Looking for the best hydroponic garden for your classroom or school? Start the year with a Gardyn setup designed to grow alongside your students.

A new school year brings new lesson plans, new students, new goals—and plenty of opportunities to make learning more hands-on.

If you’re looking to bring STEM, science, nutrition, sustainability, or agriculture education to life this year, an indoor hydroponic garden can give students something they can see, touch, measure, experiment with, and grow themselves.

But with different Gardyn bundles, accessories, professional development options, and curriculum available, where should you start?

We put together this guide to our Back-to-School Gardyn Favorites to help educators find the right setup for their classroom, STEM program, or school.

Why Gardyn for the School Year?

Gardyn transforms just 2 square feet of classroom space into a living learning lab. The Gardyn Home 4 can grow up to 30 plants indoors without soil, a dedicated greenhouse, or a sunny window. Built-in LED lighting and automated care make it possible to grow throughout the school year, while Kelby, Gardyn’s AI-powered plant assistant, helps monitor plants and keeps classrooms on track with care reminders.

With Gardyn, students learning from living systems and support studies involving:

• Plant science and biology
• STEM and STEAM
• Environmental science
• Sustainable agriculture
• Nutrition and food education
• Mathematics and data collection
• Engineering and technology
• Career and technical education
• Entrepreneurship
• Hands-on, project-based learning

And because Gardyn is designed for indoor growing, students can observe plant growth throughout the school year, regardless of the weather outside.

So, which setup is right for your school?

The Most Popular Plus Bundle: The Best All-Around Classroom Setup

Best for: Educators who want an all-in-one Gardyn experience with curriculum included

If you’re shopping for your first classroom hydroponic garden and want more than just the growing system, the Most Popular Plus Bundle is a great place to start.

The bundle includes everything in the Most Popular Bundle, plus accessories that give educators more flexibility in how they use their Gardyn—and a one-year curriculum license for your selected grade band.

What's included?

• Gardyn Home 4
• 30-plant Starter Set
• Sprout Nursery
• Hydroboost
• Plant Food
• Gardyn Home Dolly
• Access to Kelby, your personal plant coach
• 10 free plants per month
• Vacation Mode
• Gardyn Caps
• Plant Trellis
• Plant Belts
• Plant yCovers
• One-year curriculum license for:
• K–5 STEAM
• 6–8 STEM
• 9–12 STEM
• Free shipping
• 2-year warranty

Why educators love it

The Most Popular Plus Bundle is designed for schools that want to start growing and start teaching at the same time.

The included trellis and plant accessories make it easier to experiment with different plant varieties and growing habits, while the curriculum license gives teachers a ready-made way to connect the Gardyn experience to classroom learning.

Best fit: First-time Gardyn educators, STEM teachers, science classrooms, and schools looking for a turnkey hydroponic education solution.

To start a quote for the Most Popular Plus Bundle, click here.

Gardyn Lab: Build a Bigger STEM Growing Experience

Best for: Schools, STEM labs, CTE programs, and districts who want multiple Gardyn systems for experimentation and collaboration

If one Gardyn can become a living learning lab, the Gardyn Lab can turn multiple systems into an entire STEM growing environment.

Designed for schools that want to go beyond a single classroom setup, Gardyn Lab gives educators the opportunity to use multiple Gardyn devices for side-by-side experiments, student collaboration, plant science investigations, and larger growing programs.

With options for 3, 5, or 10 Gardyn systems, educators can create a setup that matches the scale of their program.

Why choose Gardyn Lab?

Multiple systems open up new possibilities for student-led learning. Instead of every student observing the same growing environment, students can investigate what happens when conditions or variables change.

For example, students can:

• Compare different plant varieties
• Conduct controlled experiments
• Collect and analyze plant-growth data
• Investigate environmental variables
• Explore water and resource efficiency
• Work in teams to manage individual systems
• Study controlled-environment agriculture
• Connect plant science to engineering and technology
• Explore careers in agriculture, food systems, and STEM
• Design experiments and present their findings

Best fit: Middle and high school STEM programs, CTE and agriculture programs, dedicated STEM labs, schools with multiple classrooms, and schools looking to build a larger hydroponic education program.

To learn more about the Gardyn Lab, click here.

Professional Development: Get Teachers Growing With Confidence

Best for: New Gardyn educators, districts launching a program, and teachers who want hands-on training

A new classroom technology is much more valuable when educators feel confident using it.

That's why we recommend pairing your Gardyn setup with Professional Development Training.

Rather than spending the first few weeks of school figuring everything out, professional development gives educators a chance to learn how Gardyn works and think through how it can fit into their instructional goals.

Training can help educators understand:

• How to get started with Gardyn
• How to manage everyday plant care
• How students can participate in device care
• How to use Gardyn as a classroom learning tool
• Ways to incorporate Gardyn into STEM instruction
• How to build student ownership and responsibility
• How to make the most of Gardyn throughout the school year

This is especially valuable for schools where multiple educators will interact with the Gardyn or where a teacher is introducing hydroponics to their classroom for the first time. We offer flexible packages for single or multiple days.

To learn more about Gardyn Professional Development, click here.

Middle School STEM Curriculum: Turn Your Gardyn Into a Living Lab

Best for: Grades 6–8 STEM, science, and project-based learning

For middle school educators, Gardyn can become a hands-on platform for exploring questions that don't have to stay inside a textbook.

Students can investigate how plants respond to different conditions, collect data, identify patterns, develop hypotheses, and use evidence to explain what they observe. Gardyn's 6–8 STEM curriculum is designed to help educators connect the growing system to structured learning experiences.

Best fit: Middle school STEM teachers looking for hands-on, cross-curricular learning that students can revisit throughout the school year.

To learn more about Gardyn Curriculums, click here.

High School STEM Curriculum: Take Growing Into Deeper Investigation

Best for: Grades 9–12 STEM, biology, environmental science, agriculture, and career-focused programs

High school students can take the Gardyn experience a step further. At the high school level, a Gardyn can become a platform for experimentation, data analysis, sustainability studies, controlled-environment agriculture, and real-world problem solving.

Gardyn's 9–12 STEM curriculum gives educators a framework for connecting the system to more advanced learning.

Students can explore questions such as:

• What environmental conditions affect plant growth?
• How does changing one variable influence another?
• How can we use data to improve growing outcomes?
• How does controlled-environment agriculture work?
• How can technology help address food-access challenges?
• What role could indoor agriculture play in the future of food?
• How can we design more sustainable food systems?

Gardyn has long been used to introduce students to concepts connected to controlled-environment agriculture, plant science, IoT technology, engineering, and mathematics. For high school programs, that makes the Gardyn more than a classroom garden—it can become a living platform for STEM investigation and career exploration.

Best fit: High school STEM, biology, environmental science, agriculture, CTE, and sustainability programs.

To learn more about Gardyn Curriculums, click here.

So, Which Gardyn Setup Is Right for Your School?

Not every school needs the same setup. Here's a quick way to think about your options:

Ready to Grow This School Year?

If Gardyn is on your back-to-school list, now is a great time to get started. Request a quote and our team of education partners will put together a plan aligned with your program’s goals.