Growing your very own fruit, vegetable, or herb is the green stuff every foodie’s dreams are made of.
Access to home-grown organic foods all year round has been shown to improve health, the environment, and, most significantly, shopping bills.
But for most Aussies, those dreams fail to blossom into reality because they lack the time, knowledge, or space needed to grow their own food gardens.
Gardening inexperience, limited outdoor areas, poor sunlight, and living in units or apartments are common reasons why most foodies choose not to grow their own edible produce.
However, advancements in smart technology have recently taken “root” and changed that.
The growing popularity of indoor smart gardens allows anyone, regardless of their horticulture history or spatial setbacks, to grow a mini-self-maintaining food garden from the comfort of their home.
What is a Smart Garden?
An indoor smart garden is a series of plants housed in an interconnected container pod with built-in light, self-watering capabilities, and space for growth, soil, and seeds.
The savvy tech uses artificial intelligence combined with smart sensors to help the plants grow semi-autonomously – taking control of light, nutrient, and watering requirements so you dont have to.
Very little maintenance is required to run a smart garden. The exact amount varies per model, but it usually includes filling a manual watering system when water is low if the smart garden is not connected to the main water supply.
All other variables can then be altered using an app accessible via a smartphone, computer or tablet, allowing users to select pre-set care protocols based on what plants are in the indoor smart garden or manually adjust light and water settings.
What can you grow?
Much of what you can grow depends on the size and layout of your indoor smart garden.
Models vary between small benchtop hubs not much bigger than a toaster and larger multi-shelf stations designed to replace your weekly fruit, veg and herbs shop.
All sizes are compatible with most medium-sized herbs and certain leafy greens perfect for salads, while larger indoor smart gardens can also accommodate fruits and non-root vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers.
However, if you want to grow vegetables that require significant root space, such as onions, sweet potatoes and turnips, then unfortunately, you’ll need to head outside.
Build-it’s three of the best
Small: Urban Plant Growers Smart Garden – $89.99
The Urban Plant Growers Smart Garden is arguably the best budget option on our list.
The Urban Plant Grower is one of the most compact indoor smart gardens on the market. It is less than 30 cm long and just 12 cm wide, so it can comfortably sit on your kitchen worktop.
Its LED lighting support allows it to grow plants in any light environment. Its soil-free design also means it’s mess-free.
The downside of its compact design is that it only comes with two pod spaces. However, it can still grow most small edible plants, such as coriander, basil, parsley, lovage, spinach, or thyme.
Mid-range: Véritable Indoor Garden Smart – $369
The Véritable Indoor Garden allows you to grow aromatic herbs, edible flowers, and baby vegetables all year round with little effort.
A significant technological step up from the Urban Plant, the Veritable uses both SAVOURYLIGHT™ and ADAPT’LIGHT™ technology, which allows the light sensors to adjust lighting intensity based on the available natural light.
This contributes positively to growth consistency and helps reduce the home’s energy costs, providing long-term savings and greater energy efficiency.
Measuring 33 cm by 20 cm and with an available growth height of 45cm, the Véritable also features a silent and flawless capillary irrigation system that provides fresh water flow and prevents bacteria build-up.
It also uses patented Lingot® technology, a compostable seed pack refill that allows users to grow more than 70 varieties of indoor plants, such as aromatic herbs, edible flowers, baby herb salads and baby vegetables.
Large: Click and Grow Wall Farm – $3,095
The Click and Grow Wall Farm Indoor Verticle Garden is ideal for growing various salads, herbs, fruits, leafy greens and above-surface vegetables.
The wall farm features three shelves spanning a total of two meters in height, kitted out with LED “pro grow” lighting and self-watering functionality. It has space for 51 different plants at a time.
The system’s smart soil technology ensures the perfect amount of oxygen and nutrients are supplied at the root level and distributed evenly inside the nanostructure so the roots can access water at all times.
The wall farm can grow more than 75 different types of herbs, flowers, leafy greens, fruit, and vegetables. It comes with 54 plant pods to help you start your home horticulture journey.
