AeroGarden Review: The AeroGarden English Cottage Seed Kit
Window boxes. Cheerful posies providing a lift out of a blah day. Vivid, untamed masses of mixed colors, like the best from Monet. Charming flowers with a message from heaven. A surprise appearing around the corner of a drab lane.
I’d like to re-visit some of the cottages I saw in England. But rather than make the trip in my mind, I planted the AeroGarden English Cottage Seed Kit after a long, dull winter.
Plenty of Color
This kit provides the gardener everything necessary to grow flowers that will charm and disarm for several months.
You will see stock, twinkle phlox, dianthus, snapdragons, miniature petunias, and lavender. The colors are all complementary, with varying shades of purple and pink. The twinkle phlox was so variable in color that some of the blooms were fuschia and white, while a few were purple and white – it all depended on the angle of the light.
Planting Considerations
This AeroGarden Kit is designed for the Space-Saver 6 line of light units. This means the type of AeroGarden that is deeper and narrower than the classic original. But do not despair if you only have a classic 7-hole AeroGarden unit! While it’s true that the plastic seed pods are too long for the classic 7-hole unit, these pods can be cut to fit. You can get help at the AeroGrow site for that.. You’ll only have 6 seed pods, but 7 holes, so be sure to cover up the unplanted hole with a bottle cap or a piece of foil. If you have nothing covering the unoccupied hole, you’ll end up growing algae inside your light unit.
Maybe you don’t care about perfection. I did not read the instructions when I purchased the seed kit. I do have the classic 7 unit. At first I despaired because of the above problem of long seed pods. After a few minutes, I decided to put them in the holes and forget it. Sure, they were not flush with the planting holes, but they still sprouted beautifully. After the plants grow and bloom, you won’t care whether or not your seed pods are set flush. And, boy, do these flowers bloom.
Blooming Rates
Although my flowers did not come into bloom quite as quickly as the instructions indicated, I still had great success (the only thing that did not fare well was the lavender). The snapdragons and stock bloomed first, followed by the twinkle phlox, then the dianthus, and finally, the miniature petunias.
I feel sure AeroGrow designed the mini petunias to come in last. They’ve got this little kit synched better than some of their other designs. Once the early-blooming flowers start to fade, petunias just like to take over anyway. May I ask which clueless songwriter wrote the ditty, “I’m a lonely little petunia in an onion patch?” Well, it isn’t true! The petunias will keep blooming and blooming till you take down this garden.
There’s not a lot of clean-up with this little garden. Pinch off the new growth as indicated in the instructions, and you’ll do well. And, if you’re a pink or purple person, you’ll especially love your cottage garden. Place it in your kitchen, put on the tea, and imagine yourself in a thatched cottage in Surrey.