The AeroGarden is an original portable garden which includes everything needed to grow herbs, flowers, and vegetables all year indoors with ease. No pesticides are needed and it requires no soil or green thumb. The AeroGarden leverages cutting edge aeroponic technology to grow plants in air and water. It includes grow lights, pods, a microprocessor, and more. Plants can even be transplanted outdoors after growing!
See an example of plant growth in this video, and three AeroGardens we recommend at the bottom of this post:
There are many varieties of lettuce seeds available to purchase. The reason for this is that lettuce and salad greens are generally quick growing, cool season growers, and tasty. Often warm weather can make lettuce not taste as good and bolt (go to seed).
Lettuce seeds can be planted indoors or outdoors, in trays or in beds. Seeds should be planted less than 1/4 inch deep in the soil. They should be planted in a rich, well drained mix. Lettuce seeds shouldn’t dry out. Lettuce can be harvested in weeks when plants are small, or in a month or two when leaves are larger. Some varieties of lettuce will keep producing leaves.
These Zucchini plants in the photo below were planted from seed in a tray a month and a half ago. After they got to be a few inches in height last week, we planted them in the garden. As you can see in the photo below, the outer leaves aren’t the healthiest. The inner, new leaves are darker green, growing out at the same time as new roots develop.
A few tips:
1. Plants will need the roots moist daily for about 2 weeks, or when they have started getting established.
2. Seedlings no longer need potting mix when being planted out in the garden. They need a rich mix with compost that drains well enough.
3. To not feel like you’re waiting forever for vegetables to be ready, keep planting more seeds in trays. We keep planting a mix of all varieties so we will have options to choose from.
The photo below is a great example from our garden showing French Radishes and Scarlet Carrots. As you can see, the radishes were planted more densely.
What is interesting here is not just that they are both fast growers, being roughly the same size plants now. What is interesting is that the radishes will need to be thinned while the carrots will not. When radishes are planted too close, they won’t fully develop. When carrots are planted closely, they will fully develop.
When ready to harvest, leaves of all these will look good. But radishes planted too close will not have an edible size plant while the carrots will. In fact, if some carrots are planted too closely, we have seen them even wrap around each other!
In the photo below, the carrots are on the left and the radishes on the right. In the middle, we have planted more seeds recently, and covered them with chicken wire to keep birds and various animals out.
Growing radishes in the garden can be quite satisfying. Seeds germinate in days and plants are ready in about a month to eat, no more than two months. The large benefit of growing radishes is that they grow quickly. The drawback is that if they are planted too close, they won’t develop well and are too skinny to eat. Snails and other bugs can eat radishes, but their leaves are fairly pest resistant. Radish seeds are pretty cheap, but I would recommend buying a larger packet since radishes are only harvested once. Radishes, if you let them go to seed, can sprout. Radishes like a good amount of sun. They can be planted in pots or in the ground.
These radishes were just picked after being grown in a container
