Friday, March 20, 2015

Aerogarden: 1st Month

I've tried and failed to maintain any sort of plants before, but I've been wanting an herb garden for the longest time.  It's not easy in an apartment that only gets light on one side of the porch, with limited space.  I don't really have much patience for green thumb type things.  But one of my best friends is a gardening expert, and when I went to visit her I noticed her indoor Aerogarden.  Her mother sent me a discount code, and before I knew it I had one in my guest room.  (Note: I purchased this all on my own!  Just reviewing it here for others who might want an easy herb garden.)


The Aerogarden is very easy to set up.  You get a certain number of "pods" in the starter kit, and you can order custom herbs as well.  That's why I did.  I started my garden off with two types of basil, parsley, thyme, oregano, chives, and sage.  You set it up with water, as well as some plant "nutrients" that you feed from time to time.  On my model, everything is dictated to you in digital messages, so it's really dummy proof.  The lights turn on and off automatically.  You add nutrients and water as needed.  You raise up the lights as the plants grow.  Simple!  Fun!  It was cool to see little spouts with the first week!


The domes stay on until the plant almost touches the plastic, then you let it grow without.  Sage was definitely a major frontrunner.  You can see how much it grew in just the first couple of weeks.  I followed instructions and guidelines online as to how to clip the herbs the right way to encourage more and more growth.  My friend said Month Two is when you really start harvesting and using your herbs the most.


A sad thing happened on Day 19... the cats killed Thyme.  They got the pod and spout out of the garden; I replaced it with a Cilantro pod, and all it grew was mold or something.  No plant, a dud pod.  So now I've got a vacancy for a new pod, depending on what I decide to do.  For the time being, I moved Parsley up to the front because it needed more room, after the last photo in this set.


Now that the garden is getting bigger, it's getting to be really nice and fragrant.  It's in "High Growth Mode" so I definitely have to remember to raise the lights (so the leaves don't singe!) and add water much more frequently.  I'm really proud of this little garden!

The only downside is that the light is really bright and needs to stay on a long time, so it's disruptive to my overnight guests.  But you can just hit the light to turn it off, and it'll be fine while you have people there.  Overall, I'm excited that some of my plants *are* ready to be trimmed for use in cooking.  I've successfully gotten plants to live for a month, which is more than I've ever done!

If you'd like to follow my Aerogarden's progress on Instagram, follow the hashtag #aubreysaerogarden to see it grow!  I'll hopefully come back with an update in another month.

2 comments:

  1. they're sprouting like crazy! How long do they grow?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Depends on the plant, usually 3-4 months I think.

    ReplyDelete

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