Old MacDonald had a farm, and you can, too — without buying up lots of land. If your gardening ambitions can’t be contained by window planters, but a full-on farm doesn’t fit your lifestyle, there’s a happy medium. You’ll be able to have your produce and eat it, too.
Cick & Grow, a maker of automated indoor home garden technologies, is making home-grown produce easier to come by. The company currently offers smart herb gardens and smart flowerbeds that grow with “zero effort” on your part, according to the company’s website. Thanks to the its own proprietary nanotech Smart Soil growth medium, ultra-efficient LED grow lights, and electronic precision irrigation systems, it won’t matter whether or not you have a green thumb. The plants are automatically provided with the ideal amount of water, light, and nutrients, enabling them to grow more efficiently.
Currently in the works are Click & Grow’s Smart Farm and Smart Mini Farm, which will bring higher yields to families, restaurants, and even the pharmaceutical industry — without pesticides or GMOs. Additionally, they will use up to 95 percent less water relative to traditional farming methods, according to the company. If you don’t want such a hands-off approach, you’ll be free to customize your plants’ growing parameters through a mobile app.
The Smart Mini Farm is, of course, smaller than the Smart Farm. Where Smart Farms will be available in two sizes (with either four or five shelves), as well as customizable shelves, the Smart Mini Farm will come as a kitchen cart with two trays that can grow up to 30 plants each. You’ll be able to grow delicious kale, lettuce, tomatoes, chili peppers, strawberries, peppermint, and more. Priced at $299, it will be an affordable way to increase the amount of fruits and veggies in your diet.
“[The] Smart Mini Farm … is going to revolution the way everyday people get their food,” said Click & Grow CEO Mattias Lepp in a statement. The company announced Wednesday that it has secured an investment from Y Combinator, a San Francisco-based venture fund, and will participate in the fund’s three-month program before bringing the Smart Mini Farm to market. Click & Grow hails the product as the first to allow consumers to “easily grow enough fresh produce for an entire family, priced under $300.”
The Smart Farm will launch for retail in 2016. No date has been released yet for the launch of the Smart Mini Farm.
