*This article contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. As always, all opinions are my own. I have not been paid for this review, nor am I working with AeroGarden in any capacity. I received this product as a Christmas gift from a family member.*
Long winters and a lot of houseplant failures have spurred me to do a little online window shopping for grow lights for some time now, but I hadn’t taken the plunge just yet. Lucky me though because one of my Christmas presents this year was an AeroGarden Harvest from AeroGarden which includes a 6 pack herb seed pod kit. I can’t even begin to describe how excited I was to get this present. I have been missing growing plants, especially veggies & herbs, since autumn. Sure, it can be a lot of work, but it’s just so fulfilling growing your own food & cooking with them. So, I got right to it & set-up the system last week. I figured it would be helpful to take you along this journey with me in case you’re interested in purchasing one yourself. I plan to make a series of reviews for AeroGarden Harvest as I use this grow light system, instead of waiting a few months & making one review post. I want all of you folks to be able to make an informed decision, instead of just reading about it at the end of the process, especially since this is a pricier item in regards to gardening.
So, what does this system include you ask? It contains grow lights, seed pods, a water reservoir, fertilizer & plastic domes. Basically, everything you need to grow your plants except the water. As I said, mine came with a 6 pack herb seed pod kit, which includes Genovese Basil, Thai Basil, Curly Parsley, Dill, Mint & Thyme. You can also buy a bunch of extra seed pod kits like veggie pods, flower pods & pods that you can fill with seeds of your choice.
The first thing that I noticed was how small the system is and how little space it takes up. I had originally planned on putting it on my kitchen table but decided to place it on a shelf in my family room instead. I like being able to see it & I have other plants in my family room that benefit from the grow lights. Yes, the lights are bright enough to reach pretty much all of my houseplants in that room! These lights are bright, I tell you what. Like, it lights up my family room so much that I don’t need to turn on any other lights, bright. The lights also stay on for 15 hours every day & they turn on & off automatically so it takes the guesswork out of light exposure for you.
The AeroGarden Harvest actually takes the guesswork out of everything for you. It tells you how much water it needs & how much fertilizer it needs. Also, the system includes a control panel that tells you when you need to add more fertilizer & water. The set up is a breeze, it’s certainly the easiest plant set up that I’ve ever performed. You fill the reservoir with water, add in the included fertilizer, top off with a little more water, drop your planting pods in their slots, cover the pods with plastic domes & turn on the system. It took me more time to take pictures of all the steps than it did to complete the said steps! After that, you just let it do its thing & you do your thing of obsessively checking it to see if you can find any sprouts. Just me? Ok.
My sprout watch 2020 did not last long & Genovese Basil popped up first a mere 4 days after planting! Thyme was the next to sprout, 7 days after planting, Mint sprouted in 8 days & Thai Basil joined the party in 10 days. So, as I’m writing this, in a little over a week more than half of the plants that I planted have already sprouted. Umm, excited! Genovese Basil, in particular, is really growing strong & fast. I expect that I’ll be harvesting it in a few days. Pesto, here I come! I excitedly await the arrival of my other three herbs.
So, as you can see, I have nothing but positive things to say about my AeroGarden Harvest. Like, sing it from the top of a hill positive. It’s super easy to set-up, I haven’t had to add in any extra water since the initial watering so I haven’t performed any maintenance yet & it works. The plants are a growing & they are a growing fast! So far, I couldn’t ask for an easier grow light system. I had looked at all sorts of grow lights previously, from inexpensive single lights to pricey grow light shelf systems. Even though this is my first foray into grow lights & I’ve only been using this system for over a week, I feel like this is the perfect midrange grow lights for indoor gardening. It’s especially great for people who are brand new to gardening, because like I said, it takes out all of the guesswork. The system actually tells you what to do & when to do it, so it’s black thumb proof. All of a plant’s needs are taken care of for you, the light, water & food. It just doesn’t get any easier.
My first impressions of the AeroGarden Harvest? It’s worth every penny. Go out & buy it if you have that same winter itch that I have to grow some pretties. Still not sure? Check back, I’ll have more reviews of this grow light system as time goes by. Also, check out my Instagram. I made a highlight section for my AeroGarden Harvest indoor herb garden. It consists of mostly boomerang videos of the set-up & progress of my garden. That’s the best place to find up-to-date videos/pictures on how my grow light system is doing. It’s also a good place to keep up on my gardening adventures in general, as is my Twitter. I post daily on both platforms. Until then, you know what I’ll be doing, obsessively checking to see if there are any new sprouts!
As promised above, I wrote a 1 month update, check it out & read to about my experience.
The Plantiful Gardener 