AeroGarden Sprout LED Garden 2: Week 11 – 12 Update

After 12 weeks of growing herbs in my second AeroGarden Sprout LED, I think it’s pretty amazing how quickly my chives are growing now. My mint has been doing great for weeks. But, finally, the chives are really bulking out and it is the cause for having to extend the lights to max height every week.

Today’s maintenance involved harvesting, adding a cap-full of nutrients and refilling the reservoir, and lowering the lights. Maintenance is still less than five minutes each week.

AeroGarden Sprout LED Garden #2 Week 11 Condition Before Harvesting Herbs

With each harvest, the herbs grow back fuller than before.

Both my mint and chives continue to do very well. Now, not only does my mint continue to grow towards the lights from my other gardens, but so does the chives.

At Week 11, I inspected the roots again in my second AeroGarden Sprout LED to see if they needed trimming like the Genovese basil root in my first Sprout LED. They weren’t quite at the “strangling neighbouring roots” phase. I think that may have to do with the fact that last week, I cut mint that was growing underwater.

AeroGarden Sprout LED Garden #2 Week 11 Maintenance Details

I didn’t get to harvest as much mint as I normally do.

Maintenance remained the same as ever: feed, water and harvest. The mint harvest was one of my lowest harvests in weeks. I think it may have to do with the underwater-cutting I did the previous week. It’s difficult to tell in the photo above, but there was a lot of of baby light-green leaves that had grown. Maybe it’s on its second season of growth.

I’m pleased to start getting a substantial amount of chives now. For some of my dishes, I plan to substitute green onions for chives. The flavour profiles are quite different but I have a number of recipes where I’d prefer the taste of chives over green onion in the dish, and others where the flavour of green onions is essential.

AeroGarden Sprout LED Garden #2 Week 12 Condition Before Harvesting Herbs

Both the amount of chives and the bulkiness of the mint doubled in size within a week.

It is difficult to see in the before image just how much the chives have multiplied in the last week because it’s surrounded by mint that doubled in size over the last week. You will be able to see it in the after photo.

AeroGarden Sprout LED Garden #2 Week 12 Maintenance Details

I harvest 3/4 of a small freezer bag of mint today. I had to start a third freezer bag for mint.

Today, I inspected the root system again to see if it was time to trim the mint’s roots. It’s nearly there. I’ll probably need to do it on week 14 when it’s time to empty and rinse out the water reservoir.

And of course, I harvested, add water and nutrients, and lowered the lights. I didn’t get as many chives as last week, but the chives were so tall, it more than made up for less stalks.

How I Used The Last Two Week’s Maintenance of the AeroGarden Sprout LED Garden 2 for Mental Health Gains

Week 11 and 12 journal entries for my second AeroGarden Sprout LED.

If you’ve been following my updates every week, you know last week I got a huge kick in the teeth. Navigating an ableist and transphobic healthcare system is layers of ugh.

This past weekend, I did a whole bunch of things to my garden room to turn it into the perfect sanctuary for me, which really helped with the garbage from last week. Now, when I walk into my garden room, I’m immediately at peace and just want to live in there all day.

So today’s journal entry wasn’t so much about grounding myself but more about just sitting in the serene environment I’ve created for myself and having those minutes to just be and ignore all of the other junk. At some point in the future, I will be writing about my garden room, showing pictures of how I’ve decorated it to be the perfect place for me, and tips for making your garden area a sanctuary, even if that area is simply a corner in a room.

If you have any questions about today’s AeroGarden maintenance, questions about using the AeroGarden for mental health benefits, or questions about AeroGarden-ing in general, please feel free to ask them in the comments!

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