Best Indoor Garden Systems: I've Been Testing All Year (2026)
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
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 system with the lights in front to allow for taller plant growth. Seeds arrive in proprietary pods called yCubes. 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, with which to buy new yCubes. There's a free 30-day trial for Kelby, but you can definitely still use the Gardyn without it by relying on manual light and watering controls.
Also, there have been some recent privacy concerns with Kelby (more below). 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 has 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.) 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.
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 Studio 2, which features an upgraded camera and columns. Aside from some funky yCubes (which the company will replace upon request), I have no major complaints about the system. Though I will note that the plants in the Studio have been overall less lush due to the Studio's 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.
The BriefWire