The smallest format in our range, and often the first one people buy. A 90 cm by 90 cm footprint — under a square metre — that slips into a basement corner, a stretch of heated garage or an unused room, and turns that space into a growing season independent of the calendar.

What it actually does: a grow tent isn't just a box to hide plants in. It's total control over light. Inside, you decide the length of the day, not the month of November. The reflective inner wall sends back toward the plants the light that would otherwise be lost on the room's walls, which means one lamp delivers more inside a tent than out in the open. The closed enclosure also holds humidity, keeps dust and insects out, and stops bright light from taking over the rest of the house in the evening.

This size in particular: at 180 cm tall, it's the right pick for starting seedlings at scale in February and March (easily three or four 10 × 20 trays on a shelf), for growing microgreens year-round, for overwintering a rosemary, a lemongrass or a white sage under lights, or for taking one or two compact fruiting plants from seed to harvest. It's also the size that asks the least lighting power, and so the least to run.

Construction: made of durable, weather-resistant Oxford 1680D fabric. The number is the denier, the linear mass measure of the fibre: 1680D is a heavy grade, the same order as luggage and tool bags, a long way from the light canvases found on entry-level tents.

• Dimensions: 90 cm × 90 cm × 180 cm tall.
• Oxford 1680D fabric, durable and weather-resistant.
• Reflective inner wall.
• Suited for: starting seedlings, year-round microgreens, overwintering potted plants, one or two compact fruiting plants.