs when a plant sprouts above the soil. The point of these domes is to gather moisture, and while they are not required, I recommend using them because they make the germination faster. You can take these off once your plant germinates. When you insert these fully-assembled cups into the garden, they start growing.

The Click and Grow App: Do You Need It?

Click and grow provides an app for its garden. And even though it does not connect to your garden, it is still worth it. You plug in what plants you have growing, and it provides you with timed tips. For example, it’ll say, “You can pick the tomatoes for the next week. Twist it until it comes off the branch.” You can also look up tips and short videos, which really helped when we were growing various plants. A lot of people criticize the Smart Garden for not really connecting to the app and being “smart”, but while I agree with this, I feel like the app is very much needed, especially if you don’t garden often.

The Harvest

We’ve planted the lettuce, basil, tomatoes, and strawberries, and so far we’ve gotten great results. (The strawberry plants are still growing). The lettuce was really crunchy, the basil had tons of flavor, and I liked the tomatoes, and that says a lot coming from a person who doesn’t like tomatoes. Overall, I could not have asked for better results.

Conclusion

Overall, the Click and Grow did what it said it did, and then some. It had amazing results, worked perfectly, and actually was one of the first times that I kept a plant alive! I would definitely recommend the Click and Grow. Go check them out at clickandgrow.com. And as always, thanks for reading!