The PC Labs are home to countless cool gadgets, but there's one thing it could use some more of: natural sunlight. And yet despite this fact, as well as my burgeoning vitamin D deficiency, I've managed to grow three very robust, healthy plants right on my desk, with nary a ray of sunshine in sight. It isn't a miracle, nor do I happen to be a highly skilled gardener. On the contrary, I've only watered the plants one time over the last month. It sounds like a recipe for disaster, but the Click & Grow Smart Herb Garden makes it super simple for anyone to grow plants year round, with or without natural sunlight. For $99.95 it's much more expensive than a trip to the grocery store, but the Smart Herb Garden is a fun splurge for the aspiring gardener.

Design and Setup

The Smart Herb Garden has a clean, minimalist design that should complement most styles of home décor. The entire unit is made of matte white plastic, and the biggest part is the base, which measures roughly 4.3 by 11.3 by 4.3 inches (HWD). It's essentially a large rectangle, though curved edges give it a warm, sleek look. Attached to that is the adjustable grow light, which extends up to 9 inches up from the base and covers 8 inches of growing space, enough to provide all three plants with adequate light. There's a small, tasteful Click and Grow logo on both sides of the base, and the top of the part of the grow light features a cut-out design pattern that adds some visual interest. When empty, the whole setup weighs just over 2 pounds.

The base of the Smart Herb Garden contains 4 cutouts. Three of those are circular, and are meant to house your three different plants. The other cutout is oblong, with a hollow piece of plastic fit inside, which is your water level indicator. The back of the unit is home to a power adapter with a white, 4-foot cord.

Out of the box, Click and Grow provides three different packages of seeds, along with three soil cartridges, each sealed with a sticker. Simply remove the sticker from the cartridge, snap it into the base, and sprinkle the contents from one seed package right on top of the soil, then repeat this process for the other two cartridges. Each cartridge comes with a plastic dome that goes on top to create a sort of greenhouse effect; you can remove these as soon as your seedlings reach the top of the dome.

Once you've sown the seeds, it's time to add some water. You can do this right on top of the oblong water level indicator, which has enough space between it and the base to let water pass through. The indicator will rise along with the water level, letting you know you've added enough when it becomes level with the top of the base. After that, all you have to do is plug the Garden in, which will automatically turn on the grow light. Keep in mind the grow light automatically stays lit for 16 hours a day. That means if you plug it in at 8 a.m., it will turn itself off at 12 a.m., then turn back on again at 8 a.m. the next morning. So if you place it in your bedroom, you might want to plug it in at a time that will sync with your sleep schedule.

The Smart Herb Garden ships with seeds for basil, lemon balm, and thyme. You'll be able to tell these apart quite easily once they start growing, but each soil cartridge comes with a built-in plant marker on which you can keep track of what you've planted. Click & Grow offers refill cartridges for arugula, chili peppers, and mini tomatoes. It also has a small list of other plants and herbs that will grow in the Garden on its site, though I imagine other varieties should work as well.

Growing Process and Conclusions

The beauty of the Smart Herb Garden is that it's virtually foolproof. Water is automatically distributed to the plants as needed, so you only need to refill the unit about once every month. Luckily, there's no guesswork involved: You can see the water indicator level go down, and the light on top of will start flashing when it's time for a top off.

Click & Grow says that placing the Herb Garden in natural light will help the growing process, but as mentioned, I used it entirely within the shadowy confines of the PC Labs. The seeds first began to germinate in under a week, and by the second week had grown large enough to remove the plastic domes.

It has now been a month and all three herbs have grown large enough to start harvesting. The basil in particular has already reached over 6 inches in height. Most plants grow for 3-9 months, so at this point I should have basil, lemon balm, and thyme on hand for the better part of the year. The herbs can also be transported to a pot or garden, though I see this as a product that lives in the kitchen, providing fresh herbs when needed year round.

According to Click & Grow, the built-in LED requires just 6 watts of energy. With it running for 16 hours per day, the Smart Herb Garden should add roughly $4 to $5 per year to your electricity bill. That isn't much, but the unit isn't exactly cheap to begin with. For $100, I can buy enough basil at my local farmer's market to make enough pesto to last for a year. The Smart Herb Garden, on the other hand, will never really yield enough at any one time to make a single batch.

Still, you can't get much more local or organic than growing herbs in your own home, and the Smart Herb Garden makes it simple for anyone, even if you don't have a particularly green thumb. While it's admittedly a splurge, it's a fun one, and useful at that. And while I may not have enough basil to whip up some pesto, I have more than enough to make a fresh cucumber-basil martini. With summer fast approaching, that almost makes the price seem worth it.

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