I Tested 4 "Herb" Gardening Kits 🍃💨 , and the Winner is Shockingly Amazing (and only $45/mo)!!
By: Abbigail Devrenou
Published Jul 15th, 2024
Growing Your Own "Herb" At Home 🍃💨
I'll be honest with you, I am a habitual user of the devil's lettuce, but I'm also a certifiable plant killer... So when I was asked to review four of the top "herb" gardening kits, I was beyond skeptical that I would 1) have a positive experience, and 2) actually want to buy any of these canna-contraptions. But I was legitimately surprised as hell, and found that not only is it possible to grow a TON of top-shelf herb at home, but it is also incredibly fun and rewarding. (It can also save you a $h!#load of money!)
There's a lot of options out there, and thankfully my editor narrowed it down to the top 4 popular brands which I tested and ranked here.
#1: Lush Garden A+
$45/mo
#2: HeyAbby C
$1,895
#3: Leaf D
$4,000
#4: The BudGrower F
$740
Best Bud For Your Buck - Lush Garden
$149.99 or $45/mo
“Lush was my hands-down favorite, it was the only kit that ACTUALLY INCLUDED THE SEEDS, but it was also the easiest to set up, and had weekly step-by-step instructions that helped me avoid the murder scene that usually plagues my gardening attempts. While the other kits were up to $4,000, this was just $45 per month. Plus, they were on Shark Tank!"
If you're not trying to turn your home into a futuristic spaceship, and y'know, just want to grow some herb, then this kit is perfect. While the other kits in this roundup are tailored exclusively for indoor growing, I loved that Lush could be used indoors or out. But most importantly, they were literally the only canna kit that actually included seeds... As it turns out, due to the 2018 Farm Bill, canna seeds can be legally purchased and shipped anywhere in the country, because the seeds don't actually have any potency, only the fully-grown plants! Why other brands aren't including seeds is honestly beyond me.
Let's talk about saving money! I was skeptical that for only $45/month I'd be able to grow a meaningful amount of flower, it almost sounded too good to be true... Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised when I received the box and found that all of the components included were completely top-shelf premium products. The results: I grew 6-ounces of flower in just 12-weeks, which if I had bought that at my local dispensary (*types on calculator*) would have run me almost $800!
Easy breezy set up. I loved that it included everything I needed to initially plant the garden, and then I got monthly shipments after that with the accessories I needed next; like veg fertilizer, trellis net, flower fertilizer, and trimming, drying, and curing accessories. It honestly felt like Christmas every time a Lush package showed up at my door. Pro tip for any gentleman readers, send your girl monthly gifts of canna-gardening accessories and she'll swoon... at least I did!
Award-winning genetics. As I already highlighted, this was the only kit in the roundup that actually included seeds, but not just any run-of-the-mill seeds, they include legendary strains from the famous Humboldt Seed Company. They embed the seeds inside of this magical dissolvable soil pod that is sealed within a weed-blocking-fabric Seedsheet (from Shark Tank!), so all I needed to do was lay the sheet on top of the container of soil and add water! Crazy simple and wildly effective! Plus I loved that they include backup seeds too, and have a germination guarantee.
Holy harvest, Batman! In just 3-months, my little seed grow into a monstrously large lady that was absolutely exploding with flowers. While I am quite proficient in consuming the end result, I had no idea how to take it from plant to puff, and I have to hand it to Lush for their excellent step-by-step tutorials that guided me through the uncharted waters. Their instructions taught me how to tell if my lady was ready for harvest, how to flush the plant, and then how to trim, dry, and cure to get the best end result possible.
Lush Garden Grade: A+
Most Overkill - Leaf
$4,000
“At $4,000, this kit by Leaf was just laughably overkill. Plus it took all the fun out of growing a plant, and was way too small to grow any decent sized harvest. I get it, companies are trying to be like Apple, but come on, this looks like R2D2 f$@#ed an airpod."
Sure, we're on the precipice of AI taking over the world and relegating us lowly humans to labor camps assembling circuit-boards for our machine overlords (this is why I need a lot of good herb!), but why should we lean into it!? I'm all for new technologies and efficiencies, but this home grow kit from Leaf made me weary that Arnold Schwarzenegger was going to burst through my door and blast it with a sawed-off 12-gauge.
But expensive things mean they're good right? The issue with all of the fancy grow-box contraptions that I tested was a pretty simple one: space. Plants need space to grow, and while this kit is small enough to be pleasantly confused with a mini-fridge inside your American Psycho apartment, it's small stature will only result in small harvests. I will admit that the hardware and accompanying mobile app were top notch, but that was hardly surprising considering the insane price tag.
Leaf Grade: D
Best Tech but Smallest Harvest - HeyAbby
$1,895
“To say I was disappointed in this box is an understatement, while it was incredibly feature rich and is basically Amazon Alexa reprogrammed to grow herb, it ultimately failed in the most important task; growing a decent amount of flower... Also at $1,895 this was yet another hardware product that had too many engineers and not enough growers involved in the design."
I have an intimate relationship with Amazon Alexa, and maybe have longer conversations with her than I do with my significant other (don't judge me!), so I was really excited about this kit from HeyAbby that was marketed as the Alexa for agriculture. But aside from a logo that will definitely get a cease and desist from Bezos, the similarities ended there.
WHATS IN THE BOX?! While the tech was pretty cool and the controlling mobile app had solid UI, I'd equate it to putting a Ferrari engine on a ride-on lawn mower... The light was great, the hydroponic system straightforward, and the app are all well engineered, but the box is just too damn small. I struggled to get any decent harvest out of this kit, even with the trellis net the space was just too tiny to get much yield.
HeyAbby Grade: C
Putting the DIE in the DIY - The BudGrower
$740
“Save your money. This "all-inclusive" kit tries hard to provide everything you'd ever need, but misses the mark in a huge way. How can you say you include everything but not include genetics? And at $740 you're paying more money for more work and less yield..."
As I was researching for this roundup I found a LOT of "home grow kits" on Amazon, and they all had the same exact components, and even pictures, as the one here from The BudGrower. It seems like Amazon and Alibaba are saturated with cheap imitation DIY solutions that could potentially help you start your gardening journey, but as I compared the kits, the quality of the components and nutrients, it became painfully clear that poor quality will result in poor results.
Several hours later... DIY solutions are great if you have a lot of time to burn, but if you're like me, you'd rather "burn" something else instead... Plus a kit that "includes everything" but woefully lacks seeds means that you also need to buy seeds online or head over to your local dispo.
The BudGrower: F
Even plant killers like me can successfully grow their own herb at home!
Puff, Puff, Plant
So there you have it, my definitive ranking of four of the most popular "herb" growing kits on the market. I usually write product roundups like this for cooking gadgets, home electronics, and home and garden products, but I can absolutely say that this was the most fun one yet!
If you are looking to plant your seeds, pun very much intended, in the wonderful world of growing herb at home, I hope this analysis can help shed light on the products available to help you on your quest.
With the right genetics, soil, nutrients, environment, and tutelage, you can enjoy a ton of premium flower, have a blast learning a new skill, and save boatloads of money in the process. What's not to love!?
