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Unleash your inner farmer with fresh, homegrown herbs and vegetables.

There’s a reason most recipes call for fresh ingredients. Fresh herbs, fresh vegetables, and fresh spices all just taste better. But they also tend to be significantly more expensive, and most of us don’t have the outdoor real estate to grow our own foodstuffs, particularly if you live in an apartment or anywhere with limited space. Thankfully, there’s a simple answer: Cultivate your own indoor garden.

Indoor garden kits have come a long way in the last decade alone. It’s now easier than ever to grow your own farm-fresh ingredients in the comfort of your own home, even with zero growing experience. Some of the best indoor garden kits fit neatly on a countertop, sustain a handful of plants or more at a time, and require very little maintenance. The best part? You can start your own indoor “farm” for under $100. Not sure where to start? We’ve done the legwork to round up the best indoor garden kits of 2022.

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AeroGarden’s indoor garden kits have been a go-to favorite of ours for years, and the brand’s latest Sprout is a great example of why. The streamlined design is simple, yet attractive, so it works with any decor. The three-cup model is perfectly sized for smaller spaces like apartment kitchens and countertops, but there’s an available six-cup model if you’re looking to expand your growing capacity. This garden kit comes with everything you need to get started and keep growing. We love that everything grows hydroponically (in water rather than soil, so it’s less messy), without the need for sunlight. At around $80, it’s also one of the best-priced kits we’ve found—all of which makes it our pick for this year’s best overall indoor garden kit.

If you’ve got a little more money and space at your disposal, we like Rise Gardens’ Personal Garden and Starter Kit. It’s pricey at nearly $300 delivered, but that premium gets you an attractive garden with enough room to grow herbs and vegetables. With WiFi and app-enabled connectivity, you can control lighting and watering from anywhere, making this an extremely low-maintenance option. The app will even notify you when the system needs watering. Plus, the built-in LED lighting mimics natural sunlight, so your indoor garden can be placed anywhere, even in a dark room or closet.

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Gardyn’s Home Kit 2.0 might be the closest thing to a literal farm in your kitchen or living room. The clever, freestanding design supports up to 30 produce plants in just two square feet of space. Built-in AI-powered technology helps keep the system properly watered and lit, even when you’re away from home courtesy of a smart, hands-off Vacation Mode. The subscription model starts at $29 per month which can quickly become pricey. But, if you’re serious about cultivating your own large indoor garden with minimal effort, this is by far the best option.

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For growers a little more confident in their indoor cultivation skills, Mr. Stacky is a great, slightly more advanced option. It includes most of the required options to get started: Fertilizer, a pump, and a grow guide, plus a sizable (roughly four-foot) tower to grow everything. We appreciate the flexibility of this kit to use soil or water—your call. On the downside, this kit is pricier than many other alternatives and it doesn’t include a lighting source. So, if you’re planning to grow indoors, you’ll need to buy a separate LED to keep your new plant babies well “fed.”

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Veritable’s aptly named Smart Indoor Garden might be the most user-friendly indoor garden kit of 2022, making it a perfect option for novice growers. Just unbox it, plug it in, fill the water reservoir, and plant the included seed lingots (pods). Less than a month later, you’ll be harvesting your own fresh herbs and vegetables. It truly is a “smart” garden with built-in lighting that adjusts based on the brightness of your home, and it keeps your garden properly watered too. At around $250, it’s pricier than some on this list, though still a great value, especially for an indoor garden with smart features.

If spending north of $200 isn’t in your budget, iDOO’s Hydroponics Growing System is a great value kit, especially for first-time gardeners. For around $80, it includes everything you need to get started—the pot itself, germination pods, a built-in fan, and height-adjustable LED grow lights. We like the “just right” size that’s small enough to fit on most kitchen countertops, yet large enough to grow up to a dozen seed pods at a time. Like most on this list, the hydroponic design is soil-free so you can grow indoors with less mess and in less time.

If a complicated, all-in-one kit (with lights, fans, and other high-tech, smart gadgetry) is too much for your needs, you might want to just start with the basics. Hapinest’s Indoor Herb Garden Growing Seed Starter Kit includes just the essentials. With biodegradable planting pots, seed packets, and soil discs, you just need to add reusable pots and you’re in business. Plant markers are also included to help keep your new garden sorted, plus an herb grinder so the chef in your household can start using those garden-fresh herbs in the kitchen right away. The best part? This whole kit costs less than $15.

The market for indoor garden kits has grown (pun intended) exponentially in the last decade to include options in all shapes, sizes, capacities, and prices. We’ve researched and tested barebones, entry-level models that include only seeds, soil, and biodegradable pots to pricey, WiFi-connected “smart” kits with their own apps to control everything from lighting to water to soil pH from anywhere in the world. Like most things, there’s no “right” option, but rather the option that’s best for you. Here are a few things to consider when shopping for your own indoor garden kit:

We thoroughly researched more than two dozen indoor garden kits. From design and capacity to aesthetics and price, we thoughtfully considered every aspect of the best-reviewed makes and models. The list above represents our honest picks for the best indoor garden kits to consider in 2022.