Say Goodbye to Bagged Lettuce and Say Hello to Growing Your Own Damn Salad
Those of us who live in chilly climates sometimes have to settle for bagged lettuce (shudder) when we want a salad in the winter. While bagged lettuce is convenient, it’s typically a bit, well, blah. Well, thanks to technology and brill minds, there’s a new gadget that allows people to grow their own greens easily.
The Grove, a bookshelf-sized growing station, will help people grow lush, indoor gardens. The Grove recently reached its Kickstarter goal and it’s no surprise. The innovative garden system seems incredibly user-friendly and productive.
The creators are not surprisingly engineers from MIT. They made this three-layered system to encourage people to eat uber sustainable and local food that can be easily harvested in a person’s home.
The first layer of the system is where greens grow. According to The Grove, you can grow all sorts of leafy greens, herbs, and fruiting crops. (For an entire list of what early Grove users have grown, check out its Kickstarter page.) The plants get light from full spectrum, adjustable LED bulbs.
The second layer of the system features the seedling bed where larger plants can be started. Also: other plants, such as microgreens and wheatgrass, can be grown here, too.
The final, bottom level of the system contains a 25-gallon fish tank. “The fish tank is sort of the heart of the system, providing both water and fertilizer for the plants,” Treehugger reports. “The waste fish poop and ammonia becomes nitrate for the plants, while the plants provide clean water back to the fish tank. It creates a full ecosystem where the plants and fish benefit from each other.”
The best part of the system? It’s all controlled by your smartphone. “Once a user chooses which plants to grow, they choose them in the app and the system is then configured to the optimum setting for those plants,” Treehugger explains. The app also gives updates and lets you know when you need to take action (like when plants should be harvested, you need more fish, etc.).
To find out more about The Grove, check out the product’s Kickstarter (it still has a few days left), and website.
Related on Organic Authority
Guide to 5 Indoor Winter Gardening Sensations
5 Innovative Indoor Garden Designs
3 Radical Ways to Grow Veggies Indoors
Lettuce salad image via Shutterstock
