Trying to.

As it turns out, my inability to commit to regular watering, weeding, etc is not the only reason I do better with an Aerogarden. Such that once I’ve harvested some of my dill I think I’m going to reconvert the one unit back to growing microgreens… until the seeds that came with the kit are used up at least. At least I was eating them when using that kit, but now I’m puzzled as to what I should even be harvesting.

I have a bunch of stuff planted outdoors and quite frankly, no idea if what’s growing is what I want or grass and weeds.

One whole row that is mostly an assortment from the Microgreens kit (the “superfoods” one which, according to my bag of seeds contains broccoli, kohlrabi, arugula, chinese cabbage, red cabbage, and russian kale) but the only thing I can pick out via google searches is the arugula (those white flowers).

But as for the other rows? Maybe I’ve got some lavender growing by one of the sticks I’ve got marking where I planted everything, but I see no evidence of any other lavender, my chamomile, my spinach, or my garlicy chives. Plus there’s the lack of any real knowledge as to what grows well next to what: I gave the lavender and chamomile plenty of space due to not knowing how big they’d get but there’s also any individual plant’s impact on soil quality and how much the water needs to drain.

Not to mention no idea if the brown plants have gone woody from lack of attention or if I’m still waiting for them to be ready to harvest…. 😅

In contrast, we have my dill

(The left most plant is a mammoth dill, I don’t remember what breed I planted in the right-hand unit. I kept them in separate units because I’ve had taller plants kill shorter ones before from blocking out the light but never got around to replanting my spinach in either unit. The right-hand unit is the one that would be converted to grow microgreens–a simple folded paper towel is sufficient for a growing medium, no need to buy more felt–until those seeds are gone.)

I’ve tried growing multiple things in these units including whatever comes prepackaged in the kits and using the “grow anything” pods, and dill seems to be the thing that grows the best of anything I’ve attempted. It pairs quite well with salmon, including in the quiches I occasionally remember to meal prep for work days, but I can’t see myself using that much before it goes bad… so I’m going to buy some garlic and try making pesto out of it soon. Though scrambled eggs don’t take long to make so I don’t really need freezable pre-prepped options….

Next year I think I’ll try to get my hands on seeds for heirloom tomatoes and experiment with the impact different breeds have on my acid reflux. Those, along with repeat attempts at the chamomile and lavender (both for migraine relief and the chamomile also seems to help with the reflux), will go outside… at least if I limit my plants to things I recognize I’ll hopefully know what to harvest and when.