No fresh, aromatic herbs this time of year? Truth!
Buying herbs at the local grocery store? Bleh. Those limp lumps aren’t going to add much flavor to your savory dishes. Not to mention wilted greens are lacking in nutrients.
Fresh herbs are the best way I know how to pass myself off as a better cook than I really am.
So what are we going to do?
Fortunately Véritable® Garden has an easy solution for you. They have created an indoor garden to grow herbs, edible flowers, and baby vegetables year-round requiring zero effort and making zero noise.
Black thumb? This garden is for you. Maybe you love gardening but your climate is too cold for growing outdoors for many months. The Smart Véritable® Garden garden will win the gardener’s or cook’s heart!
I am ecstatic for the person who’s going to WIN the Smart Véritable® Garden ARV $250! Gardening art that looks as beautiful as it functions.
HOW TO ENTER TO WIN!
Scroll down to the bottom of this post and fill out the easy peasy SweepWidget form. A valid email address is required to contact you if you win!
Gardening in winter with the Smart Véritable® Garden!
Don’t you miss your garden out-of-season? Not only do I miss my dirty hands, but I miss those fresh herbs.
In my gardening zone, I only get to enjoy fresh herbs and produce from July to early October. Then the fun is all done! Sad!
It doesn’t have to be this way. With Véritable® Garden you are empowered to grow year-round on your own terms.
Although the product was likely created for urban dwellers with tiny spaces, anyone who desires to grow fresh herbs and produce out-of-season can easily do so with the Smart Véritable® Garden.
Because the product is so small! Much smaller than I was thinking when I saw it online. So it’s amazing the size of plants it can grow! Yet it takes up so little space.
Watering tip:
Softened water is bad for plants, it’s full of sodium which can affect plant growth. So use non-softened water or rainwater to refill the reservoir. I fill my jug with water from an outdoor rain barrel that boasts tons of minerals to nourish the plants. Absolutely no distilled water!
Setup of the Smart Véritable® Garden
Confession time. I’m tired. I have 4 kids and a newborn baby. I’m not exactly looking for extra work or extra projects.
So I must tell you this: nothing could be easier than setting up the Smart Véritable® Garden. As in, a woman who’s up all night with a crying baby can do it in less than two minutes.
Presto. Done!
You literally take the product out of the box, plug it in, fill the water reservoir, and put in your Lingots (growing pods with seeds.) Then cross your fingers and wait for your plants to grow!
The Smart Véritable® Garden is kind of like my firstborn daughter. She independently does almost everything herself…so I can get some peace and quiet.
You can even take that much-needed vacation because your Smart Véritable® Garden can take care of itself for up to four weeks.
Make sure you fill the water reservoir before you go and harvest the herbs so the remaining plant consumes less water.
Give the herbs to the neighbor who’s feeding the cat while you’re gone!
Let there be light in the Smart Véritable® Garden
One of the most impressive features of the Smart Véritable® Garden is the LED lighting technology. It’s phenomenal. I read that the average LED lifetime is 10 whopping years!
The two lighting poles adjust independently to adapt to different plant sizes and growth speed since some plants will grow much taller than others.
The poles employ a color spectrum adapted specifically for edible plants. It’s actually blue and white! The two years of research invested in the product have perfected this lighting allowing special color and performance. This ensures quick growth and develops the flavor of your plants.
In order to imitate the natural daylight cycle, the light is automatically controlled: it remains active for 16 hours a day and off for 8 hours. Bear in mind that the product does stay switched on 24/7.
I will warn you that the light is very bright! So consider that in the setup process. I would schedule your garden to shut off at 11 so that the light doesn’t disturb you because 16 hours is a long time with a lot of light.
If you do get the timing wrong (I did this) the solution is simple. Simply unplug the AC adapter for 10 seconds, then plug it in at the desired time.
I wanted the product to shut off at 10 p.m. so I got up at 6 a.m. to restart the lighting system so it would be on my schedule. Easy peasy.
Where to place your Smart Véritable® Garden?!
Just to be clear, the Smart Véritable® Garden is an indoor gardening solution, so it’s not meant to be used outdoors.
The question is where will you put it? Since the Smart Véritable® Garden doesn’t need any natural light to grow, you can choose to place it in a room without windows.
The kitchen is a fun spot~ grow the herbs in the place where you will chop them up and throw them in your delicious dishes!
I actually chose to put my garden on my work desk. I’m enjoying the view immensely! It’s fun to watch my seeds sprout, grow and thrive.
What you don’t want to do is put a Smart Véritable® Garden in your bedroom. The LED lighting is so bright that it will most certainly disrupt your sleep.
You also want to steer clear of placing your Smart Véritable® Garden near a radiator or your air conditioning vents, both of which will affect growth. A well-ventilated room is essential.
Also keep in mind that the hotter it is, the more humid it is….the faster your plants will grow. So the temperature of the room is vital. Best to stay between 19 degrees C and 30 degrees C.
And not to state the obvious, but make sure you find a flat and stable surface for your Smart Véritable® Garden.
For the love of the Lingot®….
The Smart Véritable® Garden comes with four Lingots. In a nutshell, Lingots are small pellet dirt pods measuring 5.5 inches long and 1.5 inches wide that contain the seeds that will grow your produce.
The Lingots included in the Smart Véritable® Garden include basil, chives, thyme, and parsley. Each Lingot has 10 spots where seeds have been poked in and are ready to germinate.
So you get the herb basics that no true cook can live without! I use these herbs in my dishes every week and bet you do as well. In fact, I think I use both parsley and basil nearly every day!
But if you want variation, the selection of Lingots that Véritable® Garden has to offer is stupendous! In fact, they even include edible flowers! My favorite is the Pansy Lingot!
Other intriguing choices include the white wild strawberry, phlox, pink mini tomato, and the chocolate mini bell pepper.
I counted 66 choices in all of the vegetable, fruit, and herb Lingots! Quite the variety.
Last but not least, the Lingots are 100% compostable and biodegradable. They contain no pesticides or GMOs.
When you are done harvesting your Lingots, throw them in your compost bin and explore your other options!
Other Véritable® Garden models to consider
Your biggest challenge is to find the right Véritable® Garden for you and your lifestyle. The SMART Garden which I was sent (and you can win!!) has one feature that the CLASSIC Garden does not.
The difference is that the SMART garden automatically adjusts the LED’s intensity depending on the ambient light, to distribute the perfect amount of light to your plants.
Personally, I love this feature but it does cost a little extra. However, the CLASSIC is only $199.99 and that’s a great price point. So the choice is yours.
For all you tech-savvy individuals, there’s the CONNECT Véritable® Garden in which you can follow the development of your plants, choose the lighting mode, and be warned when the water tank needs to be filled.
For you apartment dwellers, there’s the EXKY Classic garden which is incredibly priced at $159.99. It has 2 Lingots compared to 4 Lingots in other models.
But the EXKY also takes up less space and you may only want to grow 2 Lingots at a time.
Finally…with Véritable® Garden you get chic style. (I told you this was a French company right?! Everything made in France is high-quality.) Sophisticated French style marries savvy technology for one uber-awesome indoor garden.
I love my white Smart Véritable® Garden! It’s flawless and stands the test of time. But the copper SMART garden is easy on the eye. As is the black and teal-colored SMART gardens. It’s a matter of personal choice!
Finally…..
According to the Véritable® Garden website, I needed to wait for 15-20 to see results. But guess what?!? I noticed that germination occurred in both my basil and thyme seeds after an amazing 5 days!
I had 6 tiny little sprouted plants of each. How thrilling!!
And like my own children, I can’t wait to see them grow up and thrive. But unlike my children, I look forward to eating them! Chomp. Chomp.
Speaking of children….this is such a fun product to use with your kids or grandkids! Everyone enjoys watching seeds sprout and grow!
Last insider tip…
That LED light is bright. Super bright. And I live in a climate where many of my houseplants suffer all winter due to insufficient light. Guess what I did? I put my fussier houseplants next to the SMART garden LED light to give them that light boost they were craving! Happy houseplants!
This is such an awesome product and would be so fun. Thank you for the giveaway opportunity!
This would be Great to have, I love Fresh herbs!
must for year round herbs
great idea!! thank you
Looks like a great product!
Would love this for fresh herbs.
Great review. I’ve been looking at getting an indoor garden for my apt but it’s hard to determine what is best. Thanks for sharing your viewpoint. I will definitely be considering this one.
Fresh herbs just makes a meal better. Thank you for info.
This looks like fun love to give this a try
great contest the seniors would really love this,thanks for having this contest.
Great idea for year round if you have a very small yard like me!
Thank you for sponsoring this contest!
Laura this was such an interesting product that would make a nice gift especially for a home chef.
Would love to try indoor herbs!
This makes gardening SUPER easy! This would be perfect for people like myself who easily kill plants 🙂
I would love to have one of the Indoor Garden. I would be able to grow my herbs in my kitchen. No more pests outdoors, or not enough light indoors.
I love the LED light. My other houseplants would steal some of that goodness, for sure.
I am determined to plant a vegetable garden this year.
winter is so long in MT this would be awesome to have to be able to have fresh all year round! thanks so much for sponsoring this wonderful opportunity! Happy Growing!
Hooray for the technology behind the Smart Véritable Garden! I can hardly believe it can distribute the perfect amount of light to plants by automatically adjusting LED intensity, depending on a room’s ambient light. Such a smart device, convenient and comes with herbs to boot. I’m enchanted & flabbergasted at the same time. Thanks for both the giveaway & the introduction to this amazing company’s products. Plus, happy gardening, both indoors and outside! You’re a constant inspiration.
I would love to have a herb garden! It’s something I’ve always wanted but am not sure how to go about doing it successfully!
I would love an herb garden for cooking!
I would really like this fresh Herbs are always so much better then store bought .
Such a cool product!
Love any chance to bring plants inside. Makes a place more comfortable
I’d love this.
Great giveaway! I wonder if I would have good luck with it since I don’t have a green thumb🙅♀️
This would be beyond incredible to win. I have been so upset and depressed ever since injured my back and have been physically unable to keep up with gardening like I did before. Having this would be a real boost to my spirit. Every Spring, my soul would just come to life as I planted and sewed my seeds and watched as my garden would grow and thrive. Anyone who gardens understands this. After having that year after year and then losing the capacity to do it…it’s devastating. This little indoor garden could possibly be just what the doctor ordered.
This would be awesome to win.
I use a lot of herbs, but they are expensive and usually you must buy more than you need. This item would be perfect!
I like to cook and use fresh herbs. Great this is available for the start of the season. Thanks.
I really need this. I had another brand of this type of garden but it was pretty big and you could only grow 3 plants. This looks like it would be very productive and still pretty compact.
I would love this.
Would love to try a starter garden with this!
what a great giveaway. thank you
This would be a fantastic win…please stay healthy and safe everyone…
I’ve always wanted to grow my own herbs! This system seems ideal for doing just that! Thank you for this chance!
i’ve wanted to try something like this – thanks for the chance
I love gardening and this would be perfect
Would love this.
I would love to grow herbs on my counter- just snip some off and add them to my meal!
Would love to have
Yes you would Greg, I bet it would great in your space!
Thank you for another awesome opportunity, such a great system.
Practicable gift
I’d love to try this since I don’t have good luck growing vegetables.
I live in Minnesota and this would be wonderful in the wintertime.
i love this for growing fresh herbs!
Thank you for the chance to win, my daughter would love this.
thanks for this opportunity
Very Nice. I love it.
I would love to grown my own herbs. This product would be great.
Congrats to the one 1 winner, David and Maria O
Again, No comment made on this post by anyone with the name David and Maria O.
Why are there no winners from the people who commented? Like 5 giveaways in a row, not one winner can be seen commenting either as an entry or as a thank you. Something smells fishy with these giveaways.
No one can win my contests by commenting, it’s appreciated but not required. The only way a person “has” to enter is to provide an email address that I use to contact the winner. A scam is when a person asks for credit card info. But asking for a shipping address so that a sponsor can send a prize is legit. Sometimes asking for a phone number too if the company needs it for the FEDEX or UPS form. My sponsors are WONdERFUL! In the hundreds of contests I’ve run, not one has not come through with a prize. My favorite part of being a blogger is when the winner emails me to tell me how they loved their prize like David and Maria did and all the recent bird feeder winners. Such sweet people! But contests are random. There’s no guarantee anyone will win. It’s luck of the draw, I do use SweepWidget to run my contests. I’m sorry you have not won and please don’t feel like you need to enter if you believe my contest are somehow fake! But I am sorry you feel that way. Trust me, as a strong Christian and mom of 4, I have better things to do!