Day 185
UPDATE#14
Grower update
Update #14
Actions taken
TrainingAdded support to contain curly parsley that was invading neighbouring space.
Day 72: Curly Parsley is invading the other's space...so I corralled it!
GrowLog
SuccessfulLarge Mixed Herb Garden in Two AeroGarden Farm 24 Plus Units
Grow log by campingcorgis · Original thread
14 visual updates25 photos71 replies
View recapCrop🌿Basil, rosemary, parsley, cilantro, chives, dill, thyme, celery
VarietyLemon Basil, Lime Basil, Globe Basil, Marseille Basil, Red Rubin Basil, Napolitano Basil, Curly Parsley, Italian Parsley, Dwarf Lemon Cilantro, English Thyme, Fine Leaf Chives, Seasoning Celery
MethodAeroGarden
Equipmenttwo AeroGarden Farm 24 Plus units, AeroGarden Farm 24 Basic, food dehydrator, small seed funnel
Plants12
AudienceAdvanced
What you can learnA long mixed-herb diary with cultivar comparisons, repeated restarts, pruning, drying, equipment maintenance, plant moves, and an explicit end caused by limited care time.
Actions:4 Finished2 Nutrients2 Equipment2 Planting2 Pruning2 Training2 Solution
Useful practices
- using a funnel for tiny seeds
- thinning basil to one per pod
- first and repeated basil pruning
- restarting failed pods with new sponges and seeds
- supporting dill
- performing rinse-and-refill maintenance with root trimming
- removing and dehydrating herbs
- moving surviving herbs between Farm units
- corralling sprawling parsley
Problems encountered
- several parsley
- chive
- and thyme pods required restarting
- dill became unruly and root-bound
- some basil flavours were not preferred
- one parsley pod was mislabeled or produced flat leaf
- garden became difficult to manage when the grower had less time
*The days were calculated automatically and approximately.
Conversation
C
I ended these today. They are going nuts and getting away from me. Not their fault, just a lack of time to care for them, right now.
Day 125
UPDATE#13
Grower update
Update #13
Day 126: Nutes later today.
Conversation
S
What a beautiful herb garden, campingcorgis!
W
How lush and healthy everything looks!
S
Trim and so neat
C
Day 141: R&R, did some serious trimming on the Parsley too. A tad on the Chives, but I do them once every day or so, so they were not too bad. Funny, before this garden, I wasn't such a fan of Flat Leaf Parsley or Chives...but I truly appreciate the chives now and use them often too. The parsley works...at least until the Curly Leaf gets big enough to use instead!
S
I love having fresh chives at my hands. Fresh anything really
C
Day 168: Ended the Left-hand side of this garden, cleaned it, etc. That was all I had energy to do, by myself, after visiting with MIL to pay her bills and to update her on our lives. Sigh. Tomorrow is another day! For now, Day 55 for the right-hand side, I chopped the basil plant out and bagged the leaves for the freezer. Tomorrow, I'll need to do an R&R and get the bottom half of the basil out.
S
Yes today is another day
C
Day 56: Today, I found the energy to do the R&R for the Right-Hand side of the herb garden. Cut the roots out and removed the Emily Basil pod. I need to start a new basil plant soon! Along with new Chives and probably another Curly Parsley and another Rosemary too. In addition, I moved the one little Asparagus Pea seedling over to this garden, and realized that the day count is the same for both. If they AP grows to its full potential, I'll need to move it as this is a Farm Basic AG and won't have the height for it. But, it allowed me to empty one more Farm garden by consolidating these two.Tomorrow, I'll look for energy to do something with the Jalapeno and Lettuce gardens. I might just end both, but will likely need some help with the big Jalapenos. Still keeping the Pot-o-Penos and looking forward to watching them grow.
Day 112
UPDATE#12
Grower update
Update #12
Actions taken
SolutionCompleted another rinse-and-refill on the remaining herbs.
RootsTrimmed roots during the rinse-and-refill.
FinishedEnded one parsley plant that produced the wrong leaf type.
Day 112: Did an R&R today, trimmed roots, etc. I ended one of the Parsley plants that was supposed to be a Curley Parsley but turned out to be another flat leaf. Plan to start some more herbs soon.
Conversation
S
They are all looking trim and fit
Day 84
UPDATE#11
Grower update
Update #11
Actions taken
FinishedEnded many of the mature herb plants.
TransplantMoved rosemary, chives, and two parsley plants into the Farm Basic.
Day 84: Ended many, kept Rosemary, Chives and the 2 Parsley plants, but moved them to the Farm Basic.
Day 57
UPDATE#10
Grower update
Update #10
Actions taken
SolutionCompleted rinse-and-refill maintenance on both herb-garden sides.
RootsTrimmed roots during maintenance.
EquipmentCleaned the garden and tested pumps during maintenance.
NutrientsAdded fresh nutrients after refilling.
Day 56: Did the R&R for both sides of the herb gardens today. Cleaned, trimmed, added new nutes, tested pumps. Whew!Before:After:
Conversation
C
Oops...forgot to say, I ended Genovese Basil and it is in the dehydrator. I pulled Thyme, it never went anywhere.
S
Those are some beautiful, healthy roots, campingcorgis.
L
I'm quite envious of your parsley, Ginny! I can never get parsley to grow to a size to be useful. Right now I have a very brave but pathetic parsley plant going. (The Swiss Chard was started much, much later.)
C
Oh...you shouldn't be! I've grown some nice parsley...but this particular picture, the parsley is not the main event! The two large ones are Cilantro and Seasoning Celery. Both my Curly Parsley and Flat are much like yours...over to the right side of the picture and mostly obscured!
S
Sometimes mine gets big and bushy. Other times it struggles. I'm not sure why.But your chard looks great!
L
If my photos start disappearing, it is Photobucket's fault. As always seems to happen to me, the minute I start using a service again, it does upgrading that destroys all the stuff that I've already input. Photobucket is telling me today that my images were moved or deleted, and I'm really hoping that this is a temporary glitch.
C
Oh, dear!!! Not nice at all!
S
Yikes! I hope it is temporary!!!
L
They're baaaack! Apparently there was a problem with the Amazon web hosting that affected a lot of sites, including Photobucket and Flickr. I'm going to switch to Flickr for photohosting, but I couldn't even finish setting up my Flickr account. End of rant.
S
So glad it's back!
Day 52
UPDATE#9
Grower update
Update #9
Actions taken
FinishedRemoved the unruly dill from the garden.
HarvestDehydrated the dill and stored it as dried kitchen herb.
Removed the unruly dill, dehydrated and now have homegrown dried dill for the kitchen!
Conversation
S
Cool! I love seeing progression picture stories like that.
S
So much to start abnd by the thyme it dehydrates you do not have much left. BUT it is homegrown!
C
Day 53: Marseille is in the Excalibur!
L
The dill is exquisite! What do you do with it? Pickles?For some reason, I would never have thought of using my dehydrator for AG herbs. Now I will do that!
C
Dill is useful in lots of things. Particularly potatoes and veggies. Check out this thread. Or, do a search for Dill in the What's Cooking section. There's nothing like having your own little herb garden!
Day 28
UPDATE#8
Grower update
Update #8
Day 28 continued...BasilOther herbs
Conversation
S
Picture perfect gardens!
C
Day 33: Woo hoo! Flat Parsley has finally germinated! And, pretty much caught up with Curly too. Had to restart the English Thyme. My fault, not the seeds. Trying to thin the seedlings did irreparable damage. Sigh. Lesson learned: Always use the tweezers. Much more precise that way.
C
We are enjoying plenty of herbs, especially basil, these days. I'm trimming the dill back a lot, trying to encourage that center growth of the good stuff! Yesterday, we went to Walmart and I noticed that they have some AG stuff in stock. Unfortunately, none of it had any prices on it. They had some machines, Sprout and a Harvest Slim, I think. They also had a number of 6 Pod Seed Pod Kits. Petunia, tomatoes, lettuce and the Italian Herbs. I grabbed one of the Italian Herbs and got the price at the check out: $7.00. That one came home with me. Maybe I'll take another look at the kits, next time we shop at Walmart.
C
Day 37:I'm contemplating ending the Lemon & Lime Basil plants. I'll probably just be generous with them in salads and stuff, so that I can cut them back & then just remove them. They smell really good, but just don't seem much like basil to me. That said, there's plenty of basil in the garden, so it isn't a big sacrifice?
L
I'm overstocked on seed pod kits at present, but that's because I've been buying the smaller-than-nine-pod kits when AG has a 20% off sitewide sale.
C
Good thinking!
C
Lemon & Lime Basil are now in the freezer. Well, the leaves anyway. Since Marseilles was well behind the others, I was able to move that pod to the spot where the Lime Basil had been. A little more space all around now.
C
The Dill is out of control! I removed it from the garden. It was tricky. Had to cut the roots as I couldn't get them to come up with the pod and then removed them from the basin below. I've got the leaves of the dill in the Excalibur now. Pictures to come, showing the process. I've not dried dill before...fingers crossed! I'm thinking of cutting back on the basil, once the dill project is complete. I'll likely remove much of the Genovese and keep the cute little Globe going, along with Red Rubin. We'll see.
Day 23
UPDATE#7
Grower update
Update #7
Actions taken
TrainingAdded a support for the dill plant.
Day 24: Marseille is much improved & getting pretty!Rosemary is still there...just taking her sweet time. I gave Dill a prop to grab. Thyme is quick!
Conversation
S
I am interested in seeing what you think of the Marseilles taste. We thought it had a lemony undertone. I have a bunch listed in the Flavors of Basil thread. I actually need to update it with other varieties I have tried.
C
Thanks Shawn! That is an interesting thread, lots of good info. I'll let you know on taste tests too!
S
You or anyone call add to it with your assessments. There is also a pepper thread and may be a tomato. If not I should go to wach one and start one
C
Thanks & good to know!
C
Day 28: R&R's done today. Roots trimmed, decks cleaned, AG nutes and Disease Control added. I noted that Curley Parsley has germinated!
Day 19
UPDATE#6
Grower update
Update #6
Actions taken
PruningPerformed the first pruning on the ready basil plants.
I just noticed that all of the basils are (were) ready for pruning! Except Marseille and I think I'm going to leave Globe alone and just see how she grows. Anyway, first pruning done!
Conversation
S
They are looking great!
S
I have a question. There are no wrong answers.. but may I ask why you trim them after the 2nd set of true leaves instead of higher?
C
From the 2 videos in the 9th post on this thread. It is after the 3rd set of true leaves, taking the top 2 & leaving the first. The theory is that then the two little ones that are starting, side by side, in between the first set and 2nd set, will branch out to double up the production, because there's a dead-end between them. Or something like that, if memory serves. It is supposed to double or triple the production, as outlined in the videos.
S
Ahh ok. SO you are doing what I call the ball effect. Short and full.
C
I'm trying! It seems to work, but not quite the way it does in the video? I'm thinking that is more a matter of the kind of basil and not the technique. I'm hoping to find some new-to-me types of basil in this "International" kit to be new favorites!? It is all fun...and more of an "art" to me than a science, if you know what I mean? Today, I really need to end the Basil/Parsley garden from September, I think...but it is still doing so well! Arrrrggghhhh!
S
If you are looking for some nice tasting basil that are more "globe" growing I can recommend the following to you. Johnny's Piccolino Basil, Renee's Windowbox, Park's Minette and Drawf Greek Basil from Ohio Heirloom. I have grown all and never needed to trim. I would just cut florets from it.
C
Thanks so much!!! I might have some of those, but certainly not all. I think I just ordered from Johnny's...sigh.
C
I just checked, I have Renee's Windowbox and I have a Drwarf Greek Basil from Baker Creek. The others, I've put on my Xcel wish list.
C
Day 21: I gave up on the AG Parsley pods. Pulled the old AG sponges & washed the pods. Replaced with Park Seed sponges & 4 seeds of Park ProEasy for curly and 4 seeds of Burpee Plain or Single Italian for the other. Let's see how these do!?
S
My last attempt at parsley didn't germinate either. Looking forward to watching yours grow.
Day 18
UPDATE#5
Grower update
Update #5
Day 19: Basils are looking pretty good. 1 was struggling, but looking better today. Chives has final decided to come to life. Still no proof of life for either of the Parsley pods. Think I'll re-plant them soon.
Conversation
S
Looking good. Parsley is funny. Sometimes I do great and other times not so much. But I must grow some more.
Day 14
UPDATE#4
Grower update
Update #4
Actions taken
PlantingUsed a small funnel to place tiny seeds into a sponge.
Forgot to mention: I found an easier way to deal with the super tiny seeds. I use my smallest funnel, insert into center hole in sponge, dump a designated amount of seeds into a small container, then dump the container into the funnel, ta-da! Planted!
Conversation
S
Cool planting technique!
Day 14
UPDATE#3
Grower update
Update #3
Actions taken
NutrientsAdded nutrients to the mixed herbs.
EquipmentTested the Farm pumps during feeding.
PlantingAdded an English thyme pod.
FinishedRemoved the inactive chive pod and replaced its sponge and seeds.
PruningThinned nearly all basil pods to one plant each.
It was time for nutes and tested the pumps too. I added a pod of English Thyme (Renee's Garden) too. Chives hasn't done anything so I pulled it and changed the sponge using Fine Leaf Chives (Renee's Garden) this time. Neither Parsley has made an appearance, but it says they need 14-21 days to germinate. I'll give them another week and then see if they need to be switched out too. Additionally, I thinned all the basil, save 1, down to 1 per pod. You can really smell the lemon and lime overtones on those. Not sure how I feel about that. May need to use them in specific dishes? Basil:Others:
Day 9
UPDATE#2
Grower update
Update #2
Day 9: We got back from the beach yesterday and here's what we found!Basil:Even Rosemary is showing some green!
Conversation
S
Healthy little babies!
S
Agreed
Day 1
UPDATE#1
Grower update
Update #1
Day 1: Already there is action in all of the basil pods...and some of the other herbs too. Here's a shot of the one easiest to spy the little fish eyes...
Conversation
S
Awww. I need to plant some just for the scent. I actually like smelling basil better than eating it.