Way out here in the wooly West we’re starved for rain—just as this week’s wildfire coverage might suggest—so an innovative indoor garden initiative like Alberto Sanchez’s Roots planter for MUT begins to look like an excellent alternative, even though my pure gardener’s sensibilities might rebel against it.

Roots modular planter. Designed by Alberto Sanchez. Manufactured by MUT.

The Roots Planter System Inspires New Heights in Indoor Gardens

Indeed, such is the drought that in our humble burb we are prohibited from watering our lawns, so I’ve had to content myself with a couple of meager pots of annuals. Perhaps I’ll pretend I’m in a skyscraper and take the whole works indoors—with the Roots Modular System, this would only enhance creativity.

Comprised of vertically-oriented beech wood elements, side tables, metal lamps, flowerpots, and assorted connecting hardware, Roots can be assembled in a virtually infinite number of configurations. The wooden elements simply click together, and the accompanying pots fit atop the horizontal members, thus creating perches at varying heights—not only for the pots, but also for the projected light provided by the clip-on lamps.

Sanchez says that the concept is modeled after the notion of a trellis, which typically provides a guided path of growth for vines and other climbing vegetation. But I find that Roots is far more interesting and intuitive than that. Not only does the system’s easy modularity allow gardeners to expand (or contract) their wares at a moment’s notice, it also lets them experiment with growth on diverging planes, as it were: “these amusing flower pots allow the design of crazy, very personal compositions… ideal for designing a small, cozy kitchen garden at home, a curious vertical garden, or unusual separator between different areas inside, outside, or in public places.”

About the Manufacturer: MUT is a multi-disciplinary team of young designers striving daily with every ounce of their being to give new creative forms of expression to everyday elements. Some of their more recent fruits of labor produced as a result of these ongoing efforts to find inspiration in the mundane have received accolades in fairs in Milan, Stockholm, London, and Paris. Among this auspicious output one finds the Roots Indoor Garden System, the Zip series of Modular Rugs, and the Stardust Lamp.