Growing Our Own Organic Food (Inside Our Home!)

Gardyn partner Melissa Baswell Williams (@bubbyandbean) shares her Gardyn experience. You can find the original post and more of Melissa’s great content here.

Here on Bubby and Bean, I share pieces of life and things that I enjoy and are important to me. You guys know that I love healthy organic food, gardening (even if I’m not very good at it), interior design, and teaching my kids how to live an eco-conscious lifestyle. So it’s probably no surprise that I’m thrilled to talk about something that incorporates all of these things, and has brought incredible joy to our home and family over in recent weeks: Gardyn.

A lot has changed in the last few months – for us, and for everyone. We’ve been trying to make less visits to the grocery store, and we’ve also been thinking more about the benefits of growing our own food. I heard about an indoor vertical garden system that grows sustainable produce called Gardyn and was intrigued. The more I read about it, the more I wanted to try it. So I did!

We just let the Gardyn work its magic

The order process is incredibly simple – you just choose the produce you want to grow when you order your Gardyn. You can also sign up for a membership, like I did, where you get free plants every month, delivered just a few days after you order them. (every plant is the same price and shipping is free!) The Gardyn app makes ordering seamless.

Once the system arrived (just a few days after the order was placed), we easily put it together, then dropped the yCubes into the Gardyn (reminded me of dropping a Keurig cup into a coffee maker). We filled the water tank, connected the unit to Wifi and the Gardyn app, and turned it on. After that, we just let the Gardyn work its magic. The water (and plant food, which is added later) circulate automatically. In a few days, we saw them start to sprout. It was very exciting. I have always been fascinated by vertical gardens and their ability to produce in small spaces, but I’ve never seen anything like this.

Kelby is rad

Within the Gardyn app is Kelby, your very own virtual Gardyning assistant. Kelby is rad. When our tank needs to be refilled with water or plant food added (for us, this has only been necessary every few weeks), Kelby sends us an alert in the app to let us know. Kelby also lets us know if the plants need more or less light, and sends other fun messages. It feels like we have our own personal gardener doing all the work, which is pretty great. My kids’ excitement over getting Kelby alerts and watching our Gardyn grow is contagious.

We just take what we need

One of the most thrilling parts of our Gardyn experience has been the harvest. There is something incredibly fulfilling about growing your own food (even when you’re not doing any work!). In addition to be able to eat fresh, organic food, I love knowing that I’m not wasting food. I’ve noticed that when we buy produce from the store, no matter how hard we try, there is always something that goes bad before we can eat it. With Gardyn, we just take what we need, and the rest of the plant continues to grow until we want to eat more. There is no need to store in the refrigerator either. We just pick it daily right before we cook a meal. From salads to smoothies, we are literally eating food moments after it’s harvested. The flavor is so much more intense, and nutrients haven’t been lost. There is truly nothing like freshly picked veggies and herbs! It’s also very reassuring to know exactly where our food is coming from, and to know it was grown without the use of pesticides or herbicides.

Minimal and attractive design

I was admittedly a little concerned about what Gardyn would look like in our home. The images I’d seen of the unit were lovely, and I envisioned it looking beautiful in a kitchen. Unfortunately, the only free wall space we had was in our dining room. Once we set it up, however, I was instantly reassured. The design is minimal and really attractive, and when the produce started growing, it added (literal!) life to the space. The lights aren’t blindingly bright and actually give a nice ambience to the room when they’re on. It also only takes up 2 square feet of space to grow 30 plants, which is quite impressive.

We are in love with our Gardyn

All in all, we are in love with our Gardyn – so much so that I just had to share our experience with you all. During a time of so much uncertainty, it’s really nice to have the experience of growing our food. And the fact that we can keep growing it into the fall and winter is just awesome. If you have any questions about Gardyn, please contact me. I love talking about it!