We Tried 11 of the Most Popular Indoor Gardening Systems

“Like a coffee capsule machine, but for plants,” reads Click & Grow’s marketing copy. Sure enough, the Click & Grow Smart Garden’s seed pods come in a Nespresso-evoking plastic three-pack with a tear-off cover. (Pods run about $3 to $5 each.) Put a nutrient-packed “smart soil” seed pod in one of the Click & Grow’s cups with the wicking bottom, fill the reservoir, and that’s it. In what was the most simple watering system I tried, a wick at the bottom of the cup will bring water up to the pods, and the roots stay in the cups. Plug it in, and the LED grow lights will stay on for the next 16 hours.

I tested the Smart Garden 9 with three pods each of lettuce, basil, and tomato plants. Overall, there are about 75 pods to choose from, including herbs, flowers, leafy greens like arugula, and vegetables. There is a Smart Garden Pro that connects to Wi-Fi and has app control, but despite the “smart” in the name, this is not that—there’s no app needed or required for the non-Pro version.

All in all, this garden was refreshingly low-maintenance. A little bobber on one end tells you when the water level is low and needs a top-off simply by floating lower than the growing surface. That’s it. No adding nutrients or checking pH or worrying about pumps. It’s also small, so you can plop it on a shelf or countertop.

At the same time, this was also the slowest-growing garden I tested. I had it set up the same week as the Gardyn, above, and had already been harvesting months’ worth of greens and vegetables by the time I got one Click & Grow lettuce leaf. One of my lettuce pods didn’t even sprout at all. After two months, I had harvested a handful of basil and lettuce leaves (literally, one handful), and the cherry tomatoes had grown past the lights without making a single flower. Meanwhile, the Lettuce Grow, which was started after the Click & Grow, had at least 15 visible tomatoes by that time. Still, this isn’t a bad garden by any stretch, and it’s a viable option for busy people who are interested in growing something like flowers, where yields aren’t a concern.