- Why not?

- [Narrator] This is Timothy Hammond,

a Houston-based gardener who knows his arugula.

- I'm an urban gardener and educator

and one thing I know is that you'll never find anybody

in this world who loves gardening more than I do.

- [Narrator] So what better person

to help us test this.

The Rise Gardens Family Garden.

(lively music)

As people spent more time at home during the pandemic,

demand has surged for activities,

like cooking, home improvement and yes, gardening.

So that's why we're testing the Rise Gardens Smart Garden.

It's an indoor smart garden that uses hydroponics.

It allows you to grow up to 12 vegetables

and herbs per shelf

using a self-watering system and grow lights.

- I'm interested to see if this garden,

this Rise Garden produces better

than some plants that I'm gonna start

at the same time outside.

- [Narrator] So why did we pick this smart garden?

A few reasons.

This smart garden is designed for small indoor spaces

and claims to grow larger vegetables,

not just herbs and leafy greens.

It's also adjustable.

The modular system lets you add shelves up

to three different growing levels.

It's Wi-Fi enabled with a connected app

so you can control the light,

water and nutrient levels

and get reminder alerts and updates.

- So I've never really thought

about bringing my gardening inside.

Now, they promised that you will be able

to recreate outside harvest inside.

- [Narrator] The Rise Garden systems come

in three sizes, ranging in price from $549 to $949.

There's also a smaller personal garden for $279.

The one Timothy is testing is $749 but is it worth it?

Timothy has more than four weeks

to test out this smart garden

and give us his final review.

- Here we are

and I guess now it's time to start gardening.

(playful music)

- [Narrator] Timothy first assessed the planting process

with the garden.

- Arugula should sprout in five days they say.

Now, some of these seed cups say

that these things like the lettuce

or the arugula or the basil

will take anywhere from five to eight days to sprout.

- [Narrator] Then he planted

his own seeds outside to compare.

- Let's go ahead and pot up some basil,

some arugula and some lettuce.

So I can tell you,

one of the benefits of using that Rise Garden

is you don't have to deal with this intense heat,

so you're probably able to grow things,

a variety of things year round.

Now we'll set these in a shaded area

and we'll check back in about a week or so

to see if these sprouted at the same time

as our Rise Garden.

(playful music)

- [Narrator] Next, he gauged how easy the garden

is to maintain.

- I think the flashing light means it's working.

(playful music)

Ha, your garden is connected.

Look at the lights dimming.

It's testing the lights.

The fact that it sends me alerts through an app

is pretty cool.

I mean, it makes it a lot easier

to remember things involved with the garden

and that's one thing that we really want

is to make sure that we are staying on top of it

and the app helps you stay on top of the gardening.

So today we're gonna do a reservoir change,

change the water out in the reservoir

because you can check the water level.

Now we're down to two.

And then we're actually gonna throw in,

I'm gonna throw in some of these nutrients here.

I'm excited.

Check out the arugula taking off.

Okay.

Onc you put the nutrients in,

I think it was about a week and a half in,

about 10 days in once I put the nutrients in,

then stuff really started taking off.

(playful music)

- [Narrator] Finally, he compared

how the same seeds grew outside

in comparison to the smart garden.

- This is day two with the Rise Garden

and I wanted to show you that the seeds

that we planted outside have already sprouted.

We already have some arugula sprouting.

While the Rise Garden has still not sprouted.

Nothing beats the sun and Mother Nature.

We have some basil sprouting in the nursery up here,

which is pretty cool.

But let's take a look at the rest of the garden.

See, we have basil sprouting here also.

That's on the top shelf.

- [Narrator] So how did the outdoor seeds

ultimately compare?

- So as you can see here,

the ones that we had outside,

they have to deal with the elements.

While they were the first to sprout,

they quickly stalled and slowed down

once that 100-degree weather,

that 100-degree Houston weather came into account.

- [Narrator] So what's Timothy's final take after 25 days?

- So when it comes to this Rise Garden Smart Garden,

I'd give it a four out of five.

First, I love how well it grows leafy greens.

I love how simple it is to use.

I love the app keeping up with when I planted

and when I need to do water changes and things like that.

But a few things that I don't like with the system,

first, I don't like that the shelves are not adjustable.

Meaning I have to put my taller plants on the bottom

and also, they get less light down on the bottom.

Second, it's not easy to clean out the reservoir

and empty and change the water

whenever it's time for water changes.

And third thing is the price.

At over $700,

that's a little too steep for me

but I love what this garden is able to do.

And I love the fact

that you could grow year round with this thing.

- [Narrator] A Rise Garden spokesman said the purpose

of the shelf height

is to keep the structure simple and refined.

They're also working on improving the cleaning process.

He added, "While the price point is quite high

for a hobby like gardening,

we really wanted to not cut corners on materials

and technology in order to allow people

to go from a fun hobby to truly replacing items

on their grocery list."

- And just like that,

you have a nice bowl of salad greens right here.

(playful music)