I love growing herbs in the garden. Unfortunately, we have some very bold deer who think that it is their personal salad bar. While I have some arugula and basil growing in a few spots indoors, there aren’t that many windows that have enough natural light to sustain enough plants to grow the amount of fresh, pesticide free herbs that I enjoy using in cooking. So I am thrilled to be using the Prosumer’s Choice Indoor Garden Hydroponic Kit.

I have been looking for a quality indoor grow kit for about ten years now. When my grandmother had an injury, she couldn’t even take advantage of the edible plants she had cultivated in pots just outside the front door. So for years, I tried to find a good indoor kit so we could enjoy growing herbs indoors together. However, finding a reasonably priced grow system was difficult.

If you aren’t familiar with hydroponics, let me give you a little bit of a background. Simply put, it is a way of growing plants in nutrients and water, but not in soil. Occasionally you will hear it called “soilless cultivation.” The plants get all the nutrients and water they need. From a practical standpoint, it is far less messy that potted plants and you have far greater control over what goes into your plants, e.g. pesticides in the soil, etc.

I was reading an article yesterday that talked about how popular hydroponic growth systems are becoming in high-end restaurants. The Ritz-Carlton uses hydroponic growth systems for all of their arugula. Having house-grown plants lets them control the quality and quantity of a staple of their menu.

The Prosumer’s Choice Indoor Harden Hydroponic Kit adds a grow light, so your plants get the proper amount of full spectrum light, just like if they were growing outside. The hydroponic growth method and the grow light result in a more robust and faster-growing plant. Faster growth is fantastic if you use certain herbs on a regular basis like I use basil, and if you use as much arugula as I do, it’s good to have fast growing, tasty leaves at the ready!

The kit is incredibly easy to put together. It only took minutes to put together and seed the two pods. The light plugs into a standard outlet, and then you just have to wait until the plants start growing!

Prosumer’s Choice is also a great kit to use to teach kids how to plant. Without the mess of soil, the whole family can have fun planting regardless of the season.