top of page
Writer's pictureDan Pontarlier

How to grow and maintain your own urban or kitchen garden

How many times have you tried to have a herb garden at home and it hasn't lasted even two weeks? You can ask my friend Núria, she is an expert on that -love you, sweetie!–, but if you want to do well, keep reading!


It is possible that the excess of love - to drown them - or on the contrary, to think that it is better not to pay attention to them and believe that they water themselves, has ended in a Greek tragedy and frustrated all your plans to have a garden at home... something that, surprisingly, others achieve with great ease, showing off in their IG accounts, while you, following the instructions and tips to the letter, only manage to mess up the floor.


The solution to all this problem is called Click and Grow. It is a company founded in Estonia in 2009 by Mattias Lepp, who after reading a NASA report on plant cultivation, developed an autonomous indoor garden system that has been refined over time to the current prototype of Click & Grow Smart Garden, which is the one that will help us in our purpose of becoming good gardeners.


This Smart Garden becomes our great ally for the cultivation of both aromatic and decorative plants, since being an autonomous system it is not necessary for our messy hands to come into play... The combination of its calibrated automatic watering system, its led light and nanotechnology of the smart soil in the seed capsules, they will do everything that we do not know how to do and in a few weeks we will begin to see how our plants grow.


Currently they have two models of Smart Gardens –3 and 9 capsules–, which allow to cultivate effortlessly throughout the year the plants that we like the most; although the difficult thing is to choose since they have available all kinds of aromatics such as basil, mint, parsley, coriander, chives, strawberries and decorations such as marigold, lavender, petunias... They also have the Smart Garden 27, which includes 3 units of Smart Garden 9 and a stand to place them.


The installation process is very simple, since once you receive the device the pods are introduced - which by the way are biodegradable - you add the water, plug it in and wait for them to grow. Maybe it looks too easy, but it is true and real, you can check it on my IGTV where I explain the steps to follow and you will see how I settled my Smart Garden. In addition, Click and Grow, puts at our disposal an app with tips for better care of our plants, such as pruning them, and has a reminder to fill the water tank.



From left to right: Two growing cuttings using the light of the Smart Garden, Persil growing back after being used, and a new mini-tomato plant.


Once all this has been explained, the following question arises: is it sustainable? The answer is YES in capital letters. Not only because you don't have to buy aromatics every time you need them and throwing away the half you don't use, but also because you reduce carbon emissions. In addition Click & Grow compensates its CO2 emissions through donations to associations that carry out reforestation and its technology is 100% free of GMOs and harmful substances.


Even once they have reached their maximum size inside the pod, they can be transplanted into pots and kept close to grow new types and decorate your window or kitchen in the process.

Apart from our desire to improve our gardening technique and that we finally have our plant corner, there are other reasons to want the magic of plants to surround us. One of them is because indoor plants have been proven to improve health and reduce stress, improve air quality and bring us overall happiness.



Nuria "the plant killer" & I some years ago when in Barcelona during my friend Diego concert in Festes de Gràcia & another random day.


Now that we know that it is simple and sustainable, we add two more factors: it is beautiful and very practical! In my case I put my Click and Grow in the kitchen room, its modern design of sinuous shapes gives a lot of play, and at your fingertips when you are in full culinary inspiration to make your favorite recipes or make some good mojitos with your mint.

My friend Nuria - yes, the plant killer - has placed it in her living room, on a wooden cabinet against the wall. Taking advantage of its light, it has put several plants nearby to nourish it and stimulate its growth -including a Venus flytrap which Daniela has called, it is that nice of her- has created a very aesthetic "green corner".


For both of them, it all makes sense when using the facility for one of our favorite hobbies: cooking. How many times had he come home in a hurry and ended up cooking pasta with tomato sauce? Endless but now my favorite recipe is chicken with rice, chili and chives.

By the way, in the last photo Núria and me. ❤️


"Lighting the way for growth".
The Click & Grow Team

Comments


bottom of page