But what if you could call on an online community to keep everything in in working order when you hit the limits of your gardening prowess? The MEG Open Source Greenhouse is an internet-connected indoor microclimate designed to tap into the collective knowledge of green-thumbs around the world.

MEG (Micro Experimental Growing) is the brainchild of a team of Italian engineers looking to demonstrate that just about anything can be grown in any location. The greenhouse is around the size of a vending machine and provides a microclimate which can be managed through a phone or tablet.

Driven by an Arduino controller, the user can control important metrics to create the ideal environment of their plants to prosper. To this end, light cycles, ventilation, temperature, irrigation, soil acidity and alkalinity can all be managed via the app.

MEG also monitors the growth and health of the plants. So if a user happens upon a recipe for success for a particular plant, they can repeat the growing process down to the last drop of water and beam of light.