Gardening is an extremely therapeutic activity, and though I may not engage in it all the time, the few times that I have, I found it really delightful and soothing. Growing, tending to, and being surrounded by plants is intensely satisfying, all your worries slowly fade away, and you are simply enthralled by nature. Indoor gardening is a modern solution that works perfectly in our modern homes. From LG’s latest indoor gardening appliance that is 3 feet tall to an air purifier that doubles up as a plant caretaker – we have a myriad range of options when it comes to growing plants within the comfort of your home! These unique, innovative, and thoughtful designs promise to take care of all your indoor gardening needs. And I don’t know about you, but I’m really considering trying one of them out, I wouldn’t mind adding indoor gardening to my daily routine!
1. LG’s tiiun
Sure, a refrigerator can keep your veggies fresh… but LG’s tiiun can keep it fresher! Designed as a unique home appliance that lets you grow your own herbs and veggies the LG tiiun was announced in the run-up to CES 2022. The indoor gardening appliance is roughly the size of a dorm refrigerator, standing at approximately 3 feet tall, and features two shelves that can accommodate up to 6 all-in-one seed packages and various seed kits.
Why is it noteworthy?
The term tiiun comes from the Korean word meaning ‘to sprout’ and is LG’s way of indicating that this appliance is an all-in-one self-sufficient garden. The appliance creates a perfect microclimate and all the right conditions for the plants to grow, even mimicking light cycles so you could potentially keep your tiiun anywhere in a room without worrying about access to proper sunlight. LG’s Flexible Weather Control System creates the ideal situations for organic growth while also keeping pests at bay. An internal watering system also delivers water to the plants (8 times a day) to keep them hydrated. All you really have to do is install the tiiun and sit back while your plants grow on their own!
What we like
- A foolproof way to grow your own veggies and herbs in the comfort of your home
- Fun and simple even for those with no gardening experience
What we dislike
- The form is a bit too bulky for homes with space constraints
2. Plant Light Nº1
Drawing the fine line between a functional piece of plant-growing hardware and an elegant tabletop lighting accessory, Plant Light Nº1 turns your interior space into an ideal set of conditions for growing plants.
Why is it noteworthy?
The light comes with a neo-industrial design aesthetic, and sports a surface to rest your planter on. Above it sits a height-adjustable lamp that comes equipped with full-spectrum LEDs that mimic the light quality (color), light intensity (brightness), and photoperiod (duration) of the sun, allowing any plant to grow indoors.
What we like
- Comes with a matrix of full-spectrum 90+ CRI LEDs that mimic the sun in a way that sets PL1 apart
- A built-in timer allows PL1 to intuitively switch on or off, providing the right duration of light for your plants
What we dislike
- It’s not available yet!
3. Paradise
Designed to reduce domestic waste, Paradise is an automated plant cultivator and compost bin that uses integrated technology to prompt users when the compost or plants need tending. Conceptualized as a rolling cart, Paradise is comprised of modular pieces that work together to provide optimal conditions for growing plants. Starting from its top, Paradise features an LED strip that pours artificial sunlight over integrated planters located on top of Paradise’s first module.
Why is it noteworthy?
While spending more time at home has brought some much-needed rejuvenation to our interior design, it has also contributed to a global increase in domestic waste. Inspired to change that, designer Robin Akira created Paradise, a household plant cultivator with integrated compost bins and an odor-sealing lid to make use of and reduce our domestic waste.
What we like
- Integrates greenery into our interior spaces
- An odor-sealing lid
What we dislike
- Could be messy to have such a design in our indoor living space
4. CURA
CURA is an all-encompassing plant-growth apparatus that takes care of the light and water requirements for any plant. Its automated systems can be programmed to suit the light requirements for flowering plants, air-purifying plants, herbaceous plants, or decorative plants, and when CURA’s halo-shaped lamp isn’t nourishing your plant, it can be turned into an ambient light that adds a pop of color to your space!
Why is it noteworthy?
Available in 3 sizes and across floor-standing, tabletop, and wall-mounted varieties, CURA is a halo-shaped horticultural light that’s designed to activate and promote plant growth. Powered by OSRAM LEDs, the lamp can output different wavelengths of light that help create the right growth conditions for different types of plants. CURA comes with presets for Herbs & Greens, Flowers & Fruits, Germination, Indoor Garden Plants, and more, while also handling different stages in a plant’s growth cycle, from germination to flower and fruit-bearing stages.
What we like
- The lamp can either be programmed to work automatically or can be configured using CURA’s smartphone app, allowing you to effectively play horticulturist with your indoor plants
- The lamp in Ambient Mode can also be configured to dynamically respond to music
What we dislike
No complaints!
5. The 4RESTPLANT
Rather aptly named the 4RESTPLANT (pronounced Forest Plant), this quirky little planter comes made from a porous clay, in the shape of a tree trunk – a design detail that makes immediate sense when you realize how the planter functions. Unlike traditional planters that act simply as vessels for soil and the plant, the 4RESTPLANT works quite like how nature does.
Why is it noteworthy?
Plants find their own surfaces to grow on, often clinging to a host plant like the root or stump of a tree for structure and support, while relying on the soil that’s already been aerated/loosened by the tree’s massive roots. The 4RESTPLANT works in a similar fashion – the tree-shaped planter comes with a hollow design that holds water on the inside (with a nano-silver coating to prevent the water from blooming) and features four ‘seed pads’ that are arranged on the outside, around the base of the planter. The planter’s porous design ends up wicking water outside to the seed pads, allowing them to grow by holding onto the trunk’s rough surface for structure. This basically recreates what happens in nature on a smaller scale, creating a planter that literally brings a slice of the beautiful outdoors into your home!
What we like
- Grows microgreens and other small ferns and plants in your home with little to no effort
- Basically recreates how plants grow in nature
What we dislike
- There are similar designs on the market
6. The Blow design
This concept design has turned this device into part of your room decoration and also into a “planterior” air purifier.
Why is it noteworthy?
The Blow design mimics that of a window, or particularly the venetian blinds but this time it’s left to right and vice versa rather than up and down. When you slide the handle, the cover on the front slowly opens and in turn, also turns on the air purifier. How strong the flow becomes depends on the degree that you operate the handle. So it mimics the natural wind that we feel when opening a window and how much wind comes in depending on how much that window is opened. The air is purified through a filter and then discharged through that window frame.
What we like
- The carbon and HEPA filters are easily replaceable to ensure that you’re really breathing in purified air.
- You can place this air purifier in three different ways in your room
What we dislike
No complaints!
7. The Ocean Sun
Designed to be more than just your average USB-powered work light, the Ocean Sun Plant Light, as its name quite aptly suggests, features a calibrated set of LEDs that emit light similar to the light from the sun. Made primarily for indoor plants that don’t receive too much natural light, the Ocean Sun Plant Light provides them with the right spectrum of light to enable photosynthesis and foster growth… and unlike the sun, it can fit in your palm.
Why is it noteworthy?
The Ocean Sun sports a sleek, compact design with a precisely machined aluminum outer shell and a series of flicker-free LEDs that draw power from a USB-C port located on the back of the device. Each lamp comes along with its own adjustable USB-C stand cable that lets you position and angle the lamp however you want, although the Ocean Sun works with any third-party cable too, giving you the freedom to hook it up to your laptop, a power bank, or even a set of solar panels with a USB output!
What we like
- Compact form that fits in your palm
- High-end flicker-free LEDs
What we dislike
- Not too sure how well plants would grow with this light
8. Jungle
Most commonly in homes across the world, indoor gardens are a form of biophilic design. Interpreting biophilia in a similar way, Jungle, designed by Poland-based KABO & PYDO design studio, is a planter that can hang from the ceiling and also function as a semi-flush mount light fixture.
Why is it noteworthy?
Comprised of only a few parts, the beauty of Jungle lies in the design’s simplicity. Defined by a bulbous, capsule-shaped centerpiece, Jungle is a half-planter and half-light fixture. The capsule-shaped planter emanates a warm, golden light that’s diffused with an opaque body. The opaque body softens the light and accentuates the plant life by offering an unassuming canvas for teeming greenery to drape across.
What we like
- The simple form emphasizes the beauty of the plants
- The lamp emits a soft and soothing light
What we dislike
- You need to stand on a stool or a little ladder to water the plants
9. Burmistrova’s smart planter
This smart planter can monitor the condition of the air, soil, and plant to ensure it receives the right amount of water and light to grow healthier. Designed with the working population in mind (who have less time to care for their plants, but love to have them in their indoors), the plant pot can artificially control humidity, air temperature, and more to ensure plants do not die during the user’s long absence. This endeavor can be further beneficial for the users, who can through a mobile app, control, monitor, and see the plant’s performance from anywhere.
Why is it noteworthy?
Smart planters are available dime a dozen. While some options rely on artificial light to help grow greens in shadier parts of the house, there are others that keep the plants happy and healthy autonomously. In the already crowded, but high-demand segment, designer Evgeniya Burmistrova has introduced a smart flower system with climate control that takes care of the plants independently and leaves you with a green, inviting environment at home.
What we like
- The plant pot can artificially control humidity, air temperature, and more to ensure plants do not die during the user’s long absence
What we dislike
- The aesthetics are unexciting and quite similar to other planters on the market
10. Vista
Vista is a smart gardening system that uses hydroponics to cultivate lush greenery in a growth tray that mimics the natural terrain of a mountainous landscape.
Why is it noteworthy?
Too many of the smart gardens on the market today prioritize function over aesthetics, amounting to cold, vertical farms that would look more at home in a research center’s greenhouse than in a living room. That’s why designer Juhyuck Han created Vista, a smart garden appliance that mimics a landscape’s natural terrain and scales it down to fit in our homes.
What we like
- Vista’s grow tray mimics the terrain of a natural landscape to bring users closer to nature
- Equipped with GPS technology, the glass container reveals various pieces of daily information such as the weather, temperature, date, and time
What we dislike
- Bulky + space-consuming design
