About a month ago, I purchased an unusual little device, on a whim mainly, that would fundamentally change the way I look at gardening, and growing plants in general
I had never been succesful with terrestrial plants, mainly because I’m not a morning person, and my bedroom (where I keep plants) has two layers of room darkening drapes on each window, an inner one flush with the window itself, and another set hanging from a curtain rod, even in the height of summer sun, the bedroom is near pitch black (why yes, I’m a vampire, thanks for asking 
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naturally, this environment is not condusive to growing any chlorophyl containing plants (however I imagine edible mushrooms would love it!), and the plants that I do have in the downstairs sunroom I have to remember to water, something I’m not exactly reliable on
Aquarium plants? I can grow vast quantities of, mainly because I don’t have to worry about forgetting to water them…
Anyway, I picked up an Aerogarden 3, and a cherry tomato kit, I didn’t know it at the time, but the tomato kit was for the 7 pod gardens, it had the short peat based sponges, not the long ones that the AG3 is supposed to use, I was able to get them to grow by keeping the water level topped off
I was skeptical at first, sure I had wasted my money, after all, this couldn’t possibly work, it was too easy, just plug it in, add water and fertilizer tablets, keep the water topped up and feed the plants when the nute timer goes off, it was too much like a planted aquarium…
well, long story short, it DOES work, in fact, it works so well that I purchased another pair of AG’s (AG6 and AG6 Elite+) moved the crowded tomatoes in the AG3 (yes, I planted all three in an AG3, D’OH!) into the Elite+, and made my own homebrew knock-off unit with nothing more than a rubbermaid container with holes cut in the lid, an aquarium air pump, and airstone, and using the lightstrips from my shut-down aquarium
It’s made me change the way I look at growing plants, since the AG requires less care than a planted aquarium (which is pretty maintenance free on it’s own) I don’t need to worry about forgetting to water the plants, or wondering if they need nutrients, it’s made horticulture stupid easy
I’ve also changed my views on veggie crops, I picked up the tomatoes because I love tomatoes, and thought the lettuce kit would be “boring” I mean, c’mon, it’s LETTUCE, how exciting is that? well, it turns out that the tomato kit takes a frustratingly long time to become productive (they’ve just started flowering this week), wheras lettuce grows like a weed in a hydroponic setup, I’ve had three mini-salads with my lettuce kit in the homebrew rig in the time it’s taken the tomatoes to just get to the flowering stage, now I actually like lettuce for it’s own charms, mainly it’s speed in production
I also tend to “stagger” my lettuce kits, start them a week or so apart, start one or two pods one week, the next week add another couple, and next week a couple more, so on and so forth, until the homebrew rig is completely populated, that way when one group is winding down, the next will be ready, and I can have a continuous supply of lettuce as long as the seeds hold out…
My current setups are;
AG6 Elite+; cherry tomatoes, two heirloom red, one golden harvest yellow, the golden is currently the most productive and has set the most flowers
AG6; herbs - dill, genovese basil, savory, mint, oregano, and thyme
Homebrew rig; Lettuce and Salvia Hispanica (better known as Chia, a relative of the mint family)
So, with the above setup, once everything is productive, I can make a salad whenever I want, with a mix of lettuces, some Chia, and perhaps a few herbs thrown in, and I can make my own homemade salad dressing using the herbs as well
Since the AG setup has got me back into plants, I’ve also added some non-hydroponic plants to the garden table, in the 20 long aquarium holding the homebrew rig and lightstrips
a “Darwin Pot” of herbs (Thai and Lemon basils, Roemary, and Catnip), just to see which one wins
a Sundew carnivorous plant
a Venus Fly Trap
an Aloe plant
a small barrel cactus
Thank you, Aerogardens, for making gardening fun again
You can follow this link to find my threads on the Aerogarden forums (I go by MacTech there too) with photos of my gardens and their progress
