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:
We did some seed tests in various potting and seed starting mixes for both vegetables and flowers. The most interesting findings we had were that to grow seeds in containers outdoors, it is best not to use Miracle-Gro seed starting mix. Both seed starting mixes were more expensive than outdoor potting mixes. They do contain wetting agents each to retain moisture.
Above image: Miracle-Gro seed starting mix, top has thin layer of moss growing after a few weeks
Above image: Jiffy seed starting mix - plants are growing ok but not quickly, better than Miracle-Gro seed starting mix
Above image: Miracle-Gro potting soil in a regular big bag was the best
Overall, small bags of indoor seed starting mixes with a wetting agent are best to use indoors. Regular big bags of potting soil can be used to start seeds in trays or pots outside if they have nutrients, are well drained, and are sterile. It is also important to use the right brand of potting soil. We find it helpful to see a sample of the soil before buying. OSH (Orchard Supply Hardware) shows samples in clear plastic containers in the soil section, which we appreciate.
From our extensive experience, it takes some time to figure out what, when, and how to grow vegetable seeds in the home garden. Often seeds need other conditions, soil, or timing.
For us, one in ten kinds of seeds works out great in our garden. Considering seeds usually cost $1-3 per packet, it will be worth finding out which work best.
It is very helpful to talk to neighbors to find out what has and hasn’t worked from them. It is also very useful to know what worked for people they know in the area.
If there are gardening books to buy about your area, or to check out from the library, it can be very useful reading up. Over recent decades there are likely gardeners who want to help and share their knowledge.
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.
Southern Giant Curled Long Standing Mustard is a vegetable we’ve test grown in recent months with great success in San Francisco, CA. If it can grow here, with our intermittent fog, it can probably grow for you. As with most vegetables, Southern Giant Curled Long Standing Mustard likes a lot of sun. It can tolerate up to a half day of shade. It is fairly pest and disease resistant. We believe this is due to the rough texture of the leaves, and of course the breeding. This vegetable can have leaves cut consistently and keep producing. Because this is a leafy vegetable, it can be grown for quite a bit of the year in most climates. As with most vegetables, it likes rich aerated soil, not to dry out for too long before next watering, and good air movement. When cooking this vegetable a few ideas are steaming it, cooking it in olive oil until it turns dark green, or including it in a dish. It seems to us to be most similar to Kale due to the texture and flavor of the leaves.
