How to garden year-round, at home: My review of the Aerogarden Harvest Elite

Summer is great for a lot of reasons, but one of my personal favorites is the garden season. Since I started gardening a few years ago, I love having fresh, homegrown herbs and vegetables to use with my meals, so I wanted to see if I could get the same results year-round with an indoor gardening kit, specifically Aerogarden’s Harvest Elite growing system.

I’d tried a smart garden in college, but once I moved to New York and left it behind, I was restricted to the seasonal, outdoor growing season. That’s why when Aerogarden sent me this Harvest Elite to try, I was curious to see how it would stack up against my growing outdoor gardening experiences. 

SKIP AHEAD What is the Aerogarden Harvest Elite? | How I tried the Aerogarden | My experience with the Aerogarden | Who is the Aerogarden Harvest Elite best for? | Why trust NBC Select?

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What is the Aerogarden Harvest Elite?

AeroGarden Harvest Elite

$60.00

$121.56

Amazon

The Aerogarden Harvest Elite is a compact, automated indoor gardening system that’s designed to help you grow your own plants at home. Aerogarden uses a hydroponic growing system, which grows plants using water and plant nutrient solutions that are supplied directly to the plant’s roots, according to the brand. (The only soil in hydroponic systems generally is in the seed pods as compared to a soil-based gardening system, which mimics a traditional outdoor garden with a soil base.) 

The plants grow from the brand’s Seed Pod Kits, which are pre-seeded, non-GMO pods of soil — available in different herbs, vegetables and flowers — and patented Liquid Plant Food, which adds essential growing nutrients to the plants. When you purchase the Harvest Elite, you initially get one free pod kit and one bottle of plant nutrients, along with the Aerogarden itself and the power adapter. After this you’ll have to restock your seed pods for your next cycle, which typically costs around $14-$30 depending on the kit, while the Liquid Plant Food costs $11.99 per bottle.

Once you set up your Aerogarden and plug it in (it’ll need to stay plugged in throughout the entire cycle), you add water and plant food to the water reservoir on the bottom of the system, which is what the garden uses to automatically water and feed itself based on a schedule. Since the garden essentially nourishes itself, your main responsibility will be maintaining the water and plant food levels in the reservoir.

The Aerogarden also uses 20-Watt, energy-efficient LED grow lights that run on an automatic cycle to simulate natural light. They have an adjustable, extendable stand that lets you change its positioning as your plants grow. 

To help you remember when to add more water or plant food, the system has a digital display that gives you reminders, the time and the amount of days your garden’s been growing. Although different Aerogarden models have varying plant capacities, the Harvest Elite can hold and grow up to six different plants at a time, according to the brand.

Prior to this five-week testing trial, I’d previously used the Aerogarden a few times with a few disruptions (I had to unplug it and therefore couldn’t let my herbs grow to fruition). Below, I share more about my most recent successful experience and what I think you should know before buying one. 

I’ve been gardening for a few years now, and although I’m not exactly a beginner, I’m definitely not an expert. As someone with some knowledge, I found the Aerogarden incredibly easy to use — in fact it’s one of my favorite things about it. After the initial setup, the garden basically tends to itself, and you can enjoy your successes without any of the mess or hassle of normal gardening. I’d even go as far to say that someone with absolutely no knowledge of or background in gardening would find the Aerogarden easy to manage. 

In terms of maintenance, all you have to do is keep the water tank full and add the Liquid Plant food biweekly, both of which the Aerogarden has automated reminders for (which is perfect for a constant procrastinator like myself). Aside from that, the only other work required is pruning and harvesting the plants as you like. I especially like this part because it gives you a small, fun taste of caring for what you’ve grown and reaping the benefits of your patience, which I think is the best part of any gardening experience.

My most pressing question when testing the Aerogarden Harvest Elite was: Does this actually work? After five weeks, I can confidently say that it does. In this cycle, each of my six herbs sprouted and grew so tall (about 10-11 inches) that by the end of it, the Aerogarden looked like a miniature forest on my windowsill. 

Each seed pod comes with a label that says the average time for sprouting, and the timeline of my plants followed them almost exactly. Initially, I was worried, because some plants were growing quickly in inches while others had yet to produce even a single stem. However, paying attention to those growing times and sticking to the cycle and its reminders paid off — I’m not always as patient as I should be, and having that guidance was really useful in giving me a sense of what to expect from my plants’ growth. Eventually, all of my herbs grew to their designated heights, as the instructions noted.

Before using the Harvest Elite for five weeks, I’d gone through two partial cycles before, meaning I’d plugged in the garden and started growing plants, but I wasn’t able to keep it plugged in and therefore couldn’t finish the process and allow the plants to grow fully. Although this cycle was the longest and most successful, I still managed to grow small to mid-size plants from most of the pods on my previous tries. All this is to say that although the success rate wasn’t 100% every time I’ve used it, most, if not all of my pods fully sprouted. Aerogarden also has a germination guarantee that says if a pod doesn’t sprout after three weeks, you have 90 days from your date of purchase to reach out to their customer service and the brand will provide you with a replacement pod — so you’re covered either way.

The first two times I tried the Aerogarden, I used it with the Gourmet Herb kit, which comes with mint, Thai basil, Genovese basil, curly parsley, dill and thyme. It wasn’t until I set out on this journey that I realized how many different kinds of seed kits the brand has available. There are kits for herbs, vegetables, and flowers, so you can really try to grow just about anything. I also like the variety you get within each kit — although there are some kits with only one kind of plant, most of them have a curated selection of plants that work and grow well together. You can also give yourself a more personalized growing experience using the brand’s Grow Anything kit, which comes with the materials to create up to 50 pods using your own seeds.

In my opinion, the biggest drawback of the Aerogarden is cleaning it. After you’ve fully finished with your plants — as in you’ve harvested all you can and are now ready to dispose of your leftovers — you can throw out the seed kits, and then you have to drain and clean the water reservoir before you can start over with a new batch of seeds. Since the plants’ roots have been growing inside of the reservoir throughout the cycle, it creates quite a mess. The roots are soggy and thick, and in my experience it usually takes a few rounds of clearing and washing to get the Aerogarden ready to use again. Of course, in comparison with the mess of a normal garden, spending a few minutes every few months scrubbing the tank isn’t that big of a deal. However, it’s still not the most pleasant task.

As I mentioned, this wasn’t my first cycle with the Aerogarden Harvest Elite. I couldn’t finish my previous two cycles because I had to unplug the Aerogarden (it needs to remain plugged in at all times to work) and therefore had to restart my cycle. However, during the time that those cycles ran, two of my seed pods (one in each cycle) failed to sprout. At first I thought they hadn’t been given enough time, but each cycle ran for at least two and a half weeks. When I checked the pods, they’d become mossed over, with no sprout in sight. 

Although I wasn’t aware of it at the time, I could’ve requested a replacement pod from the brand that would’ve fixed my issue. However, given the success of the rest of my seed pods, this seems like something I personally wouldn’t be too concerned about in the future.

My experience with the Aerogarden Harvest Elite has been positive. Although I likely won’t be running the cycles back to back to avoid the cleaning process, I think it’s a great way to keep up gardening during the colder months, or to start my seeds out in the early spring before summer gardening season. This garden is great for beginners and experienced gardeners alike; if you’re looking for an easy way to have fresh herbs or veggies at your disposal, this is definitely a reliable kit you can use It’s also a handy purchase for anyone living in a city who may not have access to backyard or community gardens, since the Aerogarden allows you to grow plants without needing a traditional garden setting — you can grow straight from the comfort of your kitchen counter.

If you’re looking for a more traditional gardening experience, the Click & Grow’s Smart Garden ($249) is a great, beginner-friendly option. It uses a soil-based system instead of a hydroponic system like the Aerogarden, so . you’ll use traditional potting soil pods and plant seeds and water it on a schedule, much like a regular outdoor garden. However, similarly to the Aerogarden, the Smart Garden has a self-watering feature. For more experienced gardeners who may want a more luxurious system, Lettuce Grow’s The Farmstand ($773) is a great option for smaller spaces. It doesn’t have grow lights, however, so it requires more attention and maintenance — and of course access to direct sunlight and space to bloom.

I’m an associate SEO reporter for NBC Select who’s been covering the wellness and lifestyle space for over a year, including stories on the best weeding tools and the best Amazon gardening tools. I’m also an avid gardener and have been growing my own plants in my local community garden for over two years now (I especially love growing herbs). For this story, I tested the Aerogarden Harvest Elite, which the brand sent me, for five continuous weeks and paid particular attention to how well it was to set up, how well my plants grew and what the upkeep process was like. 

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