I’ve hopped on the health train over the past six months, and have been trying to integrate more fruits and vegetables into my diet. This all came about after I watched the Food Inc. documentary (available from Netflix and Amazon’s streaming services) and reflected on what I eat. The Food Inc. documentary really shed some light on how the food production system works, and it made me realize that I needed to make more of an effort to grow some of my own food. When you grow your own food you know where it came from, and you have total control over how organic you want your food to be.
So this summer I started my first outdoor garden using a few sub irrigated Earthboxes. I grew some amazing tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and a number of herbs that were used in all kinds of dishes (if you cook and haven’t use allrecipes.com, you are totally missing out!). But as the cold weather starts to move in I wanted to continue my growing season indoors. After doing tons and tons of research on indoor gardening, I kept being directed to the Aerogarden product line. So I took the plunge and ordered an Aerogarden Extra to see what the hype was all about.
So you may be asking yourself what the heck is an Aerogarden? These amazing little devices are indoor hydroponic systems that can be used to grow vegetables, flowers, herbs or just about anything that would thrive in an indoor hyproponic system. We are currently growing lettuce in our Aerogarden, and as you can see we are getting some awesome results (this is what things look like 3-days after a large lettuce harvest):
I’ve been able to harvest salad greens from my Aerogarden extra every third day, and they have become a staple on our dinner menu. The Aerogarden couldn’t be easier to operate, since you only need to follow a few steps to grow your crop of choice:
- Purchase a seed kit and follow the instructions to plant it.
- Add water when the water light comes on.
- Add liquid nutrients when the nutrient light comes on.
- Harvest your produce as needed.
I was so pleased with my first garden that I decided to order a second Aerogarden Extra this week. I am planning to try out their mega cherry seed kit this winter, and can’t wait to pick vine ripe tomatoes in January! It’s amazing what fresh greens taste like, especially ones that you pick and plop right down on your dinner plate. I will keep updating my blog as I continue to experiment with my Aerogardens. This thing is an amazing amount of fun, and I had to share my excitement with my fellow geeks. :)