Best self

These smart gardens come with their own app and are packaged like an Apple product. They’re available in different colours too (grey, beige and white). Stylish and quite exciting to unbox, they can be assembled in minutes.

All the pieces fit together with satisfying precision across the three C&G products we tested, and set-up was so easy that we didn't realise there were instructions in the box until after we had the units up and running.

The SG 3 looks a little like a lab kit and it does provide the perfect balance of light, according to the room you tell the app you’ve left it in.

We filled the trough with water, stuck the little clear plastic germination hats on the seedlings, and left it on in our utility area. We’re not convinced the light is any better than a south-facing window sill, but our cat can definitely find his dinner at all hours.

While the yield wasn't anything spectacular, it was fun, and we were checking on it more often than the other planters. We feel our results were skewed by the heat this summer, and the artificial light concept is something that will really be at its most prominent in winter.

We think it's a good way to spark children's interest in gardening if you’ve not got a lot of space, and you can rename the plants after them on the app, which makes it very engaging. Our young niece was enthralled by it.