After 14 weeks of growing herbs in my first AeroGarden Sprout LED, I had to start a second large freezer bag to store all of my herbs. To be completely honest, part of that is due to the large mint and Thai basil harvests from my Farm Plus. Either way, that is still a lot of herbs in just over three months (planted November 29, 2018).
Today’s maintenance involved trimming the roots of the basil, again, because they had regrown to a monsterous size, adding a cap-full of nutrients and refilling the reservoir, harvesting and lowering the lights. Once again, even with the added maintenance, this took less that five minutes. This is after I had to do an early harvest on March 4 because the basil had reached the lights.
Before we jump into the last two week’s of maintenance, a note about a change to the posting schedule:
With the launch of this blog’s Patreon comes the perks of Patrons receiving posts before they go up on the site. As a result, the AeroGarden posts will go up according to the new schedule:
- AeroGarden Sprout LED Garden 1:
- On Patreon every other Thursday.
- On this site every other Friday.
- AeroGarden Sprout LED Garden 2:
- On Patreon every other Monday.
- On this site every other Tuesday.
- AeroGarden Farm Plus Garden 3:
- On Patreon every Thursday.
- On this site every Friday.
Maintenance days remain unchanged. The only thing that is changing is when posts get published.
AeroGarden Sprout LED Garden #1 Week 13 Condition Before Harvesting Herbs
The dill grew quite a bit over the previous week and the curly parsley really filled out. After harvesting more than the rule of thirds on Week 11 and trimming the roots on Week 12, at Week 13, the Genovese basil didn’t even flinch.
AeroGarden Sprout LED Garden #1 Week 13 Maintenance Details
Maintenance remained the same as ever: feed, water and harvest. There wasn’t really anything special other than it being remarkable how much more basil grew after really cutting back the herb a couple weeks ago.
AeroGarden Sprout LED Garden #1 Week 14 Condition Before Harvesting Herbs
It’s really difficult to show you the condition before Week 14 harvest, because I had to do a special harvest on March 4. I’ll show you the bounty of that harvest in the next section. So, after harvesting the my first AeroGarden Sprout LED on Monday, below is the condition on Week 14 before maintenance.
AeroGarden Sprout LED Garden #1 Week 14 Maintenance Details
This week’s maintenance included the second harvest of the Genovese basil for the week, once again trimming the roots and adding water plus a cap-full of nutrients.
Let’s look at the root system on Week 12 after trimming compared to Week 14 before trimming the roots of the basil:
I can now see that tending to the root systems is going to have to be a fairly regular event. I’m also really glad to be able to confirm that trimming the root system won’t hurt the herb.
After I trimmed the roots, I added the nutrients and water. Doing it in this order is important so that the trimmed roots get a full dose of nutrients after being cut. This time, I harvested the parsley, basil and dill before trimming the root system.
Because the Genovese basil is outpacing other herbs in this AeroGarden Sprout LED, not only did I trim the roots again, but I also broke the rule of thirds again. Let’s now see what happens when doing those two things on the same maintenance day, rather than spreading them a week apart. Breaking the rule of thirds was necessary so that the parsley and dill get the necessary light.
How I Used The Last Two Week’s Maintenance of the AeroGarden Sprout LED Garden 1 for Mental Health Gains
Today’s extra long gardening session — I also had to tend to my Farm Plus today — was very much needed. The other day, I re-injured my concussion. I’ve also been dealing with a few other major stressers this week.
Last week’s journaling was more about making sure I had a few minutes to ground myself. This week, I was much more focused on what I was doing to help prevent anxiety-inducing thoughts from entering my head, while constantly saying to myself, “I am safe. I’m in a good place. The thing that is triggering my PTSS is currently not harming me. I am safe.”
It was really nice. I spent about three hours in my garden room this morning, just really taking my time and absorbing my surrounding.
