First, a note of disclosure: I received a Gardyn 3.0 system as a gift from Gardyn and Tryazon to share my experience with friends and family. I am also a Gardyn affiliate, which means that purchasing items through my links may earn me a small commission. As is the way, all experiences are my own. 

I have almost always loved plants and gardening. In college, we had a paradise of greenery in our dorms and apartments. All of the plants had names. I was very good at killing things. When I started gardening at the house Brian lived in, I decided that growing food was superior to growing non-food. I’ve been an avid outdoor summer gardener since. After my amazing HomeGoods Hideout experience, I started becoming a full-fledged plant person. And my indoor greenhouse windows have exploded with stuff that I *mostly* still haven’t killed yet. When the opportunity to host a Gardyn party showed up in my e-mail, I was all in. So now, I’m a year-round grow-what-I-eat person.

My Review of Gardyn 3.0

I absolutely love this system. It’s easy to use, convenient, intuitive, and self-sustaining. I feel like I have the best garden I’ve ever had, and it’s inside my house! I don’t have to go outside in the heat or rain or bad air quality days, or when I don’t want to put pants on…I can just check on my garden. It also only takes up a small corner of my dining room. 2 square feet or so. She’s a beaut. I named her EPCOT because Living With the Land is one of my favorite rides and that’s where I learned all about hydroponic gardening. 

The Gardyn 3.0 is a beautiful display piece in my dining room, and the produce is perfect because the environment provides the ideal growing conditions. I can grow food or beautiful plants, and it’s very easy to swap them when I want to make changes. The app makes sure my garden has the right amount of light. The automatic watering system makes it so easy to ensure all the plants are regularly watered, without me lifting a finger. I clean it monthly according to the website and app instructions, and I replenish water with food and a booster weekly. Even cleaning it seems easy.

I love that it’s not a DRM system like a Keurig or printer with special cartridges that can’t use other products. In fact, they have blank yCubes™ that you can put whatever seeds you like into. Of course, it won’t come with the tips and suggestions for ideal growing positions, but as you grow as a gardener, you can learn how to manage that as well. I’m going to have another post with all of the tips and tricks I’ve learned, but this post is getting far too long, already.

Now, the Gardyn is an expensive device. It runs about $900 for the whole start-up system (and you can get a $100 off coupon on their site). I don’t have the energy to math out what I have spent on an outdoor garden over the years, but I will say that the over-time costs are actually comparable, based on what I’ve seen in YouTube videos and reddit threads. The device uses an app to schedule lighting and watering routines and offers tips and pointers for growing the plants and the growing zones (because the lighting is different in different spots!).

There is also an optional subscription service (which I have been using on a trial basis, and you can do a free 30-day trial of). I’ll probably use it for a while to get a feel for the Gardyn and how to care for it and eventually stop the service. It comes with 10 free plants a month, plus discounts on plants, plant food, and extra empty yCubes™, which I do love.

Simple Recipes, Fresh from my Gardyn

I love brunch. It’s my favorite. So to show off the Gardyn, I knew I was going to go all in on brunch. Here are some of the brunchy items I made with my first harvest! Note from the author: I am not a precision recipest. I don’t measure precisely, so I can’t promise perfection, but the general guidelines here are good. What I know: If it’s too salty, add more acids or fats. If it’s too bland, add more salt or acids. If it’s too tart, add more fats or salt. They all balance each other.

Fresh mixed greens salad

6 cups of lettuce and mustard greens

Sliced grape tomatoes

sliced English cucumber

Drizzle of olive oil

salt to taste

Pico de Gallo

6-8 stalks of cilantro (leaves only)

3 roma tomatoes diced small

1/2 red onion chopped small

Salt to taste

Guacamole

6-8 stalks cilantro (leaves only)

2 avocados

1/2 roma tomato, chopped small and divided

1/4 red onion chopped small

lemon & lime juice to taste

salt to taste

Salmon canapés

1 English cucumber, sliced

4 oz salmon

2 sprigs of dill

lemon zest from 1 lemon

Compound Whipped Butter

Note: I haven’t perfected this recipe, so take it with a grain of salt *ba dum bum bum*

1 stick butter (I recommend Kerry Gold. Also, next time, I’ll make it with unsalted butter)

2 Tbs whole milk

2 sprigs of thyme

4 Tbs raw honey (buy the local good stuff, dudes. Don’t waste your time on the fake stuff) lemon zest from one lemon

2 Tbs lemon juice

What do you think? Is a Gardyn your type of device? What would you love to grow in a Gardyn?