What's inside an aerogarden?

I thought it would be cool to show you guys what the inside of the Aerogarden looks like.  Basically it's a covered bowl with holes in the top for your seed pods.  The seed pods come pre-filled from Aerogarden*, and you can pick what you want off their website or select a Grow Anything kit where you get the pods but can add your own seeds.  Each Aerogarden purchased come with a free seed kit.  I got the big one (tall/raisable light), so mine came with tomatoes.  Smaller Aerogardens come with herbs or the "salad kit" (assorted lettuces).

Water drips down each seed pod to keep the grow sponge moist.

Anyway, inside the bowl is water, and nutrients, which you add at start-up and every 2 weeks thereafter.  There is a filter inside which lets the nutrient-enriched water drip down each seed pod from the top, keeping it moist.  There's also an air pump and a sensor to remind you when you are low on water.

Indicator lights are on the front of the Aerogarden to tell you when to add water, add nutrients, or change light bulbs.  It has a built in light timer which you can customize the setting for, depending on what time you want it to go on/off or what plants you are growing (ie: flowers vs. vegetables).  It's gardening for dummies!

So, to summarize, this is a hydroponics system with "grow sponges" as the medium.  Some people fill their own seed pods with something called rock wool.  I haven't tried that - I just bought some extra seed pods with grow sponges from Aerogrow (Grow Anything kit).

How much energy does the Aerogarden use?  Here's the article from the Aerogarden knowledgebase.  It's ridiculously cheap!
http://www.aerogarden.com/aerogarden-customer-service-support/HOW_GREEN_IS_YOUR_AEROGARDEN_/how-much-will-the-aerogarden-raise-my-electric-bill.html
Since mine is the Extra model, I average around $3.51/mo in energy cost.

*Aerogarden replaces any seeds that do not germinate, free!

Days 30-33

Day 30:

Day 30 - baby savory:

Day 31:

Day 31 - adorable little savory sprouts!

Day 32: 

Day 33 - OK, I've lopped the tops off the tomatoes (per instructions) once and keep pruning them off the lights and horizontally (to make sure the herbies get enough light too), but they are taking off so fast, I can't hold off on raising the light any longer.  I've been having to prune daily!  They say to keep all the plants within 2 inches of each other in height before raising the lights, and I wanted to wait for the parsley to sprout and the savory to grow a little bigger, but these tomatoes are like, ready to go!  Also they just grew a bunch of flower buds and I don't want to lop them off either.  I want me some tomatoes!

The basil is right up there with the tomatoes, in a race for height.  I've had to harvest basil 2 or 3 times already, adding some to sandwiches and sauces.  The rest I had to freeze in individual containers with a little bit of water.  Basil ice cubes, per my friend's suggestion, which can just simply be dropped (or thawed, drained, and dropped) into recipes.

My bf's neice came over today and I showed her how you can eat leaves off the herb plants.  She thought that was really cool and went back for seconds & thirds.  I made sure to tell her to be very careful with the pruners and to just cut off the very tip of the stem with a leaf or two on it.  It seems like the thyme was her favorite.  She said the oregano was spicy but it reminded her of pizza.  She asked her dad if they can make pizza with the herbs.  There certainly is plenty of herbs to share!

(She asked for paper & crayons while she was here which I gave to her and left the room.  After they had left, I found her paper which said, "To: Santa.  I want a Aero Garden."  LOL!  And it's only January!