A step-by-step guide to setting up a Click & Grow smart garden

Thinking of buying a Click & Grow smart garden and wondering how to use one?

See below to see how you set up a Click & Grow smart garden and use the app to track your plant's progress.

Check out my Smart Garden page for news on Click & Grow sales throughout the year.

Setting up your smart garden:

First unbox your smart garden and assemble as per instructions in box.

Below are some images showing how to start your smart garden, click the right arrow to see each image and see steps written below;

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  Starting a smart garden

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  Place seed pod in cup

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  Find your plant on C&G app

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  App names your plant

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  Fill your garden

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  Newly planted up garden

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1. Set up your Click & Grow garden add water and plug in, lights are on an automatic timer, so you will need to turn the power on first thing in the morning when you get up on the first day, the garden will automatically turn off each night and then back on at the same time every morning.

2. Plant your chosen pod in the plant cup add u-shaped lid and cover with clear dome.

3. Download the Click & Grow app on your smart phone or tablet, find & add your chosen plant to your garden on the app.

4. The app will name your plant and give you information such as time to sprout, when it should be ready to harvest, ideal growing temperatures, germination speeds and various other useful bits of information about that specific plant variety.

5. Continue to add each of your plants to the app until your garden is full.

6. It is a good idea to label each of your plants so that you know which is which, I like to add the names given to them in the app, as well as the plant variety.

7. Sit back and wait for your plants to start growing, keep the water level topped up but be sure not to overfill.

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Note: You will receive notifications on your app from each plant telling you what to expect from it, when it should be sprouting, when it can be harvested etc.

You can add notes using the edit feature within each plant profile on the app.

When a plant has finished growing in the smart garden and either needs to be planted on or removed, bring up the plant on the app, click on the large tick in the top right hand corner, from there you can record your experience.

Extending the life of your plants:

One of the things I love about my smart gardens is that when the plants are nearing the end of their life in the smart garden, they can be planted on and will continue to thrive and grow on your kitchen window sill for months to come. Things like wild strawberries and green sorrel can even be planted outside and will come back every year.

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  Basil ready to be planted on

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  Roots quite compact

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  loosen the roots gently

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  Plant on into bigger pots

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1. When your plants are reaching their life expectancy in your smart garden, their is plenty of life left in a lot of them if you plant them on, depending on plant type, plants such as strawberries, tomatoes, basil, green sorrell etc all thrive and continue to produce for months if planted on. (lettuce generally only crop once)

2. You can see that the roots in the cup are quite compact meaning the plant will die off if not transplanted.

3. Gently loosen the roots with your fingers, trying not to break them, this will enable them to grow into the new soil when potted on. I like to use regular grow bag compost made especially for veg & fruiting plants to plant on.

4. Potted up basil plants that will continue to thrive and produce delicious fresh basil for months to come.

A newly planted garden:

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  Day 1

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  Day 5

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  Day 18

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  Day 36

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1. Day 1

2. Day 5 - Leaf radish growing well, Green lettuce, Red & Green Oakleaf lettuce all sprouting

3. Day 18 - Leaf radish ready to harvest, lettuce & chives coming on well, Oregano & Thyme starting to sprout.

4. Day 36 - Have been harvesting leaves from all lettuce for over a week, leaf radish, planted on and a new one was planted 17 days ago, chives going well, oregano & thyme are a little slower growing.

Note: If a pod fails to sprout, Click & Grow will replace it. On the app, select the failed pod and select the large tick in the top right hand corner of the screen. From there if you select bad experience, you can enter the fact that your plant did not sprout, then you can request a replacement, you will need to give information such as room temperature, order no for your pods, serial no from packet and a photo of your garden.

I recently had 2 pods that did not sprout, this is the first time that this has happened in well over a year, I sent off my request for replacement pods, my request was answered within 24 hours and my replacement pods were on their way to me within a couple of days, an extremely impressive service from Click & Grow.

Using your homegrown produce:

I love to grow herbs that normally grow in my garden in the Summer, such as chives, oregano, mint, thyme etc in my smart garden in the winter, this way I get to use them in my cooking, fresh and homegrown all year round.

When you use your own organic, homegrown produce in your cooking it gives you an enormous sense of fulfilment. See the working with a smart garden category in my recipes to see some of the ways I use the produce I grow in my Click & Grow smart gardens and see below for some of those recipes.

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  Ham hock, peas & edible flower

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  Seafood stew with fresh herbs

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  Hot tomatoes, cold yoghurt

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  Poached fish, tomatoes & basil

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  Roasted aubergine with basil

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  Tomatoes, goat cheese & thyme

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1. Ham hock & pea salad with quail eggs, fresh herbs & edible flowers

2. Seafood stew with fresh herbs & alioli

3. Hot tomatoes, cold yoghurt

4. Olive oil poached halibut with cherry tomatoes & basil

5. Roasted aubergine with saffron yoghurt & basil

6. Cherry tomatoes with goats cheese & thyme oil

For more information on smart gardens, see my page 'Smart Garden' which gives you links to all my posts re Click & Grow smart gardens.

And if you are interested in buying one, please click on the following link to the Click & Grow Store for a year-round 10% discount or enter my discount code JACQUI10 at checkout.

Click & Grow Store