Having a green thumb is simpler than you thought…

By writer Aemilia Madden.

Living in New York doesn’t give me many opportunities to test out my green thumb. I have a smattering of plants — a fiddle leaf fig, a monstera, maybe a bouquet from the grocery store that I’ll tend for the week before it wilts. Without a proper garden, there’s only so much that I can do on my own.

That changed recently, when I was given a chance to test out the indoor seed sprouting kits from Modern Sprout, little self-contained grow kits that make the process of planting seeds at home into something that even a challenged gardener can enjoy.

Modern Sprout Flower Grow Kit

The planters arrived in a package complete with pot, seed packets, and rocks to serve as the grow material. Thanks to a handy book of instructions (I always believe in reading the directions first, even though this was so easy it was mostly unnecessary), I got to work. And when I say I got to work, I mean that I spent about five minutes hitting the to-do list necessary to give life to my little seeds.

Thanks to a genius hydroponic setup, I filled the post with a few cups of water and placed the rock-filled sieve on top of it. The system channels water up to the flowers without needing to water as regularly as you would a regular plant. (As a frequent traveler, it was reassuring to know I wouldn’t wilt or even kill my new plants if I had to head out of town for a week or two.) Once the sieve was in the pot, I tucked my little seeds into the rocks and hoped for the best.

What I didn’t expect was that, within a few days, little tendrils of green started to curl up from the rocks. Already my new little plant babies were popping! My only job from then on has been to occasionally check the water level in the pots, making sure it's high enough to funnel up to my newly sprouted daisies and dahlias. The planters are sitting underneath my living room window, able to pick up lots of light throughout the day as they go through their growth journey.

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Personally, I’ve found it a simple joy to take a peek at them every morning, to track how many inches they’ve shot up, or smile when the newest sprout appears."

Now that I’ve tackled my first greenery project (sounds hard, right), I’m turning my eye to my next to-do for greening up my little apartment. Modern Sprout happens to make a similar kit for growing herbs which, as a frequent at-home cook, seems like a worthy challenge to take on.

Wish me and my green thumb good luck.