Are you wondering if a Click & Grow garden is worth it? Learn all about the product with my review. I’ll share everything you need to know about Click & Grow indoor gardening, including a giveaway. Click & Grow provided me with an indoor garden to review, and they also provided me with one to give away. Enjoy!
Is a Click & Grow garden worth it? Here is my review…
Hey all! I am really excited to share today’s product review with you. It’s about Click & Grow, a small “smart garden” that allows everyone—even those without a yard—to grow fresh food. There are different models, and some are small enough to fit on a countertop.
When the Click & Grow team reached out to me to see if I was interested in working with them, I was a little hesitant. I only recommend products that I’ve actually used and enjoy using. Did I think this product was worth it for the price?
I am a HUGE review reader for pretty much everything I buy. A friend of mine has another similar indoor gardening apparatus and loves it, so I was definitely interested. I set out to do a bit of Googling and review reading.
Yes—I spent a considerable amount of time reading reviews from other consumers before I agreed to try out the Click & Grow smart garden and write a review post. I wanted to know—was this product for me, or would it be useful to people who want to garden indoors, particularly in small spaces.
Why indoor gardening?
Another reason that I am excited about today’s post is because this product addresses a lot of the pain points I hear about from people. A lot of houseplant lovers also want to get into gardening, but it’s challenging when you live in a small space.
I certainly feel that pain—although I’ve lived in a townhouse with a small backyard for many years now, it doesn’t get great light for garden beds. It’s not exactly the big, flat, sunny backyard that raised garden bed gardeners dream of.
And then there’s apartment and condo living—which I know is a lot of you! And it was me for the longest time before moving here. Either living in apartments with a tiny balcony or no weather at all.
What is a smart garden?
Click & Grow first started in 2009 in Estonia. (Side note: I’ve visited Tallinn, Estonia, and it was lovely!) Mattias Lepp is the creator, and he started developing the product after reading a NASA report about growing plants in space.
He thought, why not come up with an indoor garden to take care of plants automatically here? He worked with universities around the world to fine-tune the technology over the years. This started in 2012 with the first Smartpot, which then led to a second generation of the prototype in 2013.
In 2014, Click & Grow launched the Smart Herb Garden, which looks a lot like the Smart Garden 3, Click & Grow’s current base model that grows 3 pods at a time. In 2017, they launched the Smart Garden 9, which grows 9 pods.
How does the Click & Grow smart garden work?
Click & Grow’s indoor smart gardens essentially care for themselves after you set them up. It works like a capsule coffee machine, but for plants. Instead of popping coffee pods in a coffee machine, you pop little biodegradable plant pods into the plastic cups in the machine.
Each pod contains seeds, soil, and nutrients ready to go. So, another pro for this little indoor garden is that it isn’t terribly messy. (Not that I really care—my house is always covered in soil. But you might!)
When you put a pod in one of the smart garden’s plastic cups, you’ll notice there is a wick coming from the bottom of the plastic cup. This wick extends down into a water reservoir and ensures that your plant gets all of the weather it needs from the root level.
This is what makes the smart garden pretty hands off. As long as you ensure the water reservoir remains full (it lasts a couple weeks depending on temperature and whatnot), the plants will remain happy. Use the water float indicator to make sure the tank remains full.
And the final component is water. Each smart garden has a grow light directly over the seedlings. This light stays on for 12 hours, ensuring the plants get plenty of light.
How long does Click & Grow last?
Click & Grow lasts as long as the plants you’re growing last. Different plants have different lifecycles, but generally the plants grown from the pods grow for about 2–3 months. However, plants may grow faster if you also have another light source (e.g., near a window).
The plant will also be constrained by the size of the garden. There is only so much soil space available in the pods, so once the roots choke that out, the plant will be nearing the end of its life.
That is, however, unless you remove the pod and transplant it in a larger pot with more fresh soil. You can absolutely do this, and the plant will keep growing if it has the right growing conditions!
How long does Click & Grow take to grow?
While the plants generally have a lifespan of a couple months, you might be wondering—how long do Click & Grow plants take to grow? This has more to do with seed germination, and generally warmth is good for germination.
Most plant pod seeds will take a few weeks to germinate. You’ll need to leave the transparent germination domes on top of the plant pods until you notice the sprouts, and then you can take them off and let those babies grow!
Can I reuse my Click & Grow pods?
When a plant has come to the end of its life, you’re left with roots and soil, mostly. I wouldn’t reuse this plant pod again for the smart garden because most of those good nutrients are long gone.
However, you can crumble up the soil and mix it in with other fresh soil and fertilizer to use for other plants. You can also compost it.
Can I use regular soil in Click & Grow?
Speaking of their smart soil vs. regular soil…this is definitely a question I had. Do I want to be reliant on their pods only for my gardening? Ultimately, Click & Grow has formulated their plant pods to be perfect for the Click & Grow smart garden, and that includes perfecting the soil.
The smart soil comes pre-packed with nutrients so you don’t have to fertilize, and it also keeps the soil pH balanced. Essentially it just makes the whole process really low-maintenance and easy.
You’ll get the best results using their pods with smart soil, but don’t you worry…I will be experimenting with my own soil and seeds in the future to report back on my findings eventually, don’t you worry!! (Read more about smart soil here.)
Can I plant my own seeds in the Click & Grow?
However, despite Click & Grow not being in favor of using regular soil with their smart gardens, I was thrilled to see that they offer “grow anything plant pods” of smart soil. Just add your own seeds!
This is perfect if you have something specific you’d like to grow and Click & Grow doesn’t offer a pod for it. However, since you have to provide your own seeds, I’d like to see the price come down on these. It’s currently $9.95 for a 3-pack, which is the same price as the pods with seeds in them.
I’m hoping in the future that Click & Grow will sell these in bulk to bring that price down for those of us who want to use our own seeds. Or sell the smart soil in more economical bags that will allow us to reuse the white pods—or fill them ourselves.
How much is a Click & Grow?
So what’s the downside of this awesome product? Well, for me, it’s only the price. I am one of the cheapest people on the planet, so I don’t love having to shell out the money for new plant pods with smart soil in them. But there are so many pros to this approach that I do think it’s worth the money.
Here are the models Click & Grow currently offers, including the base price.
- Smart Garden 3 (base price $139.95)
- The Smart Garden 9 (base price $229.95, also has a PRO version)
- The Smart Garden 27 (base price $599.95)
- Click & Grow 25 (base price $799.95)
- The Wall Farm Indoor Vertical Garden (currently out of stock)
Some of you might look at this and say—why would I spend hundreds of dollars on an indoor smart garden when I could just grow plants in a pot or in the ground?
Well…you must not live in an apartment or in a small space if you say that! For those who want to grow fresh food themselves but don’t have access to a yard or even a balcony, this might be a fantastic solution.
Or you just might want to have something handy in the kitchen that is already optimized with water, soil, and light to keep things easy and stress-free. As a bonus, it also looks really nice sitting out on a counter.
So if you can swing the price and want to try your hand at indoor gardening without a lot of hassle, this is the product for you! The nice folks at Click & Grow also gave me a 15% off code to share with all of you as well. If you click any of the links in this post (like this one!), it should be automatically applied—and if it isn’t, make sure to add the code BRIT!
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Brittany is a seasoned DIY home and garden expert, running a creative brand since 2014 that inspires others with approachable plant care guides, woodworking tutorials, and decor projects. She is a certified project manager and has completed extensive coursework in the art and science of growing your own plants. Her work has been recognized by major publications, and she routinely collaborates with fellow DIY industry leaders—but her favorite thing to do is inspire you! Learn more about her here.
In my Foreign Service FB Group, whenever someone is assigned to a post where they are worried about the hoops they have to jump through to make their local veggies safe to eat, someone always mentions the Click and Grow as an option to grow their own stuff in small batches. Especially as we can live in all sorts of housing with varying access to outdoor space and light. And we cannot take our plants with us when we move, so having a “permanent” garden set up seems like a great solution. I also like the idea of being able to grow certain herbs, like cilantro, since the 2 countries I have been assigned to so far have been like “coriander and cilantro are totally similar!” Uh, no.
Oh that’s really cool to hear! I can see how this would be handy for that situation, too–especially since the company is based in Estonia, and I believe they ship worldwide.