(Check out Week 0 for tips on planting and a list of suggested supplies and suppliers.)

The vegetable garden is definitely low on nutrients, hence the yellow leaves. I think my nutrients are too old – they’ve gotten a bit sticky and wet in the humidity. I’ve kept them in an airtight container for the past few months but apparently it was too late. Hopefully they will grow okay – if not I will replant them; not a big deal. Things grow so fast in the Aerogarden!

The herb garden looks better. The cilantro will hopefully germinate this week. The new dill has come up, the basil has definitely sprouted, but still no sign of the mitsuba. If they don’t come up in a few days I will order more seeds. Everything else is coming along nicely.

The garden starter tray is definitely doing well. One or two plants have been strangled because of all of the growth (lol) but I can’t plant them outside until next week. The new lemon cucumbers are definitely doing fine, and the cantaloupe is still going slow. I think most of them will be okay, though. I will plant some new seeds along with the seedlings anyway and that should prolong the harvest.

My vegetable garden, with baby cucumbers (back left), eggplant (back right), and marble peppers (center):

My herb garden, with cilantro, dill, sweet basil, par-cel, chrysanthemum, mitsuba, and Italian parsley:

My garden starter tray, two columns each cantaloupe, butternut, pumpkin, spaghetti squash, zucchini, lemon cucumber:

(Check out Week 0 for tips on planting and a list of suggested supplies and suppliers.)

The vegetable garden looks like it is low on nutrients, but they aren’t due for food until next week. I’ll see if they perk up. The baby cucumber is still slow. I cut the eggplant and marble peppers down to one plant each before taking the pictures. (Thin them with scissors, don’t pull them, or you can damage the roots on the plant you’re keeping!)

In the herb garden, I replanted the cilantro, basil, and mitsuba, as well as tossing a couple more dill seeds in. Cilantro is HARD to germinate – I’ve had trouble even with the seed kits from Aerogrow. I didn’t file the seeds this time, I just bought some new seeds to put in. I bought new basil seeds (the others were just too old) and the mitsuba seeds should have still been viable, but perhaps not. Some seeds just don’t last an extra season, I guess. I don’t have more so I tried replanting the old ones. They had rotted so I hope I had just planted them too deep.

In the starter tray, most everything is growing well – and fast! I replaced a couple of pods in the middle that hadn’t germinated. I bought new lemon cucumber seeds and replanted them (the others were five years old, no wonder!) and also replanted half of the cantaloupes with a new variety. The seeds were brand new and fine; I had planted them upside-down so they couldn’t get their roots into the right place!

My vegetable garden, with baby cucumbers (back left), eggplant (back right), and marble peppers (center):

My herb garden, with cilantro, dill, sweet basil, par-cel, chrysanthemum, mitsuba, and Italian parsley:

My garden starter tray, two columns each cantaloupe, butternut, pumpkin, spaghetti squash, zucchini, lemon cucumber:

(Check out Week 0 for tips on planting and a list of suggested supplies and suppliers.)

Quite a bit of new seedlings coming up this week! The baby cucumber is a slow start compared to the eggplant. It looks like I may have some issues with three of the herb garden seeds, as well as some of the cantaloupes in the garden starter tray. I think the lemon cucumber seeds were just too old. I’ll re-evaluate next week (some seeds can take 21 days to germinate) and then replant what didn’t come up. That gives me the week to go get some new seeds!

My vegetable garden, with baby cucumbers (back left), eggplant (back right), and marble peppers (center):

My herb garden, with cilantro, dill, sweet basil, par-cel, chrysanthemum, mitsuba, and Italian parsley:

My garden starter tray, two columns each cantaloupe, butternut, pumpkin, spaghetti squash, zucchini, lemon cucumber:

(Check out Week 0 for tips on planting and a list of suggested supplies and suppliers.)

There still isn’t much to see yet. Only the seedlings needed watering – some of them shot up fast! And I don’t feed them for another week.

My vegetable garden, with baby cucumbers (back left), eggplant (back right), and marble peppers (center):

My herb garden, with cilantro, dill, sweet basil, par-cel, chrysanthemum, mitsuba, and Italian parsley:

My garden starter tray, two columns each cantaloupe, butternut, pumpkin, spaghetti squash, zucchini, cucumber:

Although it is perfectly fine to plant my starter tray seeds right into the ground in a couple of weeks, I’m still happy for the head start I will get on most of them, and it will show me if some of my older seeds aren’t viable in time to get new ones for planting. I’m not so sure the cantaloupe and lemon cucumber are going to make it.

I started using the Aerogarden when the company first came into being. I love them so much that I buy something new every couple of years, and now have three Aerogardens that enable me to always have something fresh from the garden all year long. When I got my first Aerogarden, there was nothing available on the web about experiences people were having with them. I was especially interested in others’ ideas when the Master Gardener Kitcame out, where you can use your own seeds. I’ve never had much of a green thumb, but have had great results using the Aerogarden, and with the garden starter tray I even tried my hand at a vegetable garden. This will document the progress of an AeroGarden Extra Elitewith larger vegetable plants, an AeroGarden Classicwith herbs, and a garden starter tray with easy-to-grow vegetables.

The first thing to do with any project is to set out all of the supplies you will need. In cooking this is to be sure you have all of the ingredients required; I’ve found this to be equally as important in any other activity.

Here I have my three Aerogardens (one is off to the side that will house the garden starter tray), the plastic baskets, domes, and grow sponges (available in the Master Gardener kit) placed to be sure I have the correct amount, plant spacers that came in a tomato kit from Aerogrow, the garden starter tray, grow nutrients, and seeds.  Not pictured I have also prepared planning sheets for all three gardens, a sheet pan with water to rehydrate the pods in the garden starter tray, an emery board to file the cilantro seeds (it helps with germination), and needle-nose pliers to deepen the starter tray grow pods for larger seeds.  I ended up missing the little iron-on circles to place over the grow sponges; this helps curb algae growth.  I needed to get these planted, so I went ahead without them; I will be sure to order a supply to have for the next planting.

FOR BEGINNERS:  I would suggest purchasing a seed kit already prepared by Aerogrow.  The herbs seem to be the easiest to grow and best to start with.  I’d suggest the tomatoes or salsa kit as a second planting to get some experience in the higher-maintenance plants.  In order to make things easier when you are ready to plant on your own, SAVE THE DOMES, PLASTIC BASKETS, AND SPACERS that came with your seeds once you clean out your garden.  It is fairly easy to pull the old plants out of the baskets and save them for future use.  In fact, I like these better than the two-piece baskets that come with the Master Gardener kit.  I found a source for the grow sponges here.  Another important note:  SAVE SOME SEEDS from your mature tomatoes and/or peppers from the Aerogarden kit.  (I’ll explain how to do this in a future post.)  Trust me; it is easier to use what they have already developed for the Aerogarden than trying to find plants that are of appropriate size!  You’ll see more of what I mean as you watch my Elite garden grow – my cucumber plant isn’t exactly perfect for the garden, but I’m experimenting.  Finally, before planting your own seeds, you will want to read through the instruction manuals that came with your herbs and tomato kits, as well as the Master Gardener manual, which is available online if you have not purchased the kit previously.  As I mentioned before, I consider it more cost effective to save the baskets from the pre-planted kits, and purchase grow sponges, circles, and nutrients seperately.

On with the preparation! Next I laid out my seed packets by each garden, deciding what I wanted to grow.  I then placed them according to height, placing the taller plants in the back, and arranged them how I thought they would look and grow best.  (For the starter tray I placed the faster germinating seeds in the center.)  I then filled out a planning sheet for each garden, complete with germination time and days to harvest.  After the planning was done, I planted the seeds inside the grow sponges.  This is usually done with some non-toxic school glue to stick them to the sponges, but since I did not have the iron-on circles for the tops, I tried it without, mainly because I couldn’t find my glue.  The glue definitely makes it much easier!   Then I prepared the garden starter tray by deepening the hole in the pods with some needle-nose pliers (tweezers will work, too).  I had quite a job, since ALL of the seeds for my garden this year are quite large!  I also had a toddler helping me, which made things a little bit harder, but ultimately more interesting!

Here are the prepared gardens:

I then placed starter nutrients in my vegetable and herb gardens. No nutrients go into the starter tray the first week; the pods already have food inside them. I filled them all with water before placing them into the shelves; you may experiment to find what is easiest for you. I’m a little too short to water my top garden without just spilling it all over the place!

In the interest of completeness, although there isn’t much to see, here are the freshly planted gardens.

My vegetable garden, with baby cucumbers (back left), eggplant (back right), and marble peppers (center):

My herb garden, with cilantro, dill, sweet basil, par-cel, chrysanthemum, mitsuba, and Italian parsley:

My garden starter tray, two columns each cantaloupe, butternut, pumpkin, spaghetti squash, zucchini, cucumber:

And here they are in my shelf:

If you have been motivated to start your own Aerogarden, please let me know. I would love to follow your progress, and answer any questions you may have! In addition, please take advantage of the wonderful customer service over at Aerogrow. They have always been very helpful in providing insights to help things along.

Look for a weekly update each Friday to see how the garden fares!

Here is a complete list of supplies you will need for starting your own Aerogardens. (Mouse over for links.)

Vegetable Gardening

AeroGarden Extra Elite (Tall AeroGarden)
Vegetable Starter Kit (Salsa Garden Seed Kit (7-Pod)or Cherry Tomato Seed Kit (7-Pod) or one is included with the Aerogarden Extra)
Trellis Coil 4-Pack (Only two coils come with the Aerogarden Extra)

Herb Gardening

AeroGarden PRO100 (or any of the Aerogardens)
Any Herb Starter Kit (Gourmet Herb Seed Kit (7-Pod) or one is included with a regular Aerogarden)

Seed Starting

Any regular Aerogarden: Free Garden Starter Tray With Purchase of an AeroGrarden 6 or 7
Garden Starter Tray (order early!  I mean, REALLY early, like for next year.) OR
Garden Starter Tray Refill Pack (The tray itself is reusable)
Seeds (you get to pick whatever you want to grow outside!)

Instead of Aerogarden seed kits

Your own seeds, and the following:
Master Gardener Deluxe 3-Season Kit (7-Pod)
- OR -
Domes, baskets, and spacers you have saved from previous Aerogarden seed kits
Extended Season Nutrients (for Vegetables) or Extended Season Nutrients (for Herbs)
Aeroponic Garden Compatible Foam Inserts
Non-toxic glue

Other recommended items

3-Shelf Wall Garden
Herb Appeal Collection
Norpro Triple Herb Scissors
Grow Bulbs if yours are over a year old