Fun with Hydroponia!

One of the benefits of having a friend that lives far away is that when you see each other, you often have to catch up on a lot of things that've happened while you were apart, like holidays. I realized, the day before leaving for Charlotte, that Laura and I missed Christmas this year and that I still had her gift waiting for the next time that I saw her. This meant, too, that I would be getting a belated Christmas present. HOT DAMN!

So one of the first things that we did when I got to Charlotte on Wednesday afternoon was open our gifts. I was shocked to find that Laura had purchased an Aero Garden for me. YESSSSSS. This was a totally awesome Christmas present that made me feel bad about not getting Laura a totally awesome Christmas present, but then I felt really awesome because...I have an AeroGarden muthafuckas!

This is a gadget that I'd been wanting for some time, but I could never justify its purchase. I can, however, justify receiving it as a gift because I am a wonderful friend.

I learned from the instructions that AeroGarden is a really small hydroponic garden. (a quick definition: Hydroponics (From the Greek hydro, water, and ponics, labour) is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions, in water, without soil). Probably one of the coolest things that I've seen at a grocery store (because I think that grocery stores and their contents are cool) is the hydroponic lettuce growing at Giant Eagle Market District. To have the opportunity to grow herbs via this method in the comfort of my own home is pretty durn exciting if you ask me.

Here is my AeroGarden after setup (which was super easy):

The funniest thing about this, so far, is that the little cups look like Keurig cups with plants in them. The second thing that is funny about this whole setup is that because I have very nosy and mischeivous pets, I have to keep this in my bedroom on my dresser. So, not only will I have a neon light going for part of the day in my room, but eventually, my bedroom is going to smell like an herb garden. I'm not sure if I'm excited about aspect of the process, or not.

Most of the sprouts, including Mint, Dill, Genovese Basil, Oregano, Thyme, and Chives, will begin showing up at around seven days, and I'm looking forward to seeing their tiny little leaves shooting through the pretend soil and K-Cup. Supposedly, these plants are guaranteed (unless your cats get a hankering for Oregano), so I'm going to have more than enough herbs for one person.

AeroGarden also features flowering options, including this really fancy English Flower Garden. There's something incredibly futuristic about growing flowers in an environment like this that I kind of love/hate. It's like if you were growing flowers on the Starship Enterprise.

I'll bet that Scotty was probably secretly a wonderful gardener and florist. I mean, he is Scottish for Chrissakes.

Laura said that AeroGardens are already not being sold in stores any more, and I find that kind if disheartening. While most people that want to garden will find the opportunity to do so with soil and good old-fashioned sunlight, the opportunity for fresh herbs in an apartment at any given time of the year is totally tubular.

I fear, too, that the replacement seed-pod K-Cups will become scarce. That would be tres lame, considering what a seriously love-affair I've created with this machine in the last few hours. I mean, my gawd, it's in my bedroom.