How every number is checked.

Three steps for every number.

1. Open the maker’s US page. US prices only; where a site offers other regions, we set it to the US.
2. Record only what it states, with the date. Sale prices and selected variants are labelled as such.
3. Leave the rest unknown. If a maker doesn’t publish monthly kWh, we write “not published”. We never turn a wattage into a monthly figure.

The source ledger.

Every garden, the figures we took, the page they came from and the date we checked.

The arithmetic, on a real example.

Gardyn Home 4: 47 kWh a month × 12 × $0.1831 per kWh = $103.27 of electricity a year. Known in year one is the purchase price plus that: $899.00 + $103.27 = $1,002.27. Supplies beyond any plan credits, delivery and tax are yours to add in the calculator.

Corrections and updates.

• October 18, 2026 Added Gardyn’s published membership plan prices for Home 4 and Studio 2; replaced illustrative $20–$40 examples.
• October 18, 2026 Added Rise Garden 3’s published electricity (about 40 kWh a month for one level) and Rise Plus prices ($299 one year, $499 two years).
• October 18, 2026 Added the Farmstand Nook’s published dimensions (15.84 in diameter × 55 in high).
• October 18, 2026 Changed the default electricity rate from an unsourced $0.16 to the July 2026 US average, $0.1831 per kWh (EIA, via Gardyn).
• October 18, 2026 Rise Garden 3 review roundup: reported WIRED’s heat, bolting, algae and resetting findings in full, and its press-sample disclosure.
• October 18, 2026 Farmstand Nook review roundup: corrected a paraphrase of The Kitchn to its exact wording.
• October 18, 2026 Rise Garden 3 review roundup: replaced a Trustpilot page link with the review’s permanent link and quoted its noise comment exactly.
• October 18, 2026 Check dates now come from each product’s own record; sale prices show the date they were seen.

What we don’t do.

We haven’t tested these gardens ourselves. We don’t rank them, give star ratings or pick a winner, and we don’t estimate harvests or grocery savings. Review roundups summarise named, linked sources and say where they disagree.

How the site makes money.

It doesn’t yet. Links to makers are ordinary links with no affiliate code, and no brand has paid for a position. If that changes, every paid link will be labelled and kept separate from what we write.

Product photos are the makers’ own, unedited and linked to their sources. Kitchen scenes marked as AI-generated are illustrations.

Photo credits.

Scene photographs are from Unsplash under the Unsplash License and show no product we list.

• Homepage, sizing section: Kevin Doran
• Countertop gardens: eli hirtzel
• Guides: Elly M
• Electricity costs: Rafayel Yeranosyan

Sources and what remains unknown.

Product specifications and advertised prices were checked on October 17–18, 2026. Prices and packages can change. Monthly energy values are manufacturer estimates, not measurements by Indoor Garden Scout. Where facts are unknown, we leave them unknown.

• Gardyn Studio 2 source ↗
• Lettuce Grow Farmstand Nook source ↗
• Gardyn Home 4 source ↗
• Rise Gardens Personal Rise Garden source ↗
• Rise Gardens Rise Garden 3 source ↗
• Click & Grow Smart Garden 3 source ↗
• Click & Grow Smart Garden 9 source ↗
• Spider Farmer SmartG12 source ↗
• Tower Garden HOME + indoor lights source ↗
• LetPot LPH-Air source ↗
• LetPot LPH-SE (Senior) source ↗
• LetPot LPH-Max source ↗
• Plantaform Smart Indoor Garden 3.0 source ↗

Calculations are our own arithmetic from the stated inputs. Hypothetical examples are labelled and exclude unentered costs, time and harvest value. Check the exact order, current policies and care instructions before buying.