I hate to say it, but for all of it’s wonderful attributes, the Aerogarden has one seed kit I don’t like. The flaw I speak of is their salad greens kit
In the beginning, it wasn’t too bad. The seeds sprouted into small lettuce plants in only 2-3 days. I was harvesting a leaf or two of delicious lettuce a day within the first 2 weeks. But then about 4 weeks in, we had an over-abundance of lettuce.
Now I like lettuce as much as the next guy, but let’s face it. It’s not the most exciting food in the world. But having more of it than we’d eat is ok, because the kids have pet turtles who love a leaf or two every couple of days.
What bothered me the most, though is the mess.
Click for a larger image
The lettuce plants began winding their way around the base of the Aerogarden. They combated for space with the hidden plants underneath, dying off, wilting, rotting, or otherwise dying. When a big lettuce leaf falls off where you can’t see it, it dries out. Then it breaks apart into little crumbs (and in my case) falls onto the desk or the floor underneath the desk.
It was getting everywhere. I felt like I was cleaning up lettuce niblets all the time. The herb kit wasn’t anywhere near this messy.
So, I think for me, the lettuce kit is out unless I combine it with something else. I could always throw one or two plants in with herbs or something. But the lettuce tends to get so big, it will choke off smaller plants.
This time, I’ve modded some strawberry plants and have the Aerogarden growing strawberry plants. If it works as well as it seems to be so far, I’ll post a DIY on how to do strawberries in your Aerogarden.
