Gardyn 2.0 years later

I posted my first review of the Gardyn 2.0 a few years ago. I had had the Gardyn for 2 seasons at that point. Now it has been another couple of seasons, but more importantly, it has required some additional repairs.

Since then, I have wanted to cover the Gardyn and some of my basement grow setup.

Gardyn 2.0 still worth it years later?

The simple answer is yes, I am happy with it. I occasionally get a subscription for a few months. Because of my blog post and my surprisingly popular Google Photos garden photo gallery, I have even gotten a few months free from referrals. Thanks, folks.

At this point, I have continued to maintain and use my Gardyn system. I do that seasonally, shutting it down in the summer to focus on my outdoor gardening. Also, I keep some of my bubbled buckets and my lettuce rack going all year. The Gardyn is a bit more maintenance because it grows 30 plants, and I am busy harvesting outside.

The reasons I like the gardyn and still recommend it, it is silly easy and just will make you successful and get you into growing your own greens, it can motivate you to get into the hobby and ensure you really can’t mess it up and kill all your plants. You can always make it more challenging by seeding your own pods, growing things outside of their recommended plants, etc. It inspired me to get bubbler buckets and retrofit an old AeroGarden to just grow with the LED grow light I bought for the bubblers.

The Gardyn is the perfect entry into this hobby, with a nice setup and beyond the small AeroGardens.

Gardyn Maintenance and Repairs

I don’t do all the required deep cleanings and water dumps that Gardyn recommends… I try to clean out the water tank and such occasionally, and I do one deep cleaning a year where I disassemble and clean and reassemble the entire Gardyn. That is part of the reason I don’t run it in the summer, so I can take it apart and clean it. I do recommend Gardyn hydroboost or a similar hydroponic additive to reduce cleanings.

I have twice had most of my plants die because the pump died… The first time, it took me a long time to sort things out, request the official part, repair, and get back up and running. It was not a fun repair, and I lost a lot of plants… The second time which was less than a year after the first repair the pump gave out in late spring, so I just shut the Gardyn down for the summar a bit early, and I had already cleared many of my plants. So it was no big deal, but I wanted to be able to more easily fix it going forward… So I bought a small external water pump and timer, which was cheaper than the official pump and looked more robust… I drilled holes and ran the cables (grey in the image). This works great as I am starting off my new season. Replacing this pump will now only cost about $20m, and if the Gardyn LEDs go out, I might replace them with more external LED grow lights, while I keep using the tub towers and base for growing.

I have read that the newer Gardyns are easier to clean and disassemble, and have made the pump less likely to have water get in an corroding the connections, which is the problem I have had.

Given my Gardyn is over four years old, while this is a bit too many repairs for one to be entirely happy about it, I am pretty happy as it eased me into all this and now I am comfortable and confident to go much further in a DIY fashion because I have learned so much with the initial hand holding of the Gardyn. Also, anything with electronics, water, lights, and various nutrients is a rough environment and repairs are to be expected at some point.

Conclusion

I still need to find out where all the traffic and folks that find my Google Photos album show up from, but I wanted to update my original review with some of these details, and I will continue to add some new photos and updates to the photo album. As the 5th year winter basement garden project season kicks off, I am looking forward to lots of greens and peppers, while my daughter Sasha absolutely loves picking and eating the small cucumbers we grow in the basement.