Smart Chaser

The Ready to Grow brand offers a connected indoor vegetable garden, called Lilo. The vegetable garden is composed of three compartments, which accommodate capsules sown with previously chosen seeds: basil, sunflower, mint, pepper... A lamp allows the plants to develop properly, even indoors, and an application (My Lilo) accompanies you throughout the growth. Let's do the Lilo test.

Lilo was delivered with three capsules: chives, lemon balm and lemon basil. The vegetable garden box is covered with an overwrap bearing a photo of a well stocked Lilo, and the brand name. The packaging is friendly and promises to brighten up your daily cooking, to bring an island of nature to your home.

Once the overwrapping is removed, everything is much easier. The recyclable cardboard retains its original brown colour: only the brand, product name and logo are printed on the sides, in brown varnish.

The contents of the box are limited to the vegetable garden and the leaflet, which welcomes us with a colourful "Hello! The various elements of the vegetable garden are perfectly fixed by cardboard boxes: the lamp is inserted in a thick piece to its dimensions, the floats of the pots are fixed by cardboard strips. All this doesn't move a muscle, it's a well-made, very protective packaging.

The capsules that will accommodate the aromatic plants are delivered separately, in individual boxes. On the faces, the name of the plant, a description of the plant, a suggestion for use... Simple, the box holds the capsule well as well as the seed and nutrient sachets.

The use of Lilo is as simple as it gets. It is written on the packaging of the vegetable garden: "No need to have a green thumb to grow your herbs and flowers". Indeed, it is complicated to make it simpler.

The assembly of the connected vegetable garden is easy: the different parts are assembled in a logical way and an installation guide is in the box (and on the application) to help in case of doubt. Once Lilo is assembled, simply fill the three containers with water and put the capsules in them.

This is perhaps the most technical part of the installation. You have to put the seeds, which are in a bag, in the capsule. Then, the capsule must be placed in the receptacle that floats on the water in the tank. There you go. About twenty choices of seeds are available: aromatic herbs, flowers and infusions. Their price ranges from 5.95 to 6.90€.

There is only one thing left to do: wait for it to grow. And it grows fast! After one week, the results are already widely visible. Nothing that can't be eaten right now, but it's very promising and really surprising.

The connected Lilo vegetable garden is very pleasant to the eye. The base and rod that supports the LEDs are made of wood, the rest is made of beige or brown plastic. The whole is homogeneous, simple: simply charming. More than a vegetable garden, it is also a decorative element that will have its place in the living room, bringing greenery and light.

The lamp (the only part of the product on which the brand appears) is composed of 21 low-power LEDs. According to the brand, Lilo consumes "half as much as your Internet box". It is at the luminaire level that the black spot of the connected vegetable garden is located. LEDs are visible, which is not necessarily very aesthetic. This is not very serious, because we don't often look at the underside of the lamp, but a cover on the LEDs would have given a more worked and finished side to the product.

The white power cable - which connects to the lamp - passes through two locations, one at the base of the vegetable garden, the other at the lamp. This allows it to be hidden. It's nice to have a discreet cable that's not totally visible.

Lilo is a cleverly made product. The capsule that receives the seeds is installed in a float on the water of the containers. Thanks to this arrangement, the plant can draw water when it feels the need. When the float level drops a little too low, water is added again.

The capsules are biodegradable, so it is possible to integrate them into your compost once the growth is complete (after 3 / 4 months of use). Finally, it should be noted that the connected Lilo vegetable garden is entirely "Made in France": buying a pretty vegetable garden is good; a pretty French vegetable garden is better. That's the way it is.