Our living room needed a little bit of something.
I couldn’t figure out what it needed.
All I knew was that I wanted to feel really great when I was sitting on our chair beside our fire place drinking my coffee out of my favourite pottery mug.
We added two things to our living room that has made it a place that I love to hang out. It makes me feel so much joy every time I sit in that room.
1. For Christmas, my husband and I gifted each other a mounted photo of Lake Magog which carries a special memory for our family.
Last summer, we camped as a family near Lake Magog on our backcountry hike through Mount Assiniboine provincial park.
2. We decided to GROW FOOD in our living room with the Click and Grow Smart Garden 27!
Disclaimer: All views in the post are my own but the post contains affiliate links. Thanks in advance for supporting our family’s taco night!
Deciding to add the Click and Grow Smart Garden 27 was the best decision for our family.
The garden has boosted my mood in a way I didn’t expect throughout the winter months and the whole family loves checking in on the progress each day.
In this post, I have included a full review of everything you need to know about the Click and Grow Smart Gardens, including which one is best for you.
Click and Grow Smart Garden Review
Already know you want to buy one of the Click and Grow Smart Gardens for yourself or as a gift?
Use the discount code “BTBA10” for 10% off
Purchase the Click and Grow Smart Garden Fresh Start Bundle here.
Purchase the Click and Grow Smart Garden 3 here.
Purchase the Click and Grow Smart Garden 9 here.
Purchase the Click and Grow Smart Garden 9 PRO here.
Purchase the Click and Grow Smart Garden 27 here.
Skip Ahead
Click and Grow Smart Garden Products Summary
Smart Garden 9 vs the Smart Garden 27
Can I Grow Without using their Pods?
6 Things You Should Know about the Smart Garden Products
About Click and Grow
Click and Grow was founded by Mattias Lepp in 2009.
He was fascinated by the ability and ways they grew plants in space and was inspired to find a way to grow plants in any home in a garden that took care of the plants automatically.
His overarching goal was that he wanted everyone to be able to experience the health benefits of indoor gardening which include reduce stress, improved quality of air and overall happiness.
In 2012, the first prototype was created and tested.
The first Smart Garden was launched 2 years later in 2014 and the ability to easily grow food indoors was officially given to regular people like you and me!
How Does it Work?
The Click and Grow Gardens are easy to use and low maintenance.
Anyone can grow food with these gardens.
Through their calibrated watering, light and nutrient system, the plants are optimized for growth.
What do you need to have to make it work?
Aside from the water you need to add, each garden on their website comes with everything you need to grow the plants, including a set of plant pods.
Plant pods are the individual soil and seeds that you put into the garden.
Each plant pod has soil along with the seeds for the plant.
You can choose to plant vegetables, some fruits, herbs, and flowers!
Each garden comes with a set but you will need to purchase more in the future.
Do you have to use the pods? Learn more here.
You will also need a place to put your garden and an outlet to plug your garden in so that the light system can work.
Note: You may want to purchase more pods if they are on sale at the time that you are purchasing your smart garden.
How do I Set it Up?
After ordering the garden, it will be shipped to your house.
You will have to put the garden together.
Putting the gardens together does not take much time at all and was really easy.
Just make sure when you first start growing, that you don’t use the long arms. Having the light closer to the plants to start will help them grow.
The Smart Garden 27 comes with a wooden stand.
This takes a little longer to set up but I was able to do this on my own with the materials they provided.
Once the Smart Garden is built, you open the plant pods and put them into the designated spots in the Smart Garden.
With a white board marker, label each plant on the pod labels so you don’t forget what you planted.
Place the clear dome on each of the plant pod to optimize growth and create a greenhouse effect.
These come off once the plants are touching the domes which is usually after 1-2 weeks.
After, fill the tank with water until the “bobber” is level with the rest of the Smart Garden.
The Click and Grow App
I didn’t think that I would use the Click and Grow app but I am so happy that I set up the plants in the app.
I am able to easily remember what I planted and the app provides me tips to optimize growth.
It also tells me if there is anything that I need to do to make sure the plant grows properly.
Some tips include making sure you pollinate the tomatoes and the strawberries once they have flowers.
Ongoing maintenance of the Click and Grow Smart Gardens
There is little ongoing maintenance with the gardens aside from watering them.
At the start, expect to water them every 1-3 weeks.
Once the plants are close to maturing, they require watering every 2-6 days.
That’s it!
Now you get to watch the plants grow, fill the tank with water once the bobber becomes too low, and follow any tips from the app!
Click and Grow Smart Garden Products Summary
Click and Grow has grown to provide a few different products.
Each one varies in the amount that they can grow.
The Smart Garden 3 can grow three plants at a time. The Smart Garden 9 grows nine plants at a time.
And, you guessed it, the Smart Garden 27 can grow 27 plants at a time.
There are two newer options that focus on certain products or add in a bit of tech.
The Smart Garden Pro comes with app-controlled light features and light schedule.
The Click and Grow 25 works on a weekly cycle of greens. So, you would plant one set of greens in a row one week, followed by another set of greens the next week and so on.
This system allows you to harvest the greens so that you can enjoy them weekly.
Smart Garden 9 vs Smart Garden 27
The Smart Garden’s system is the same for both the Smart Garden 9 and the Smart Garden 27.
The only difference is that the Smart Garden 27 has three of the Smart Garden 9s AND includes a stand for all the gardens.
The Smart Garden 9
The Smart Garden 9 is a more affordable way to start growing food indoors and reap the benefits of year round growing.
Benefits do not only include food but also the mental and physical health benefits that are associated with having plants growing indoors.
The Smart Garden 9 works well for individuals or couples that want to enjoy some fresh produce or flowers that is grown throughout the year and every few weeks.
Herbs could be enjoyed longer between each grow cycle.
Families that want to occasionally enjoy fresh lettuce, or herbs could enjoy the Smart Garden 9.
The gardens are a great way to show kids how plants grow throughout the year and enjoy a few tastes of freshly grown food.
Smart Garden 27
The Smart Garden 27 consists of three Smart Garden 9’s and also comes with a wooden stand.
Being able to grow more food is a bonus for families and individuals.
There is more opportunity to have freshly grown greens, herbs and fruit every week since you are able to grow more at a time.
The wooden stand is sturdy.
The wood stand with the Smart Garden’s on top is sturdy.
Each platform has a groove in it to keep the garden’s from shifting and the ‘A frame’ keeps it in place.
They recommend attaching it to the wall to increase the sturdiness.
We have yet to attach our stand to the wall and it has been sturdy.
The stand with the plants is attractive.
Having a stand with plants that look attractive is a bonus!
This means you can literally have art that is food. I think that is super cool.
Which one do we have?
Our family has the Smart Garden 27.
This will allow us all to enjoy the benefits of the garden each week once we can start harvesting the plants.
The food we grow will not completely supplement the fruits and vegetables for our family.
Our kids love eating fruits and vegetables.
Seriously, it is hard to keep up with them.
I love that it looks good and fits in with our living room.
We have had visitors come to our house and commenting on how they love the look of the stand with the Smart Garden’s and that it ‘actually looks nice’.
This makes them consider purchasing one for their house.
Can I Grow Without Using Their Pods?
I have heard that you can.
This is something that I am looking at learning.
There are people in the Click and Grow Facebook group that have tips on growing food without the pods.
Actually the group has lots of tips around the Smart Gardens.
It is worth joining even if you are in the consideration phase of purchasing a Click and Grow garden.
Join the Click and Growers Facebook group here.
6 Things You Should Know about the Click and Grow Smart Garden Products
1. Join the Facebook Group
The Click and Grower’s Facebook group is a great way to find quick advice from other customers about the Smart Gardens.
In fact, I joined the group before I even owned a garden.
The community provides insight into the different plants and support if something is not growing quite as expected.
Join the Click and Growers Facebook group here.
2. Some plants grow better than others
Most plants offered on the Click and Grow website grow well in the gardens.
But, not all plants grow as easy as others.
The Facebook group is a good place to lean on the success of certain plants.
I have found great success with greens such as green lettuce and kale, as well as herbs.
The tomatoes and dwarf peas are also doing well.
Strawberries are harder to grow.
I have found this myself and have heard this within the group. I knew this but still have tried to grow them.
For growing strawberries, it was essential the arms were taken off so that the light was close to the plants. I learnt this the hard way when I had the arms attached the first time and only one of the three strawberry plants grew.
The second time I had the light close to the plants and all three strawberry plants grew!
The excitement of seeing my kids eat fresh strawberries was worth it for me to try them out.
3. Download the Click and Grow App
I highly recommend downloading the Click and Grow App on Google Play and on IOS for Apple devices.
You can add each of the plants you are growing, and the app gives names to each of the plants. The naming is not necessary but I love it!
The app tells you how old the plant is, tracks the stage of growth of each plant and provides tips according to their maturity.
4. Watering the plants
At the beginning, the plants do not drink as much water.
After 3-4 weeks though, they start to drink a lot of water.
After the month mark, I find myself adding water every 3-7 days!
5. The Click and Grow System Works
You really can grow any of the fruits, greens, flowers, or herbs on the website.
The system works well.
There are certain ways to enhance your growing.
Buying the Pro Plant Cups can increase your yield.
6. You Should Know that sometimes a pod doesn’t produce anything
On occasion, a plant pod will not yield anything.
Out of the 27 plants we planted, we had one lettuce that never sprouted after 4 weeks.
This is disappointing since the pods do cost a bit of money.
We also have only one of our three strawberry plants growing.
I am less disappointed by this since I knew ahead of time that they are hard to grow. I really just wanted to try to see if we could have fresh strawberries grown indoors!
If you want high yield of food that will feed more meals for your family then greens, and herbs is probably what you should grow.
Want to buy one of the Click and Grow Smart Gardens?
Use the discount code “BTBA10” for 10% off
*Sometimes the offers on the website are better than the code I have! I will put the better options below as well.
Purchase the Click and Grow Smart Garden Fresh Start Bundle here.
Purchase the Click and Grow Smart Garden 3 here.
Purchase the Click and Grow Smart Garden 9 here.
Purchase the Click and Grow Smart Garden 9 PRO here.
Purchase the Click and Grow Smart Garden 27 here.
BIG NEWS… We launched an app!
Enjoy hiking with your family? We launched an app called TrailCollectiv to help families get outside, find trails, and connect!
Download it on the Apple Store here and on Google Play here.
Curious to learn a little bit more about our family? Read more on our About Us page!
