Building a DIY garden is easy. Here's one in a shoe box!

As part of the Click & Grow team, we regularly have to test new plants in our homes to see how they perform in different environments. Yesterday I had to finish a plant test in my Smart Garden 3 (I was testing Yellow Chilli Peppers) but I just could not bear to throw the plants away after ending the test. 

I had already harvested chilies once, but I just knew my plants had more chilies coming in and there were still many blooms waiting to develop into fruits.

So I decided to DIY a simple garden so I could continue harvesting the plants. We've built many DIY concepts at work before, but this was my first solo-project for home-use. I decided to use an everyday object that otherwise was taking up quite a lot of space at home yet not bringing any real benefits - an empty shoe box. 

I took some plant cups from the R&D room (also sold as the DIY Garden kit) and later added a lamp that we had lying around in the office (one we use in the Smart Garden 9).  Whatever you want to use as the garden base, it only needs a tank to hold water and a lid to hold the plant cups.

MY DIY Creation: Initial setup.

 Here are some quick tips for creating a DIY Garden: 

• First you need a few plant cups/holders. You can get them HERE (these cups include a wick that will take care of the watering part for you) or use something similar (but then you might have to water manually).
• A grow light is necessary. These can be bought from most gardening centers. The prices start from around 15$. A lamp from a well-known producer is recommended as cheaper lamps might not have the light with the best wavelengths.
• A water tank and a lid can be made from absolutely anything. You can use an ice cream box or other similar packaging, but a good option is also a regular balcony flower box which would make your garden look better. You only need to make holes to the lid to accommodate the plant cups.
• The best place for the garden is a window sill in order to give the plants some natural light. But with a good grow light the garden can be placed absolutely anywhere.

The chilli plants that I have are four and a half months old. Often the plants drop their leaves when the crops are ready, but mine look really nice even after this long.

What are some of your DIY Garden concepts? Would be interesting to see what you've built. 

Taavi Reinson, 

Head of R&D

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