It is Aerogarden time again ! Bobby moved most of mine outside in the storage shed last winter because i was not using them for anything at the time; but I am getting ready to set them up again before long. I have the two smallest ones in the house, and just ordered some new sponges for those and I can start some seedlings in there. I want to move them into the storage pantry this time. We have shelves in there, and if I move things around then i can put the aerogardens all on the top shelves. They are very bright, and the light comes on all night long, so they have to be someplace where they do not light up the area so you can’t sleep at night. The pantry door can be closed at night, and the shelves are where they can get sun in the mornings from the windows, so it should be a good place for the Aerogarden to be. Amazon has some of the aerogardens on sale, and I am thinking about getting another one. Mine are all pretty old, and a newer one would be nice.
I have the two little aero gardens set up in the kitchen for now, and will be growing magenta chard and daikon radish in those gardens. I can harvest leaves for my salads or soup. I think I have room to start one more in the kitchen, and Bobby is going to bring in all of my aero garden stuff. It supposed to be warmer this week so I can get back into the pantry room and get the shelves rearranged. Then I can put the aero gardens on the top shelf.
Bobby brought in the two large aerogardens from the storage area out back. I cleaned them up and they are working fine. I have three of them started with seeds, and the other one has my micro greens (which are about ready to harvest) on it. That one is an old Aerogarden that I bought several years ago on Craigslist, and I am not sure if the water pump is doing much or not, but the lights work fine, so it will do okay for micro greens if nothing else.
I can already see tiny sprouts coming up in some of the Aerogarden pods ! I harvested my micro greens, so this morning I started some Malabar spinach seeds in that Aerogarden. Malabar spinach is not a true spinach, but it has nice edible green leaves that resemble spinach in appearance as well as taste. It loves heat, so it will grow all summer long when most other greens have died out from the heat. I plan on moving it outside in planters once the weather has warmed up enough, but in the meantime, I will just harvest it from the Aerogarden.
I got the aerogardens moved from the kitchen into the storage room, so we have more room in the kitchen again. I have also been starting some seeds in those little plastic bin that hold the peat pellets, so I am getting ready for summer, and I ordered some basil and arugula seeds from eBay . By the time they start getting large enough to transplant, it should be warm enough for me to put some of the greens outside since they are pretty cold-hardy. If anyone is thinking about getting an Aerogarden, Amazon has the aerogarden Harvest model at almost half price right now, and with payments. I have been thinking about getting one more, and now that they are moved to where I have more room, I decided that this was too good of a deal to pass up. It comes with a gourmet herb selection of seeds, so it is all ready to fill up with water and put the seed pods in it.
I am woman hear me roar. Not sure if I posted this already but I have sprouted some CRANBERRY seeds in a pie pan under a grow light. I wonder if an aero garden would keep seedlings from getting leggy. I also started some arugula because they don't have it at the store. It is odd tasting but is supposed to be good for you. Last year I had a plastic tub from a wheel barrow on my deck to try as a garden. It did not do great but I did not plant it according to Hoyle. Might move my babies into that as they are not that many. I found a good deal on nanking bush cherries and bought 5 to put at the farm although, even though it is a farm, not sure where I will put them. Obviously spring is coming.
That is so awesome, @Mary Stetler , I wonder if cranberries would do well down here ? I might have to see if I can find a bag of fresh ones at the store and try sprouting some. How did yours do after you sprouted them and got them planted outside ? An Aerogarden has a movable lid/light, so you can start with it close to the tiny sprouts, and then move it further away as they grow taller; so plants should not get leggy like they do otherwise if they do not get enough light. The aerogarden throws off enough light that i can put other containers of plants next to it and it helps them grow better as well. My new one came today, and Bobby and I got it set up , planted with the herb garden seeds, and it is happily bubbling away in the back room now, along with the other ones.
I was talking to my son last night and he asked me if I still had my Aerogarden. A few years ago I bought one for me and one for him, but I lost interest in it and gave it away. He used his for a lot longer than I did but ended up losing interest as well. Of course his question put "the Idea" back into my highly-suggestible head and now I'm comparing all the models. Good grief, some of them are expensive now. Seems like when I bought them before there were only a couple of different models but my memory isn't what it used to be. Soooooo, I put one in my cart on Amazon... the Harvest model as shown above in @Yvonne Smith 's post. It's $99 now but still a deal when compared with the regular price. My finger is hovering over the "submit order button."
This is a great size and a good buy, and just perfect for trying out the aerogarden idea again, @Beth Gallagher ! I don’t usually grow anything to full size, except herbs, but it is great for starting plants like tomatoes and then moving them into larger containers when they get large enough to take out of the aerogarden. All of mine are off right now (my gardening bug has worn off until January), but growing fresh herbs is something that looks pretty and you can use year around.
Yvonne--do you have any experience with the Harvest Elite Slim model? I can get that one in stainless from Kohl's for $104 (with the 30% off and $10 in Kohl's cash ). The pods sit in a line instead of staggered like in the Harvest, plus it has a digital display. Not sure that I care about the digital controls but I might like the pods being in a single line.
I think it is just a matter of preference, Beth. It is maybe a little longer and slimmer than the Harvest model I have; but it looks like they both hold about the same amount of plants. The platinum looks really pretty !
Thanks. I found one called the Harvest Elite 360, which looks round. It has a smaller footprint and holds 6 pods.
I bought one for my wife a while ago, and she uses it for herbs. She seems to like it for fresh herbs, but I don't think I would use it for anything else.