I’ll be the first to admit I don’t have a green thumb. Even though I did plant some tulips outside last weekend, my ability to keep a houseplant alive is slim to none.
That’s why it’s been such a struggle finding plants to go in my apartment. Yes, having regular plants for decoration sounds nice (in theory) but keeping them alive makes me ask the question, “why do I have houseplants?”
That’s when I decided to give Rise Gardens a try. It’s the benefit of greenery in your space with an added bonus – fresh vegetables and herbs. Hold on, you might be thinking, this doesn’t solve the needing-to-care-for-them issue.
The great thing about the Personal Rise Garden is once it’s all set up on your counter (or standing on its own, if you have the family size) there’s very minimal maintenance you have to do to keep your pants happy. Coming from someone who’s plants have a three week life expectancy, My Rise Garden is doing incredibly well. I have arugula, two types of lettuce, basil, cilantro, and rosemary.
The best part is that everything you need comes in a box delivered directly to your home. The kit includes seeds, detailed instructions, and plant food (which is actually a mix of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, along with other micronutrients and a pH balancer). I didn’t realize there was such a science to hydroponics until I read the user manual that came with my garden. It outlined everything I needed to know, from how much light my plants need, to how to feed them and build the garden (which only took about ten minutes to set up).
Now, there are a few things I’ve noticed about the garden – the light and filter system runs on an automatic timer and can be regulated straight from an app on your phone. I also noticed that even without the app, my garden turned its light on in the middle of the day.
Sprouting the plants at the beginning was the hardest part (probably because I’m so impatient). It takes about five to seven days for your seeds to start growing. The Rise Garden comes with a miniature greenhouse for the seeds to sprout in. I found it really helpful, because when placed in the sun, it creates a warm environment even if your space is cooler in temperature.
After my seeds were tiny plants, I moved them to the Rise Garden and followed the instructions, adding nutrients to the water. After that, it was really hands-off. I didn’t do anything except watch the plants take off for the next couple weeks. Pretty soon I had lettuce in my salads.
If I could choose which plants to put in the Personal Rise Garden, I would go back and choose to have only herbs. I think having cilantro, basil, parsley and others in my kitchen (available fresh) comes in handy more often than adding a small amount of lettuce to my salad every few days. I’m sure with a larger garden you could grow enough other foods to make it worth it, but for the purpose of the smaller garden, herbs make the most sense to me.
Maintaining the garden is easy, you only need to clean it out every three months and can switch out the plants as needed. If you go on a business trip for a week, you don’t need to be there to water your garden. With everything running automatically, my non-green thumbs are happy to stick with typing articles.
