Gardyn (Home 4)
Did you cut down on lettuce consumption due to cyclosporiasis outbreaks over the summer? I didn't. Not because I threw caution to the wind and bought the produce anyway, but because I grow multiple types of organic lettuce myself, in my own house, in less than a few square feet. And you can too.
For the past two years, I've been testing various indoor smart garden systems in my home, which have given me year-round access to fresh tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, and even mushrooms. Most of them are easy for anyone to set up and use, with minimal space and maintenance requirements.
There's an indoor gardening setup for just about any household. The Gardyn Home 4.0 ($899), for example, offers total success with no green thumb required if you pay for a subscription, while the Auk Mini 2 ($239) is the perfect attractive yet low-maintenance solution for those who just want fresh herbs. Are these gardens worth it? How much can you really grow? How can you be sure which option is best for your specific lifestyle? Below, learn which gardens stood out in testing, why, and which option might be ideal for your home and needs.
Check out our other sustainable home-tech buying guides, including the Best LED Grow Lights, Best Mushroom Growing Methods, Best Smart Bird Feeders, and Best Kitchen Composters.
Updated November 2026: I’ve added the Lykyn Smart Mushroom Grow Box as a pick, moved a couple of gardens to Others Tested and another to Not Recommended, and ensured up-to-date links and prices.
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Best Overall
Indoor Hydroponic Garden
Gardyn Home 4.0 (9/10 WIRED Recommends) was one of the easiest indoor gardens to assemble and set up out of the box; it also yielded the most dramatic success of any of the brands I tried. Flowers, kohlrabi, thyme, and even a whole cauliflower all thrived in this pipe-based, front-light system with room for plants to grow up, out, and every which way.
Seeds arrive in proprietary pods called yCubes, and each Gardyn purchase comes with your choice of yCube sets: Salad Lover, Budding Florist, or Chef Faves. I've tried both Budding Florist and Chef Faves, and my favorite is the latter; it features an interesting variety of everything from breen and Tokyo bekana greens to Thai basil and miniature sunflowers.
Though Gardyn recommends starting the yCubes in the company's add-on $80 nursery, I've germinated plenty of yCubes right in the system just fine. (Make sure you don't add nutrients until they sprout. If you're germinating yCubes later on, when nutrients are already in the system, you can just use a shallow bowl with loosely tented plastic wrap placed on the Gardyn's base.) The seeds arrive tucked in mineral wool, snug in their little yCubes that slot into larger cups ("yPods") that fit into the pipes. When the Gardyn waters the plants, the yPods fill with nutrient-infused water, and the plants' roots grow right into the water.
Part of what makes the Gardyn foolproof is the subscription app add-on, Kelby, which monitors your plants via attached sensors and cameras. It delivers customized watering and lighting schedules, as well as maintenance suggestions via AI (which an anonymous source told me is basically OpenAI's ChatGPT with an overlaid prompt). This subscription adds an additional $259 a year to the base purchase price, though it includes a certain number of credits per month—depending on whether you have the Home or Studio model—to order new yCubes. There's a free 30-day trial for Kelby, but you can definitely still use the Gardyn without it, relying on manual light and watering controls. Also, there have been some recent privacy concerns with Kelby, which makes me more apt to do away with it altogether (more below).
Once a month, the base needs to be emptied and scrubbed. Every few weeks, the roots need to be checked for root rot and growth outside the yPod, examined for whether it's time to prune, and/or tucked back in if they've wandered too far. This maintenance is admittedly a bit laborious, and if you do not do it consistently, you will be very sorry when it's time to clean the Gardyn and prepare it for its next planting. (Ask me how I know!)
I now have two Gardyns, a Home 4 and a smaller Studio 2 that holds fewer pods. Aside from some non-sprouting yCubes (which the company will replace upon request), I have no major complaints about Gardyn's system. Though I will note that the plants in the Studio have been overall less lush than those in the Home due to the Studio having one light bar rather than two (which is why my primary recommendation remains the Home). I also like that Gardyn offers a Vacation Mode, which adjusts the lighting and watering to slow growth and minimize maintenance tasks while you're away. Also note that Gardyn is now FSA- and HSA-eligible.
NOTE: Throughout the spring and on July 2, 2026, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released advisories regarding vulnerabilities in Gardyn Home and Studio devices. These security weaknesses could have allowed someone to take remote control of a Gardyn device, access plant photos, and obtain personal information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses. Gardyn claims it has remediated these vulnerabilities with the most recent firmware update and advises customers to ensure their Gardyns are internet-connected and running firmware version 619 or later. If you think your device may have been compromised, email [email protected] or call 844-4-GARDYN. For more information, see Gardyn's Security update for Gardyn Home and Gardyn Studio.
A Garden That’s Also a Statement Piece
Farmstand
I admit I was not aware until I opened the Lettuce Grow box that Zooey Deschanel and her ex-husband, Jacob Pechenik, founded this company. Despite their divorce, they continue to work together promoting it. Lettuce Grow's Farmstand is certainly a unique structure, with a bulbous, water-filled base topped by tiers set between rings of full-spectrum LED lights. The whole setup looks not unlike an old-school strawberry planter redesigned as a set piece for 2001: A Space Odyssey. There are models for indoor and outdoor use (the latter is the same, just sans the light rings).
I found the Farmstand easy to assemble and set up; everything snaps and clicks together intuitively. It's also very modular. Though Lettuce Grow recommends no more than six levels for stability, if you buy a Small Farmstand (18 plants) and decide later on that you want to make it a Medium (24) or a Large (36), you can buy extra levels and light rings that snap on in less than a minute.
The biggest issue I had with the Farmstand is that, at the outset, the company sends grown seedlings in reconstituted peat pellets (each Farmstand comes with credits for users to pick the plants they want), which is helpful in terms of success. But in my case, this resulted in a massive whitefly and aphid outbreak. A search through Lettuce Grow's Farmstand Community Facebook group revealed pest-infested seedlings to be an extremely common issue, but the company now offers a Plant Protection kit with Arber organic fungicide and insecticide for $36. I used the insecticide as directed when setting up my latest grow, and it worked—no sign of pests for more than four weeks.
Because the water cascades down over plant roots instead of the plant cups having constant contact, the Lettuce Grow is best with seedlings. So for my second grow, I used bare-root strawberries I bought from a different vendor.
It's worth noting that the 20-gallon reservoir renders the unit immobile once it's full, making it difficult to empty and refill. Lettuce Grow sells an excellent dolly for $80, but I wish it were included with the Farmstand. I also highly recommend using a smart plug to control the timing for the lights and water pump. Lettuce Grow sells its own for $25 that connects to its app.
Best for Growing Herbs
Mini 2
The original Auk Mini (8/10 WIRED Recommends) was one of the best-looking tabletop hydroponic gardens, available in natural wood finishes and featuring a contemporary Nordic flair. The newer Auk Mini 2, however, has one-upped it with a more efficient light bar; an easy-to-use app with vacation mode; and fun color options including Sage and Terra-Cotta.
Just like the original Auk, setup and operation are about as simple as it gets: Just plant the included Genovese basil and parsley seeds—or whatever you'd like—in the four pots (which are designed to work with the provided coco coir), fill the reservoir, add pumps of the provided nutrients, and plug it in.
The app is totally optional, but it will recognize your garden immediately without you having to make an account. It lets you set light schedules (dim enough not to be intrusive in a room). The coco coir absorbs the enriched water through slots in the pot bottoms. Sprouting took just days, and I had fully harvestable cilantro, parsley, and basil—enough for pesto, even—within a few weeks.
While the first Auk Mini's herbs tended to flop over and look messy, the Auk Mini 2 includes a gravel “topper” that creates a sort of crust over the top, keeping the herbs upright, lush, and bushy, just like in the marketing photos.
Unlike certain other systems, the Auk requires no pH tests, loud pumps, or tubing to stay clean. The only downside is the price compared to similar-sized tabletop systems like the LetPot (below), which have more plant slots. Note that the Auk Mini 2 features an add-on kit for tomatoes and peppers ($49) that includes bigger pots and longer dowels for a higher light bar, but I have not tested this.
Best for Beginners
Bounty
AeroGarden and I go way back. I’ve had multiple AeroGardens since the brand’s inception in 2006, which is why I was sad when the company announced it was going out of business in late 2024. But now it’s back with a spiffed-up line of systems, including the flagship Bounty. It comes in two iterations: the Bounty Elite (pictured) with Vacation Mode, 50-watt lights, a color touchscreen, and slick sunrise/sunset lighting; and the Bounty Basic, with 30-watt lights and none of the other features. Both systems hold nine plants, have telescoping stems for the lights, and come with a removable, cage-like trellis that can support and corral wayward herbs or vegetables.
The general form factor is the same as the OG tabletop gardens, but now with the ability to see the water level on the screen (the Basic has one, but it’s not color or touchscreen), as well as more efficient lights, quieter pumps, and the ability to adjust light intensity and set a schedule. The pump runs about every half-hour and is not noticeably audible unless the water level is at 50 percent or less, at which point the garden sounds like a pet drinking water. ("Is that your cat?" a friend asked after a couple of hours of sitting near the unit when it was low on water.) Lights stay on for about 16 hours, and you can choose which hours in AeroGarden's app. (The app is handy but not necessary—I abandoned it after about a week of it repeatedly “forgetting” my garden.) The Elite's Vacation Mode is rare for these tabletop gardens and critical if you're frequently away from home.
Each AeroGarden comes with a set of branded sponge-and-basket pods preloaded with herb seeds. My press tester also came with the Salsa Garden kit, which consisted of six tomato pods and three jalapeños. The tomato plants are hardy, healthy, and ready to flower, but because they germinated first, they've overtaken the poor jalapeños, which look anemic and are barely visible beneath the tomato leaves. A variety of AeroGarden refill kits are available, but I can tell you the AeroGarden baskets take the same generic refill sponges I recommend for the LetPot below, so do what you will with that information.