Earlier this year Pantone bestowed PANTONE 15-0343 Greenery as the color of 2017, prescient of the house plant trend that has culminated in numerous books, Instagrams, and websites dedicated to integrating plants into our everyday lives. But as one wise Muppet once professed, “it ain’t easy being green” – not everyone has the space or green thumb for keeping plants healthy. The LeGrow smart garden kits attempt to turn growing and caring for plants into a simple matter of snapping modular pieces together into self-sustaining indoor gardening ecosystems so everyone can live a little greener.
Similar to LEGO blocks, each element of the LeGrow system serves a purpose in promotion of growing and maintaining healthy plants:
- Pots are the building blocks of the Smart Garden, each outfitted with an internal water reservoir designed to control the amount of water available to each plant.
- LED Lamp blocks feature dual-bulb designed to help promote growth, even in windowless rooms, low-light environments, and the winter season. Rated for a maximum of 50,000 Lux and producing a 3000 K color temperature, this element plays the role of the “sun” for the purpose of photosynthesis.
- 360° Humidifier is designed to replicate mist in a natural environment and provides additional moisture for plants to prevent drying out.
- Power Pot is shaped like the standard pot, but includes a unique base with 4 waterproof USB charging ports, including a Quick Charge 3.0 port for smart phones. One could assume this reflect envisioning keeping a LeGrow system near/around workspaces within a home or office.
Designed by Chinese industrial designer Haobin Lin, the LeGrow was initially conceived to introduce his own daughter to gardening and add an element of nature into her life. It seems ideal he took this idea and converted it into a modular, cubic shaped planter system with identifiable similarities to LEGO or Minecraft, essentially turning home gardening into a game where the chances of “winning” are greatly improved.
“When my daughter was born I decided that if it was impossible for us to leave the city, I must bring the beauty of nature to my daughter. So began a 3-year journey to create the best indoor garden I could design.
One day I noticed my daughter playing with her favorite toys – “building blocks.” In that moment I realized that indoor gardens could be so much more than just a bunch of pots. By allowing you to stack and expand your pots everyone can create a unique garden just like my daughters unique building creations.
The Lego-like design has the added benefit of fitting into smaller spaces like our apartment. However, it also provides flexibility, so that my daughter can move and expand her garden as she grows. Once I began to design the pot I realized that this garden could be so much more.” – Haobin Lin
The LeGrow Smart Garden is currently seeking crowdfunding support, with an entry price of $34 for early bird backers, scaling upwards depending upon the number and complexity of plant growing infrastructure.