A Green Thumb up for the Aerogarden
Even those with brown thumbs will be able to grow greens in the Aerogarden
I'd been antsy to buy an Aerogarden since they first came on the market nearly three years ago, and last autumn I finally bit the bullet and did it. But I gave it as a gift to my mother, not to me.
"Mary, Mary quite contrary how does your garden grow?" Why, with the Aerogarden of course!
If there's any time I lament owning two cats, it's this time of the year--when I'm chomping at the bit to get my garden going again. Unfortunately, I can't grow my own seedlings because I have no room in the house to hide them from the little four-legged critters. My kids love gardening too. They're slowly gaining an appreciation for nurturing plants, though they still haven't moved into the eating vegetables stage.
So how do I reconcile the kitty destroyers with teaching my children the joy of gardening? Well, grandma's house comes in handy. I truly did buy it for her so she and my father would have fresh lettuce and veggies during the winter; having my kids also enjoy it was secondary. My father loves fresh vegetables but despises the cooked variety.
Let's face it, the produce you can buy in the grocery store in the winter just is nowhere near as fresh or tasty as the cucumber and tomatoes and other stuff you can grow yourself in the summer. Enter this amazing indoor gardening machine from Aerogrow, which looks like something Ray Bradbury would have written about fifty years ago. The Aerogarden is cool-looking, and I've heard that some people do buy it primarily as an art piece and only secondarily for its garden function.
The Aerogarden literally grows herbs and other plants in the air, aided only by water, light and nutrients. No dirt and no bugs - can you imagine? The machine is well made, the instructions are clear, and anyone can drop in the Plug & Grow seed pods, no matter what color his gardening thumb. Seeds germinate in as little as 24 hours and you can be harvesting greens in four weeks.
Aerogrow sells many varieties of seed kits, including tomatoes, green beans, lettuces, flowers, and herbs. The pods can't be mixed during one growing cycle--in other words, if you're growing lettuce, you can't also grow tomatoes--so I've heard of people buying two or even three Aerogardens to handle all crops. The company also makes different sized Aerogardens - there's the Classic, the smaller 3, the Space Saver 6, the Regular 6, the Deluxe for taller plants, and the Pro for "power growers."
Choose the Aerogarden that's right for your space and appetite, and get growing!