Many city dwellers picture themselves cooking gorgeous gourmet meals seasoned with fresh herbs plucked just moments before from the windowsill. But the time between deciding to grow herbs and actually cooking with them can be less inspiring.

Watering the herbs gets unintentionally erased off the to-do list while dripping pots draining down the windowsill can be messy.  Work gets crazy, takeout takes over, and herbs get root-bound as they go unplucked and unused. Soil spills here, there, and everywhere, bringing a little too much of the outdoors in. So the idea gets packed away along with many other good intentions.

The urban crowd would let out a collective cheer of joy if growing herbs indoors didn’t require dirt or regular watering. Let’s face it, many of us get lazy even if we don’t admit it. So that’s why Cloud Farms brings us Amphora–a soilless hydroponic herb planter a sleek ceramic stoneware body that barely ever needs watering. Huh?

Once In a Lifetime Watering
With Amphora, you only have to water once. Yes, just once. Each planter holds enough water for the lifetime of the herb plant. If you’d like to extend the lifetime of your plant, you can do that too by adding cool water.

One Kit, Three Easy Steps
1. Add a shot of nutrient.
2. Fill with water.
3. Plant seeds.

Amphora is a complete kit that comes with all the materials you need for a year’s worth of growing: the stoneware vessel, a seed kit with eight nutrient shots, 50 seeds and eight pieces of growing medium. You can choose from basil, chives, cilantro, lemon balm, parsley and oregano.

Inspired by Windowfarms and Aerogarden, designer Bradley Ferrada wanted to make things even simpler. He explains about his attractive and intelligent design that not only looks good in the home but feeds you too:

“I’m big into local and organic foods, and I’ve wanted to grow some of my own at home, but it’s really tough in an apartment in NYC. I grew up in Vermont and trying to grow in windowsill pots is not the same as having a big yard. So I applied everything I knew about design and product engineering, and just started working on products that would make it really easy to grow at home, and that would really integrate into your home.”

Cloud Farms is built around the idea that everyone should have access to fresh, healthy food, some of which can be grown in their own homes. If Amphora is any indication, we’ve got some great products headed our way.

Bradley and his company, Cloud Farms, currently have an Indiegogo campaign with a modest goal for getting Amphora production up and running.

You can learn more about Amphora and Bradley Ferrada in the following video.

Need a hydroponics refresher? Read more about how to grow plants without soil with  nutrients delivered in the water directly to the plant roots–which you’ll be able to see if you pull the plant out of your Amphora when you get one.

Photos via Cloud Farms.