After 14 weeks of growing herbs in my second AeroGarden Sprout LED, my chives and mint are still growing like a weed. Plus, I’m finally having to trim roots.
Week 13 maintenance was the same as always on an odd-numbered week: harvest, water, and lower lights. Week 14 maintenance involved harvesting, trimming the roots, adding nutrients and water, plus lowering the lights. Maintenance on Week 13 was less than 5 minutes. Maintenance on Week 14 still under 5 minutes, but it took a bit longer to prepare my mint for storage.
AeroGarden Sprout LED Garden #2 Week 13 Condition Before Harvesting Herbs
Halfway through a typical herb season in the AeroGarden, I’m surprised by exactly how much the herbs regrow each week.
At Week 13, I once again 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 still weren’t quite at the “strangling neighbouring roots” phase. So I left them alone.
AeroGarden Sprout LED Garden #2 Week 13 Maintenance Details
I harvested quite a large amount of both mint and chives on Week 13. Part of the harvesting of the chives also involved debulking the mint as it was no longer good enough to simply cut off the top leaf sets. I had to cut off a few stems in their entirety to give the chives their own space.
Week 13 also involved topping up the water and lowering the lights.
AeroGarden Sprout LED Garden #2 Week 14 Condition Before Harvesting Herbs
Yet again, the mint doubled in size in one week, crowding the chives. The chives are hardy and continue to find their way through the mint jungle, so that is good.
AeroGarden Sprout LED Garden #2 Week 14 Maintenance Details
On Week 14, I inspected the root system again to see if it was time to trim the mint’s roots and yes it was. But, before I got to that, I harvesting the chives and the mint. Because the mint is growing at an astonishing rate, I broke the rule of thirds, cut of entire stems, and once again debulked the herb so give the chives more room.
Once that was done, I prepared the mint and chives for freezing, then moved on to inspect the root system.
The mint’s root system was massive and completely engulfing the chive’s roots. Trimming them was a delicate process. The first step was to cut between the chive and mint root system, closer to the mint side to avoid cutting chive roots, while also being careful not to cut the core of the mint’s roots.
Once that was done, I carefully pulled the mint’s roots off of the chive’s roots. Finally, I cut off the roots on the right side of the core root system.
The finished result was very good. The chive’s roots are now free to grow unencumbered. And the mint’s root bulb remained intact.
After this step, I add water and nutrients, and lowered the lights.
How I Used The Last Two Week’s Maintenance of the AeroGarden Sprout LED Garden 2 for Mental Health Gains
Things are still pretty stressful right now. That said, having gardens to tend to regularly and to sit with daily is just really nice for my mental health and my ability to cope with things that are beyond my control. Today’s journalling was again used as a grounding exercise to remind myself that things are good in my immediate surroundings.
It was brief but still helped to replenish a spoon or two.
If you have any questions about the last two week’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!
