March 12, 2006 The advantages of having a garden close at hand are numerous – salads are tastiest when fresh ingredients are used, and any chef will tell you that freshly picked herbs add something extra to any preparation. Which makes the AeroGarden particularly relevant to the millions of people who live in a city apartment and don’t have access to a garden plot. Billed as the world's first kitchen garden appliance, the AeroGarden allows anyone to conveniently and affordably grow herbs, lettuce, tomatoes and more, all year-round, on their kitchen countertop, without dirt, bugs, weeding or mess. The AeroGarden uses NASA-proven, high-yield aeroponic technology and built-in grow lights to create a self-watering, self-feeding, fully automated indoor garden that grows plants faster and healthier than plants grown in soil.
Aeroponics, which directly translates as "air working," is a high-tech improvement over hydroponics, where roots are suspended in air instead of in soil or water. AeroGrow International is the first company to convert this high-yield agri-technology into a low-cost, easy-to-use consumer product.
AeroGrow International worked with leading plant scientists and the world's leading hydroponic, aeroponic and nutrient experts for more than three years to develop a high-yield, attractive, countertop garden simple enough for consumer use. The AeroGarden is easy to set up in under 10 minutes, germinates seeds in less than 24 hours, and grows from "seed to salad" in as little as two and a half weeks. The "plug and grow" bio-dome seed pods are dropped into the system, water and time-release nutrient tablets are added, and the fully automated "smart" garden automatically adjusts the integrated grow lights and nutrient delivery cycles to maximize plant growth and health.
"I wanted to create a kitchen garden that anyone could use to easily grow and harvest fresh vegetables at their peak of nutrition and flavor," said inventor Michael Bissonnette, who founded AeroGrow in 2002.
The AeroGarden includes a wide variety of seed kits that were selected for maximum flavor and growth to produce a full season of fresh, delicious produce. Each kit includes proprietary time-release, organic-based nutrient tablets to ensure successful germination and harvesting. Current kits include: Gourmet Herb, Salad Greens, Cherry Tomato, International Basil, Chili Pepper, and cascading Petunias.
The AeroGarden and seed kits are available online at for US$150 and US$20 respectively.
