Click & Grow Smart Herb Garden: The Garden Anyone Can Grow Just About Anywhere

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I like to joke about having a black thumb, but the truth of the matter is that ever since I got a Click & Grow Smart Herb Garden, I’ve been feeling a lot better about my gardening prowess.

Never mind the fact that as long as you can keep water in the reservoir, the Click & Grow does all the work for you; stuff is growing that I planted, and that’s all that matters!

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Basil ready for picking, peppers coming out, and little tomatoes!

The kit comes with everything that you need to get started: the Click & Grow unit, which has three wells for the Smart Soil pots, a grow light, and three Smart Soil pots pre-filled with Basil. Why basil? Because it is easy to grow, delicious, and it will really get you excited about the herb garden’s possibilities.

Our specially developed Smart Soil and built-in sensors make sure plants get the optimal configuration of water, oxygen, and nutrients so your plants thrive with zero effort.

As I mentioned, starter kits always come with three basil pots, but guess what? I was actually one of the original backers several years ago when the Click & Grow Smart Herb Garden was on Kickstarter, and I have a box full of different Smart Soil plant refill pots that I’ve been rotating in and out of my Click & Grow over the last couple of years.

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There’s a water reservoir on the right; you fill it, and the plastic float bobs up to indicate it’s full.

So instead of planting three basil pots, I mixed it up a bit — I kept one of the basil pots and added chili peppers and mini tomatoes. Getting the pots ready to plant is a simple matter of pulling off the green sticky tab; there’s a white plastic tag on the back of each pot — perfect for writing the name of the plant you’ll be growing! See, it’s just like a real garden, only much more compact!

So here’s my Click & Grow herb garden setup; each pot comes with a little plastic lid that you need to put over the growing plant until it’s tall enough to touch the lid.

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Some plants grow much more quickly than others. Tomato and basil take off like champs; the chili peppers are little late bloomers.

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Here are the same plants — finally large enough to remove their little greenhouse lids. Aren’t they cute?

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It’s important to note that the grow light arm actually has two heights. When you first start your garden, you’ll want to have it on the lower setting, but as your plants grow you’ll click it into its next higher setting.

I should also give you a bit more info about the grow light, as it’s pretty amazing tech: The grow light has a working timer of 16 hours on and 8 hours off. Whenever you plug it in, the timer starts, so it’s smart to think about what hours of the day (or night) you want the light going. If you have the Click & Grow sitting in a room where someone might want to sleep (like a guest room), it would be best to plug it in at 6 am; that way it’s off at 10 pm and for the next 8 hours. We keep ours on the kitchen window sill, so I have it set to come on at 8 am; it shuts off at midnight and starts again the next morning at 8am.

Here’s a confession: the plant pics where they are all grown are from a previous batch where I was growing the same herb and veggies. It takes a while (sometimes up to two months) for the plants to mature, flower, and fruit — but as you can see by this pic and the one at the top of my post, it absolutely happens.

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The beauty of the Click & Grow system is that they have all kinds of pre-planted pots filled with herbs, fruits, mini veggies, and flowers. They even sell experimental refill pots that you can plant your own seeds in! I haven’t ordered any of the flower pots yet, but now that I have a second Click & Grow, I’ll be keeping the edibles in my kitchen and the flowers in my office. I’ve got my eye on the lavender, cornflower, and wild strawberry refills, actually.

If you want to fancy your Smart Herb Garden up a bit, Click & Grow has some beautiful wooden bases that you can buy to set your Herb Garden unit into. Each of these cases is “one of a kind and made of real wood”, and “finished with oil based wax, the wooden case is completely natural, resilient and water-repellent.” I’m ordering the Black Alder Case, but I digress.

Click & Grow wooden cases

There’s nothing better than cooking lasagna and pulling fresh basil off your own plant for seasoning. The mini tomatoes are delicious, and the little peppers aren’t just ornamental — they’re spicy. When the plants get to a certain height, and they are obviously outgrowing their little pot, you have a choice: you can replant them in bigger pots and move them to a sunny area, or you can throw them in your compost bin (minus the plastic pot) and start over. We’ve had good luck transplanting plants into larger pots in the past, so I know for a fact that if you want to do it, you can.

The Click & Grow Herb Garden comes with a white, green, or orange lid; it retails for $59.95; it is available directly from the manufacturer.

Source: Manufacturer supplied review sample

What I Like: The only thing you have to remember to do is keep water in the well, as the Click & Grow handles everything else for you; Plants that are edible absolutely do produce fruit or veggies, it’s a perfect system; You can re-pot the plants if you want to, once they have outgrown the Click & Grow; Great for people who go out of town a lot — your plants won’t die or get attacked by bugs and wildlife while you’re gone!; You can fancy up the plastic herb garden by placing it into an optional wooden case

What Needs Improvement: Nothing!

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About the Author

Judie Lipsett Stanford
Judie is the co-owner and Editor-in-Chief of Gear Diary, which she founded in September 2006. She started in 1999 writing software reviews at the now-defunct smaller.com; from mid-2000 through 2006, she wrote hardware reviews for and co-edited at The Gadgeteer. A recipient of the Sigma Kappa Colby Award for Technology, Judie is best known for her device-agnostic approach, deep-dive reviews, and enjoyment of exploring the latest tech, gadgets, and gear.