So, I don’t exactly have a green thumb. I think plants sense my desire to slaughter them and turn them into foodstuff. I live in a rather small apartment with limited exposure to sunlight and no windowsills to place plants on. There have been three problems growing things in here: poor soil, limited light, and little space.
We’ve tried sprouting herbs in peat pellets, but many didn’t survive. So far, I have some lemon basil growing poorly, an equally sickly cinnamon basil plant, some other sort of basil sprouting from seeds held over from 3 years ago.
Luckily, my family decided to solve all of these problems back in September by buying me an AeroGarden Space-Saver 6 with Gourmet Herb Seed Kit. Victoria and I unboxed it the same night and got it set up right away. It only took about 15 minutes to clip it together and install the bulbs.
The assembled Aerogarden Space Saver 6
The Aerogarden grows ‘pods’ of plants hydroponically. Fill the bowl with water, stick in the pods, toss in the nutrient tablets, and walk away. Because of the pod system, and formulated nutrients, you’re essentially locked into the Aerogarden system, but with a little ingenuity you can recycle your pods.
Defective Dill pod. It's just like the 1930s dust bowl. We're going to starve.
One of our pods, the dill, was defective, and all the seeds, when sprouted, popped out of the little sponge inside and died. I would have called the company to complain, but being the tinkerer I am, I saw opportunity. I popped the sponge out, cleaned it up, threw some Thai Basil seeds inside, and back into the machine it went. Three days later, Thai Basil sprouted.
The Aerogarden, one month on.
It should be noted that when growing basil, you do need to prune it to encourage it to branch, and not let it get too high, or you won’t really get enough leaves to eat.
Here’s our Aerogarden now, a month and a half on. A crop of Thai basil, chives, oregano, thyme, mint, and Genovese basil. The mint started suffering the same way the dill did, so I’ve rescued and transplanted a sprout, which has perked up nicely.
The Aerogarden today, after 45 days.
It seems the Aerogarden isn’t cheap, with models ranging from $150-250, seed kits at $25, and replacement grow bulbs running $30. The thing to remember about the lights, however, is that you can put the rest of your plants around the unit. Plus, if you’re a home cook that uses a lot of fresh herbs, this thing is going to pay for itself.
We’re growing some potted nasturtiums next to it, and they’re growing spectacularly. I couldn’t even get them going in sunlight. Likewise for the rosemary we’ve just sprouted next to the unit – before the Aerogarden, it just died, in spite of using another grow light.
Sure, it hasn’t been flawless, given the two sickly seed pods, but gardening is rarely perfect. If I can find space, I’ll probably be getting another Aerogarden unit, since grape tomatoes are $3 a box, and I was also given the tomato kit that I’m dying to try out. If I needed to quantify the Aerogarden with some sort of poorly defined rating system, I’d give it 4/5 stars.
