Aerogarden – Week 6
It is week 6 of having the Aerogarden, the mini grow station, and the herbs that germinated are looking great. This includes the Basil I seeded to replace the Thyme that didn’t germinate (and that Aerogarden, keeping their germination guarantee, reimbursed us for).
We are lightly harvesting everything except for the Parsley and the Genovese Basil. Those plants aren’t yet large enough to take leaves from.
The Dear Wonderful Hubby, especially, is loving having a little bit of fresh herbs with each meal.
He was surprised how much he likes the Dill. Previously, he’d only had store-bought fresh Dill and the dried stuff and that doesn’t compare to Dill picked right from a plant.
(smiles)
The Aerogarden is, IMHO, a success!
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Aerogarden – Week 5
We now have seedlings in all 6 of the Aerogarden’s (the mini grow station’s) pods!
Woot!
The Thyme didn’t germinate. Aerogarden kept their germination guarantee and reimbursed us for that. I quickly popped in a couple Genovese Basil seeds and they germinated super quickly.
We’ve harvested some Dill and this past week, we did our first harvest of the Thai Basil. And everything seems to be growing strong.
We’re very pleased with the Aerogarden. It is super easy to grow in and it is nice to have fresh herbs literally on our kitchen table.
(smiles)
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Aerogarden – Week 4
This is week 4 of using the Aerogarden, the mini-grow station the Dear Wonderful Hubby and I received as a gift.
Five of the pods have seen germination. One of the pods (the Thyme) didn’t have any activity.
Aerogarden guarantees germination. The Dear Wonderful Hubby called their helpline and they gave us a refund for that pod.
There were some questions (as they are trying to fix problems and stop that from happening to other growers in the future) but the process was easy peasy.
Aerogarden truly does stand behind their guarantee.
Some of the pods had multiple germinations.
The Thai Basil, for example, had SIX seeds germinate. That is way too much for one little pod to handle. So I pulled out three of the seedlings and transplanted them in their own more traditional dirt-filled containers. And all three of the seedlings survived this rather traumatic experience.
(smiles)
The Dear Wonderful Hubby (the fresh herb lover) should have a lot of Thai Basil in the future.
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Aerogarden – Week 3
It is week 3 of having the Aerogarden, the mini grow station.
The dill is growing like…well…dill. When it grows, it REALLY grows, doesn’t it? And it is looking like dill with the real leaves more expected of the plant.
The Thai Basil is looking strong. FIVE seeds sprouted. I’m waiting for it to get a little bit bigger. Then I will thin the plants and try to root the seedlings that weren’t chosen. That might or might not work but it is worth a try.
The mint has finally broken through the sticker level. Mint grows slowly.
And I see the Genovese Basil has finally germinated. It is barely visible when I peer into the hole in the sticker but it lives!
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Aerogarden – Week 2
It is Week 2 with the Aerogarden mini grow station and both the Thai Basil and the Dill are now taller than the seed pod stickers.
The Dill is growing so aggressively, as Dill does, it has outgrown the little plastic cap used to keep the heat and humidity in. It is now FREE, free to grow like it wants to grow.
(grins)
Every other pod, with the possible exception of the Thyme, shows signs of life.
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Aerogarden – Week 1
We have germination! Woot!
I see the Thai Basil seedling through the tiny hole in the algae-preventing sticker.
(grins)
Other seeds might have germinated also but I can’t see them through their holes.
(As shown with the photo of the Thyme pod. I can’t see anything in there.)
Which is one big drawback of the Aerogarden set up. My favorite part of gardening is when the plants first poke their tiny heads out of the soil. And due to the protective stickers over the pods, this isn’t easily seen.
But we do have life. And that makes me very, very happy!
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Aerogarden – First Impressions
A much loved one gave us an Aerogarden as a present.
This is a VERY small mini-grow station. It is so small we have set it up on our kitchen table (and we LOVE that this is possible).
It supposedly supports SIX herbs. I am doubtful it will do that but we plan to harvest regularly so, hopefully, it will be okay.
It was super simple to set up. Take it out of package and plug it in, turning the lights on. Then just pop in the seed pods, fill the reservoir with water, drop in a couple caplets of liquid fertilizer, and it is good to go.
The buttons will tell you when it is time to refill the reservoir with water. Fertilize every two weeks. The lights are on a timer. They should turn themselves on and off.
Those lights throw off heat also, which I like because our house is normally too cool for herbs like basil.
And it is fairly quiet.
I also like that it is portable. When the Dear Wonderful Hubby and I are away from home, we can easily bundle the herb-filled aerogarden up and take it to Awesome Mom-In-Law’s house (i.e. Grandma’s House – grins).
And I like that she won’t have to water the plants often. Just fill up the reservoir every week or so.
Aerogarden suggests, aggressively, that we buy pricey replacement seed pods, which I do NOT like. But, thanks to the interwebs, I think I have figured out a less costly solution to that issue.
IF the Aerogarden works for us.
It is too early to know that.
But I am hopeful.
(smiles)
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Basement Seed Starting
(I’ve been using these single serve yogurt containers with holes in the bottom for over 5 years now and they are the perfect size for starting seeds. – smiles)
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I have started a gazillion seeds in the basement grow stations.
Woot! It is officially gardening season for us. This is always an exciting time.
Thus far, we’ve planted tomatoes (large and cherry), eggplant, mini bell peppers, lovage, good king henry, thyme (creeping and regular), marigolds, zinnias, peas, parsley, rosemary, basil, chives (garlic and regular), French sorrel, ground cherries, chard, spinach, lettuce, horseradish, watermelon and beets.
The regular thyme has already sprouted (We cold stratified it and it germinated in the fridge. That’s how aggressive these dollar store thyme seeds are.)!
We have some green in the grow station!
We also sourced some Jerusalem artichokes/sunchokes. They are currently wrapped in newspaper in a bag in the fridge. We’re waiting until pea transplanting time (i.e. when all the snow is gone and the ground is workable) to plant them outside.
Woot! It is GO TIME! Yes!
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Gardening Plans And Plants That Do Play Well With Others
In 2026, we’re expanding the raspberry bed. They are a perennial which makes them easier to grow, they don’t take much work, they reproduce aggressively, and I love these berries.
This expansion takes up the place where the potatoes were in 2025.
So we’re looking for another spot for the potatoes.
I was hoping to plant them under the triangular butternut squash support (which once was part of a baby crib) but I then did my research and potatoes and squash don’t play well together. They attract the same pests, they are both heavy feeders, and the squash tends to smother the potatoes.
Which means the search for a new potato spot continues!
While planning your garden, research which of your desired plants play together well…or not-so-well. This will greatly increase your success rate!
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Growing Ginger Inside And Other Experiments
This past winter, I attempted to grow ginger inside our home.
At first, it was growing very well. I was super excited. It appeared as though this experiment would be a success.
Then the weather turned cold.
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I keep our average home temperature at 16.5C/62F.
This, we discovered, is too cold for ginger. The plants decided the growing season was done and they…died.
Our growing ginger inside our home experiment failed.
And this is what gardening is – an experiment. We try something. It might have worked for other gardeners but our growing conditions are a little bit different and it might not work for us. Or it might work ever better!
We don’t know until we try it.
(smiles)
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