Gardening can be a rewarding and therapeutic hobby. Routinely tending to plants has proven to be an important stress reliever for many people. Unfortunately, some folks simply don’t have the time, acreage, or green thumb that a sprawling outdoor garden demands. Luckily, there are hundreds of companies that make amazing indoor gardening kits for those of us without backyards or who are burdened with demanding work schedules.
We’ve taken a look at some of the best indoor herb gardens available, featuring options for the gardening newbie, seasoned pros, and even those with a passion for tea.
AeroGarden Harvest Elite
AeroGarden has long been a steady player in the world of indoor gardens, and the Harvest Elite is part of their latest generation of smart planters. This incredible growing chamber is a tech-rich hydroponic system, meaning your AeroGarden grows your plants with water, not soil. This is a huge win for those unfamiliar with the dirty work of traditionally potted plants.
The Harvest Elite comes with six planter pods, including Genovese basil, Thai basil, curly parsley, dill, thyme, mint, and enough MiracleGro plant food for an entire growing season. As the gardener, all you have to do is fill the basin with water, drop the pods, and set the dial to whatever type of plant you’re growing. The AeroGarden delivers water automatically and will even tell you when to add the plant food.
What’s better is that if you’re at a loss for proper sunlight for your plants, fear not. The AeroGarden is equipped with a powerful 20-watt LED lighting rig that delivers ideal photosynthesizing luminance for your herbs. Joining the powerful lights is an impressive set of customizable grow controls. Create light on/off schedules, set reminders for nutrients, and leave town with vacation mode, a mode that leaves your Elite in charge of light cycles and watering while you’re away.
Click and Grow Smart Garden 3
This is a perfect system for those living in apartments or dorms, where space is often limited. The Click and Grow Smart Garden 3 is just over 1 foot wide and weighs a measly 4 pounds, making it super easy to relocate the planter in a snap. Living in a sunlight-starved campus building? No problem. The Smart Garden rocks its own LED light rig, providing your plant pods with all the light they need. Just fill the water reservoir, drop the pods in, and enjoy watching your greens sprout to life!
The Smart Garden 3 allows you to grow three plants at once and comes with three basil pods for you to get started. For those eager to expand their garden, you can purchase around 50 different additional plant pods, including strawberries, tomatoes, lavender, and even red hot chili peppers.
Garden Republic Indoor Herbal Tea Kit
Everyone raise a toast to tea time. With this economically-priced tea leaf garden kit from Garden Republic, you’ll feel like an artisan tea maker without the sweat and toil of manning a massive botanical playground. For only $30, you get four burlap growing bags, plant pots, soil discs, a pair of pruning shears, and a tea infuser, as well as an instructional booklet with video links. And let’s not forget the actual herbal seeds themselves. The starter kit comes with chamomile, mint, lavender, and lemon seedlings.
While the Garden Republic Indoor Herbal Tea Kit is a bit more involved than some of the other set-it-and-forget-it options on our list, the included guidebook spells out everything you need to know to get started. As with other items on this list, you can purchase replacement seeds through Amazon or directly through Garden Republic.
Back to the Roots Water Garden
You may have noticed the aquatic buddy that comes with this interesting indoor garden. The Back to Roots Water Garden is an easy-to-manage planter and fish tank all in one. How it works is through a process called aquaponics. Essentially, the fish water acts as fertilizer for your microgreens, while the greens filter the water for your fish. The garden comes with everything you’ll need to get started, including three packs of organic microgreen seeds, D-Klor and Zym-Bac for regulating your tank and protecting your fish, grow stones for your greens, and fish food. The only thing you’ll need to supply yourself is the fish (there’s a coupon included). Most reviewers opt for betta or goldfish for their tanks, which are both ideally sized for the tiny tank.
In terms of location, it’s best to keep the Back to Roots Water Garden near a window, both for your plants and the fish. The sunlight will help grow your plants while keeping Nemo nice and toasty. If you’re starved for window light, you may want to install an additional heater to keep your fish from getting too chilly.
MyGift Self Watering Planter Pots
While they may not look like much, in this case, simple is truly better. Each of the planters comes equipped with a double-layered membrane that makes growing super low maintenance. The only thing you have to do is add water. The pot automatically works as its own strainer, filtering moisture into the soil on an as-needed basis. In other words, the pot does all the work for you. The membrane is easily removable for when you need to clean the planter or if you wish to rehome your greenery. The pots have a simplistic design that works with every aesthetic. They are also freestanding yet can easily be mounted to most wall surfaces (mounting hardware not included), letting you flaunt your beautiful batches of basil to all who enter your door.
The MyGift system doesn’t come with seeds or soil, unfortunately. But the budget-friendly price of this fun decor-garden fusion means there’s plenty left over with which to buy them.
The portable Mindful Design indoor garden is a smart, compact way to light up any room (literally). If you want to liven up your living space with immaculate-looking herbs in a skeel, modern garden, this is the product for you. Your plants will bask under a built-in, 850-lumen lamp that provides simulated sunlight with an automatic timer that switches off the light at nighttime.
This fashionable mini garden can comfortably fit up to three potted plants and will look fantastic in any room of your home. Keep in mind that it doesn’t include pots, seeds, or soil, though. Still, with the helpful growing lamp at the ready, the Mindful Design LED Herb Garden is an excellent choice for beginning gardeners as well as more experienced herb-growers.
