Do you love being your own home cook and want fresh herbs at your fingertips?Are you looking for easy-to-get pesto basil or landscaping canned marinara sauce?Then a Smart Garden might be just what you need – especially the AeroGarden Smart Garden.
The unit is designed to take all the guesswork out of plant growth.I’m pretty handy in the garden (in fact, I have a potato crop that’s ready for harvest in about a week), but I’ve been having trouble keeping the herbs alive.Chives, basil, rosemary, it doesn’t matter – I’ll find a way to kill them.
But AeroGarden has allowed me to grow an impressive crop of herbs, and I’ve had it on hand for six months.I gather multiple yields from the plants before they get too big and need to be moved to the ground.
AeroGarden Smart Garden is available in three different models: Harvest, Harvest 360 and Harvest Slim.The main difference between these models is the number of plants they support.
The AeroGarden works mostly out of the box – you just fill it with water and plant feed, insert the seed pods, and let it work.
I have the Harvest model which supports up to six different plants.The box contains everything you need to get started, including pre-planted seed pods, plant feed and instructions.
Installation took only a few minutes.It works mostly out of the box – you just fill it with water and plant feed, insert the seed pods, and let it work.
Although there is an AeroGarden app, my version is not compatible.Instead, I manage all basic functions through the car lights.There are three types: a green light for plant food, a blue light for water, and a white light for turning the LEDs on or off.
AeroGarden works on an internal timer.A series of LED grow lights on retractable, adjustable stands will illuminate plants for 15 hours a day.Once the device is plugged in, the time the light is on is set, but this can be adjusted as needed.
I set mine to glow at night most of the time, but be warned: these lights are quite bright.After all, they’re supposed to mimic sunlight.If you live in a studio, this may not be the best option for you unless you can safely stop it somehow.
An internal pump circulates water throughout the seed pod.When the water level gets low, the light will flash until you refill it to the proper level.At the beginning of the growing cycle, I only need to add water about once a week.Near the end, when my plants are fully mature, almost once a day.
You’ll need to add two bottles of plant-based foods about every two weeks.The fertilizer comes in a small bottle that’s easy to hide behind the smart garden so you can easily keep track of it.
You don’t plant the seeds yourself, although I think you can put in enough effort.AeroGarden sells pre-planted seed pods of different varieties.When I first started, I had Genoese basil, Thai basil, lavender, parsley, thyme and dill.
There are over 120 plant varieties to choose from, including flowers, herbs and actual vegetables.Before writing this article, I removed all the herbs from my garden and grew a set of summer salad greens, but you can also grow cherry tomatoes, baby greens, bok choy, and more.
After planting, place a small plastic cover on top of the pods.This helps protect the seed inside until it sprouts.Once the bud is big enough to touch it, you can remove the cover.
Different plants grow at different rates.The dill I grew grew faster than anything else, but the two basils quickly outpaced it.In fact, they grew so good – I actually lost my thyme because the basil root smothered it.
Seed pods are guaranteed to germinate.In fact, if it doesn’t sprout, you can contact AeroGarden for a replacement.I’ve only had this happen to one of my plants, and it was because (I guess) the seeds fell out of the pods.Everything else grew, although the thyme did not survive.
I love that you can set and forget.For the most part, AeroGarden is just that.It is responsible for the watering and fertilization of plants.All I have to do is do maintenance every few days.The Smart Garden lives on my kitchen countertop, perfect for reaching for a few basil leaves for pasta sauce, or grabbing some lavender for tea.
This is not intelligence in the traditional sense.Like I said, there’s no app that sends push notifications or growth reports to my phone – but it’s really useful and has had a place in the kitchen since I first set it up after Christmas.
The AeroGarden Smart Garden is a great starting point for a smart garden at an affordable price.For just $165, you can easily enjoy fresh vegetables, herbs and even flowers in a small space.It takes the guesswork out of growing, even for those with the darkest thumbs.
Now, we are seeing an explosion of smart gardens.Six different options can be found between Click and Grow Smart Garden, Rise Garden and Edn Garden, among others.There are even options like the Gardyn, which is the size of a bookshelf and can hold up to 30 plants.There are many options, but whether they are “better” is subjective.
I’ve been using AeroGarden Harvest since just after Christmas and it’s still going strong.Individual plants can live for a long time if you take care of them with regular pruning, and the hardware includes a one-year limited warranty against manufacturing defects.
Of course, especially if you don’t have your own garden.Living in an apartment, the AeroGarden gives me easy access to fresh herbs and really brings a little spice to my cooking (pun definitely intended).
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Post time: Jul-20-2022
