It’s honestly funny how demand and supply have a way of working. Herbs that cost me a couple of cents for a bunch a month ago, now cost nearly a dollar – 5 times as much. The funny bit isn’t just the price gouging… it’s also the fact that these herbs routinely get sold out. This pandemic and its immediate effect on the economy and the food supply chain has made me want to take to home gardening again. I used to have basil, coriander, oregano, bird’s eye chilli, and an aloe vera plant, but given that I used to travel a lot on a monthly basis, all I’m left with is an aloe-vera that’s sort of on the fence. I’ve wanted to take to home-gardening again. I’ve been blessed with a room with an attached balcony that gets tonnes of sunlight, and to be honest, I’m probably not traveling anywhere for the foreseeable year, and I honestly can’t wrap my head around paying 5 times the amount for something that I can grow in my own house… and neither should you. To be honest, home-gardening has gotten RIDICULOUSLY easy over the past few years. You don’t really need the sun, soil, or even daily watering anymore as any sufficiently advanced planter (and there are a fair few out there) take care about everything from lighting to watering and even plant health and nutrition. A lot of these planters are designed to be kept anywhere around the house, and can easily handle growing herbs, sprouts, microgreens, and aromatics in a way that’s easier than going to the supermarket, or than saying “Alexa, order me some basil”. The Herb Garden takes a modular approach to indoor gardening. With a self-sufficient system that takes care of all your plant’s needs, a hydroponics water tank that lets you grow plants without soil, and a pod-based system that allows you to plug in and grow as many as 39 different herbs at the same time, the Herb Garden is the equivalent of having an entire backyard orchard, but in a form factor that’s just 30 inches long and nearly 8 inches wide. The Herb Garden takes the guess-work out of gardening too, with sensors that help it understand what your plant needs, and WiFi connectivity that lets you know when to replenish its internal water reservoir. The Herb Garden’s internal app even lets you know when your plants are ripe for picking, and supplies you with a list of recipes based on what you’ve got growing in your ‘backyard’, so to speak. The autonomous gardening system comes with a hard-wood planter base, a lighting module embedded in an acrylic frame, and an anodized aluminum framework that lets you dock seed pods in the garden. Crafted to perfection, the wood base and lucite light frame allow the garden to complement most homes, and the greenery growing in it adds a wonderful touch of color to the apartment. The sunlight-mimicking LED lighting system focuses light downwards at each individual plant, allowing different plants to get different lighting based on their need. You can even adjust lighting patterns within the app, or switch on a ‘Vacation Mode’ that takes care of your garden for you while you’re away. Similarly, the Herb Garden uses hydroponics to keep your plant healthy and hydrated using a water-based system instead of soil. With a dual-reservoir setup, the self-growing garden can take care of your plants for weeks, if not days. Growing your plants is as simple as adding a seed-pod (which you get with each Herb Garden, or buy off the Herb Garden app) in an empty slot on the 13×3 grid. You can either fill the garden up with small microgreens, or space the pods apart if you’re looking to grow bigger plants. The app recognizes your garden’s layout, customizing year-round care based on each plant, and even notifying you when they’re ready to harvest… so all you need to do is sit back and watch your year-round garden grow herbs and greens for free and never succumb to the pressure of heading to the supermarket when it’s safer to stay at home, or even paying 5 to 10 times the amount for something you can quite easily cultivate on your own. Designer: GardenByte ($901 off). Hurry, only 12/25 left. Designed and developed by a team of MIT engineers, the Herb Garden utilizes the latest hydroponics plant-growth technology for growing fresh herbs and vegetables all year long that could proudly be displayed in any home. With a built-in computer with WiFi connectivity, over a dozen integrated sensors, and the highest power LEDs, the Herb Garden is able to grow Michelin quality herbs and produce with minimal effort in any home. The integrated sensors and their machine learning monitors the environment and automatically adjust the garden’s settings for optimal plant growth. The Herb Garden is big enough to grow many full-sized herb plants at once. These mature plants allow for continual pruning and harvesting every day for months. Every plant has a different size and shape. The 3 by 12 unit grid tray lets you grow 39 small plants at once or space out larger full-size plants. Their grow lights are four times more powerful than competing indoor gardens. 30 professional-grade, high power, full spectrum, grow LEDs from Germany and 30 polymer lenses from Finland were used to create the most powerful lighting array available in a home garden. The light bar has an internal thermal management system with a variable-speed fan that keeps the lights running cool while making no more noise than a whisper. A separate array of 48 low-power candlelight LEDs provide a gentle and soft illumination for your plants, and adjust according to the ambience. The dual-reservoir design helps maintain a constant water level for roots of the plants so that they are always properly hydrated and nourished. The roots stay fully hydrated even if there is an unexpected power loss. The app is connected to your garden’s computer, and it will send you real-time updates on your garden’s status. You’ll know when to add water, when to harvest your herbs, and even how to prepare them for cooking. ($901 off). Hurry, only 12/25 left.