Growing herbs in the kitchen: AeroGarden experiment (day 1)

Growing herbs in your kitchen?

While some people wouldn’t be caught dead gardening, for others it definitely qualifies as one of simple joys in life. Planting seeds and watching plants grow can be very enjoyable and fun.

Moreover, those who like fresh herbs in their food, know how expensive it can be to keep buying them from a local supermarket. And worst of all is that they don’t stay fresh for very long.

Many fresh herb enthusiasts grow them in their gardens or even balconies during the warm season, but it all ends when the winter comes. Growing herbs indoors is too much fuss for most people.  Feeding them nutrients in a timely manner, getting special lights, and so on.

We chose AeroGarden for our setup

AeroGarden Setup Day 1

After some research, we have discovered that a company named AeroGarden seems to offer some very nice solutions to the indoor gardening problem. They have a line of  AeroGarden products that are designed to grow anything from herbs to salad greens to full size veggies and even flowers. We are giving it a try.

Of all the products available, we have decided to go with AeroGarden Veggie Pro (shown in the pictures) since it seemed the most versatile product and a Gourmet Herbs seed kit for our experiment. The herb kit includes basil, oregano, mint, dill, chives, and thyme.

We found a deal on amazon.com for the Veggie Pro model for $120 and the herb kit was $19.99 – it’s worth checking both amazon.com and the AeroGarden Site to see which offers a better deal at the moment. We are not yet sure if this price is worth it. At the end of our experiment we plan to do some cost analysis. It depends on how well the herbs will grow and how long they will last whether it’s worth it as compared to the supermarket prices.

Setting up our AeroGarden

It took about half an hour to set the whole thing up (including reading of the instructions). The assembly was easy. The planting was too.  All we had to do is add some water to the bottom compartment, drop in the nutrient tablets that came with the seed kit, add the seed pods into the holes and plug it in.

AeroGarden pods just planted

It looks like the growing process will be pretty effortless too. There is a light that’s supposed to go on when the water gets too low and another one for when it’s time to add the nutrients. As for the grow lights, they are on a timer depending on the growing mode selected. We selected the herb mode (others include veggies, salad greens, flowers, etc.).

And now we watch and wait. According to the instruction manual, basil is supposed to start sprouting in 3-7 days, other herbs might take a few days longer.

It does look a little bit like a scene from a science fiction movie – growing little pods of plants in the kitchen, but it sure was fun so far.

Be sure to come back and check for updates!