The Winner Is………

This project was so great. I found out that sometimes it s good to try new ways that are not so traditional. I would never have thought to grow plants with water only. It is good to try new things. The best things do not always come from within the box. Thinking outside of the box has given me a lot of insight. The kids have gotten more involved in the cooking and taking care of the plants. This in return gives a chance to talk more. I enjoy my time I get to have them trying to cook with them. This project has shown me that I can show and teach them things that are more natural and they are interested. The kids never really took an interest in cooking before. Since they can pick and do things they have really gotten into it.

My family is really enjoying the AeroGraden. We are going to invest in two more. One for strawberries and another for mixed green salad. Even though they are a little costly I think that the food, closeness, and heath of my family justify the cost. With all that I plucked off the plants they have recovered nicely. I have used the almost every night.

Many wanted to know the final outcome of the taste test. While so many said it was too close to call. All but 5 people picked the AeroGarden. I thought that the dirt one tasty more earthy. I know that may not make much sense. We eat lots of herbs and there is defiantly a taste difference. I do not think one taste better than the other just different. So since I am not going to be keeping the potted I have divided them up and given them to other people to have and grow. I did not want them to go to waste.

I am hoping everyone got something out of this. I have included pictures from this morning.

Moving Day?

The Plant eater!

Well another week down. My kids have really gotten into the herb garden. They want to grow other stuff now. They are taking turns watering. I did catch my daughter pulling the dill and nibbling it. I had to tell her that if she kept that up then we would not have any to eat we have to wait for it to grow. It has been a little tough we have had to still buy fresh until this is ready to use. It feels like such a waste. The plants are slowly growing. So this week I am going to the next phase. One of the biggest issues being military is the moving. The potted plants never make it through the moves and I always have to start over. With the Aerogarden since there is no dirt they should survive the move. So the kids and I took the plants out and wrapped the plants in damp paper towels and the put each plant into a Ziploc and then used a hand pump to put air into the bags. I then packed them into a box. The kids are having a blast, tossing the box around and abusing the poor plants to see what they could do to them. I let them really shake the boxes up and toss them around. Since I am not sure how much movers jostle things. I figure whatever the kids do to them it would be worse. I have left them in the box for a week, and finally unpacked them. Despite all the kids did to them, they held up well. We took them back out and reset up the garden. I filled the tank with the water we stored so not to waste it. The plants were just beginning to wilt some but were intact. They are once again thriving and growing well. This time I have included pictures. I have to say that even though the Aerogarden cost me more up front it is defiantly military moving friendly.

Troubles on the growing front.

So far my garden growing has not gone well. First my potted plants I thought were not going to make it. Our family cat thought he would put his paw into helping us. My cat was constantly digging in my plants and knocking them over. I have restarted those several times. First I tried putting them into a cage to keep the cat out. Unfortunately there were several problems with this. One was the fact that it was not very space friendly. It had to sit on my dining room table in order to fit. Next was the fact that but where it sat it was not getting enough light and some of my plants were not thriving well. I constantly had to rotate them. I decided there had to be a better way in order for this to work. I went to my local pet store and talked to them about my cat problem. They sold me a pet organic product called no mark. It was 7.99 for a bottle of it. The ingredients are feline pheromones 10%, garlic extract 2%, clove extract 2%, sodium laurel sulfate 7%. Inert Ingredients: Purified water 79%. So I have sprayed on the containers. It is supposed to be ok for plants but I was not fully certain so I figure the container instead of the plants themselves. This has fixed my cat problem now and my plants are thriving.

The second problem I ran into was with my AeroGarden. The house I am living in was blowing its fuse and housing, the neighbors, and I were having a hard time figuring out what was causing it. We finally figured out It was apparently the AeroGarden blowing the fuse in the house which triggered the rest of them. I figure after this I would not be able to continue with this project. Luckily though the housing people came in and rewired me a line in the house, and will slowly be working on the wiring in the house since it was having a hard time handling such a small item. Now I can use my AeroGarden and not have to worry about knocking out everyone’s power.
With such setbacks I was seriously looking to go back to the store bought herbs. Then I remembered this last week talking about the local gardens. I really want to have something my family can enjoy. Something I know that is fresh and know what was used on it to help it grow. To know that is fully organic.

Here is the link for the AeroGarden that I forgot last time: http://www.growyearround.com/

The cost of herbs

Sorry my post is late being posted. The reason for it being late is actually due to my project. For my project I am doing an indoor garden. My indoor garden has two parts. I have invested in an AeroGarden, and the second is potted plants. I want to compare the cost of both and find a system that would be beneficial and reliable to my family. I also want to compare the taste of the two. Finally I want to see which took more work to maintain and make work overall.

My family and I cook a lot and I prefer fresh herbs to store bought herbs. One problem that we face with having a fresh garden is that we are in the military, and move around a lot. So now we buy them from the store. The herbs often come in little plastic containers (that are not recyclable), and often mold within a week. We are constantly throwing away containers and food. I have been tracking my how much herbs and containers I have bought since the February. I have spent $237.34 on herbs and have thrown away 64 containers/ bags in 3 months. To me that is a lot of waste and money.

A friend of mine saw an ad for the AeroGarden and suggested I look into it. After some research I have learned several things about the AeroGarden. The AeroGarden works on aeroponics. Let me explain what aeroponics is.

Aeroponics is a dirt-free growing method where plant roots are suspended in air within a 100% humidity, highly-oxygenated growing chamber. Because the roots are bathed with ideal levels of nutrients, water and oxygen, plants grow significantly faster, are healthier and have a higher nutrient content than plants grown in soil.

There was several things I worried about with the AeroGarden. The first thing I worried about was how much energy it would use. I found that is uses less energy than a 60 watt light bulb. Which I did not think it was bad. The other thing I worried about was the tablets it uses. The plants require tablets that feed them. The nutrient tablets are organic, according to current AAPFCO (American Association of Plant Food Control Officials) standards. The last thing I worried about was the cost of the machine. An AeroGarden costs anywhere from 129.00 to 160.00; which comes with everything that you need to start.

After calculating the cost of what I spent on herbs to the cost of the machine I was looking at I decided it was cheaper than what I was doing and it would be a fresh supply of herbs.
I am growing the same herbs in the potted plants as in the AeroGarden.

I ordered the AeroGarden and got it within a week. Being military though I only paid 129.00 for it. For anyone else you will be looking at about 149.00 for the shipping and tax added to it. I then went to Wal-Mart and bought the seeds, planters, and potting soil with nutrients for my potted plants part. The Potted plants cost me $36.87. So of the bat I am out more money for the AeroGarden than the potted plants.

Sorry that it was long. There was a lot to talk about… I will continue in the problems that have already happened in my indoor garden in my next blog.