This past month I cooked every single meal that I ate: no eating out, no delivery, and no packaged food. Something I noticed on my 90-percent-veg grocery bill each week was how much I was spending on things such as chives, microgreens, shisho, and other specialty greens (which make all the difference as a “topper” to soups, onigiri, and salads). I also noticed how quickly these edibles decompose after they’ve been cut; I could never seem to eat the whole bag of micro broccoli in time.
I’m now planning for a cutting countertop garden made up of more than the typical culinary herbs, with specific vegetables tailored to my interest. Here are 10 vegetable-growing kits that yield everything from rare mushrooms to wasabi greens to fennel and more.
Above: The Chef’n Microgreens Garden comes with soil, seeds, and a tray that is slender enough to fit on windowsills and countertops; $25.49 on Amazon. Above: From Japanese brand Cultivate & Eat, a Mini Vegetable Growing Kit includes a plastic-lined paper bag modeled after a traditional rice bag, potting mix, and seeds. Shown here is the Shiso kit; also available are Wasabina greens and Hawk Claw peppers, each £7.99 each from Paper Tiger in the UK. Above: AeroGarden carries a variety of high-tech soil-less container gardens with grow lights that promise to grow plants five times faster than traditional soil-based gardens. The countertop-friendly Harvest Elite Slim (pictured) is $143.96; it can grow up to six plants. AeroGarden offers dozen of seed kits; I’m partial to the Mixed Kale Seed Pod Kit for $12.76. Above: San Francisco-based wild mushroom cultivators Far West Fungi offer mini mushroom farm kits such as the Yellow Oyster Mushroom Mini Farm seen here for $25 for three to four harvests. Also available are the Lion’s Mane Mini Farm, Shitake Mini Farm, Pink Oyster Mini Farm, and Tree Oyster Mini Farm. Above: For a high-tech option (see our post on High Tech Herb Growing Kits for more), the Seed Pantry Grow Kit features plenty of veg options in addition to typical herbs and flowering plants; vegetables including mixed spicy greens, shallots, beets, wasabi, peas, and fennel come in pods that can be customized to the system. See Seed Pantry in the UK for pricing and options. Above: The super-simple and low-tech Johnson’s Microgreens Growing Tray comes with coriander, arugula, and basil seeds to grow microgreens; £6 each from Kew Gardens in London.
Above: Click & Grow is a system that comes with pre-seeded cartridges that grow via “smart soil” (a nano-tech growth medium that accelerates plant growth) and an LED grow light. The system can be customized with vegetables such as the Garden Yellow Sweet Pepper Plant Pods seen here. Visit Click & Grow for more information. See the Click & Grow herb garden option in our post 10 Easy Pieces: High Tech Herb Growing Kits. Above: For the countertop seed sprouter, the Alicja Patanowska-designed Porcelain Hydroponic Plant Grower is a porcelain funnel that sits on the rim of a drinking glass for an instant hydroponic growing condition; $31.99 each from Dowse in the UK available through Trouva. For more on the design, see our post Root System: Ceramic Plant Funnels from Alicja Patanowska. Above: The Classic Veritable Garden is powered by an LED light and self-irrigates for up to three weeks. The kit comes with seeds to grow chives, cherry tomatoes, curly parsley, and basil; $200 through Goop. For more like this, see our post 10 Easy Pieces: High Tech Herb Growing Kits. Above: The Custom Seedsheet Garden comes with the soft container, seeds (embedded in something the company calls the “seedsheet”), and soil. You choose from two container sizes (small or large) and 85 different vegetables, fruits, and flowers; starting from $24.99.
When you register as a free Member of the Remodelista family of websites (Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home), you gain access to all current posts plus 10 archived posts per month, our internal bookmarking tool, and the community bulletin board.
Access 10 archived posts (older than one year) per month on each site
Use of our internal bookmark tool, so you can save products, posts, and other pages for quick reference
Access to our community bulletin board so you can ask and answer design-related questions
Unlimited access to the Product Catalogs, Design Travel sources, and Architect & Designer Directory listings
Choose from our ten newsletters to keep up with the latest on the sites
Or Subscribe for Maximum Value!
For $5/month ($59.99 paid annually) you'll enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home and all the benefits of Membership.
Annual subscribers pay 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99
×
Subscribe to the Remodelista family of websites
For $5/month ($59.99 paid annually) you'll enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home and all the benefits of Membership.
Annual subscribers pay 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99
×
Sorry! As a registered member you get 10 free posts from our archive (posts more than a year old) every 30 days. You have reached your limit for this 30-day period. If you would like to access unlimited posts from the archive (ad free, too), become a subscriber today, and keep reading as many articles as you want.
Full Access Individual Subscription
Benefits include:
Unlimited access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home sites
Ad-free browsing environment
Unrestricted access to 30,000+ archived posts
Receive the full-text daily newsletters
All features that Members have access to
Annual subscribers pay just 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99
Sorry! You have reached your limit of three (3) free posts from our archive every 30 days. You can increase this to 10 posts by joining as a free Member, or read unlimited posts with no ads by becoming a paid Subscriber.
Subscribe to the Remodelista family of websites
For $5/month ($59.99 paid annually) you'll enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home and all the benefits of Membership.
Annual subscribers pay 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99
Become a Member at no charge
When you register as a free Member of the Remodelista family of websites (Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home), you gain access to all current posts plus 10 archived posts per month, our internal bookmarking tool, and the community bulletin board.
Access 10 archived posts (older than one year) per month on each site
Use of our internal bookmark tool, so you can save products, posts, and other pages for quick reference
Access to our community bulletin board so you can ask and answer design-related questions
Unlimited access to the Product Catalogs, Design Travel sources, and Architect & Designer Directory listings
Choose from our ten newsletters to keep up with the latest on the sites
Manage Newsletters
Congratulations on becoming a Subscriber to Remodelista, Gardenista and The Organized Home! You now have access to many great features across the sites:
Unlimited access to all three sites
Ad-free browsing environment
Unrestricted access to 30,000+ archived posts
Receive any of the newsletters, including the the full-text daily Remodelista and Gardenista newsletters
Use of our internal bookmark tool, so you can save products, posts, and other pages for quick reference
Access to our community bulletin board so you can ask and answer design-related questions
Congratulations on joining as a free Member of Remodelista, Gardenista and The Organized Home! You now have access to many great features across the sites:
Access to all posts published in the past year
Access 10 archived posts (older than one year) per month on each site
Use of our internal bookmark tool, so you can save products, posts, and other pages for quick reference
Access to our community bulletin board so you can ask and answer design-related questions
Unlimited access to the Product Catalogs, Design Travel sources, and Architect & Designer Directory listings
Choose from our ten newsletters to keep up with the latest on the sites
If at any time you want to become a Subscriber and enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to all our content, just go to the My Account link and choose Subscribe.
Have a Question or Comment About This Post?
Join the conversation