I'm All Hydroponic Up In Heah

It's spring planting season, people!  When I was a kid, my mother would take my sisters and me to the nursery to pick out seedlings for us to plant in our little squares of designated garden space.  I still love, love, love the smell of a greenhouse in spring -- the smell of rich, damp soil and flowers.  When Dan and I were at the nursery picking out seeds recently, I was like, sniffsniffahhhhhhh.  Am I the only one?

After drooling over a friend's Aerogarden at our weekly gaming sessions, I finally splurged on one for myself.  Actually, I splurged on two for myself.  Dan and I were discussing what to buy, and the purchase just kept getting bigger and bigger with more and more items.  The logic was something like, if one Aerogarden's cost is justified, two are also, right?  Right.  Or something.  I'm hoping growing herbs and veggies in the Aerogarden will keep me from having to tend to the sad, dying herb pots I buy at the store regularly.  At any rate, we now have two large Aerogardens, each which came with plants to grow, plus seed starter kits, plus a ton of other seed kits, plus other miscellaneous supplies.  We went a little nuts.  We have enough stuff to grow 3 or 4 years of plants.  We may not ever have to buy veggies at the store ever again.

For those who don't know, the Aerogarden is basically just a hydroponic garden for your countertop.  It's sortof like a very fancy planter.  It grows plants with minimal effort on your part since it waters, feeds and lights the plants.  They sell seed kits with pre-planted seed pods, but you can also buy your own seeds to grow in the garden, or you can use the garden to start seedlings to transplant to either a planter or into the ground.

I am using one of my Aerogardens to start seedlings for a summer garden.  I have tomatillos, peas, japanese eggplant, yellow and green zucchini, and two kinds of hot peppers starting seedlings right now.  I haven't decided if they will go into planters or into the ground yet.  Those will be ready for transplant in a couple of weeks and then I'll grow something else in that Aerogarden.

In my second Aerogarden, I have a mix of herbs and salad greens which will grow their entire time in the Aerogarden.  The instructions say not to mix types (herbs/lettuce) but I'm being a big ol' rebel and giving it a shot.  Such rebellion.  You can't keep me down!  Rawrr.

I'll report on my Aerogarden plants more as they grow.  I have a notoriously black thumb, so I'm hoping the Aerogarden is the missing link to me having successful plants.  Wish me luck!

Happy eating gardening!