Excitement in the Industry

We are very, very excited to announce that development is under way of a new ‘super’ Aerogarden. Rumour had been circulating around the Aeroponic industry of ground breaking work developing what has been dubbed the ‘TurboGarden’, due to it’s increased rate of growth. What was previously hearsay and rumour has now been confirmed, and in a press release today, April 1st 2010, the announcement was made that the new model was going to be released to the public in early 2011.

Much speculation had surrounded this announcement, with some saying that it would include the ability to grow meats and eggs, meaning that a meal could be grown in an Aerogarden, supplying a whole weeks supply to a family. This was (sadly) not true, but some may say the truth is even more exciting than the rumours. The new features of this ‘TurboGarden’ are as follows;

Dramatically increased speed of growth

Yes that’s right, this new Aerogarden model will grow your tomatoes and chillis from seed to full fruit within 24 hours.  You plant them in the morning, and by evening you will have a full crop of fresh tomatoes, chillis or herbs.  This is due to the new light bulbs that have been developed that release 72 times more energy than the Sun.

More Seed Pods

The new Aerogarden will include a majestic 50 seed pods, meaning your indoor Aerogarden will look more like a field in a farm than a small indoor Aeroponic system.  This has got many bigwigs in the agricultural industry very excited, and the Government is considering introducing legislation that will see the gradual phasing out of traditional farming techniques in favour of giant Aerogardens.  It is thought that enough fruit and veg could be cultivated in just 300 of these ‘TurboGardens’ to feed the nation.

Completely Portable

Expect to see many people in public with their ‘TurboGardens’, as the new model is being designed so it can fold and be carried – without damaging any of the plants!  This means people will be able to tend to their plants whilst on the go, you will be able to eat your lunchtime salad completely fresh off the plant.

The first press photo’s of this ‘TurboGarden’ can be seen here

The magazine is one of America’s most read gardening magazines and currently has a following of over 600,000 readers.  This is obviously something that has delighted us at Aerogarden, even though it may not benefit us in the UK, it’s nice to see the Aerogarden getting the credit it deserves.   The magazine get’s the ratings for the products by taking a random sample of it’s readers, making sure there is no chance of bias towards certain products.

It’s particularly encouraging that Aerogarden is getting respected in the gardening world, as it lets a lot of people who may not have the time or space to grow their own fruit and veg in gardens still enjoy the process of cultivating their own plants!  It really is good to see the Aerogarden being rated by many who would consider themselves gardening purists.  The Aerogarden scored a fantastic 9.2 average rating, and scored over 9 in the Design, Quality, and ease of use categories, really showing how great it is for people to make a start in the gardening world with.

Gardening How To magazine is part of the National Home Gardening Club.

If you have your own review of the Aerogarden to share we’d love to hear from you, especially if you’re someone who is fairly new to growing your own plants.  It’s always nice to hear how someone first got on with our product.

“1. Bought seedlings from a nursery

For more photos from Mr Kojo’s strawberries please see our customer photos section of our blog.  Many thanks to Mr Kojo for his feedback and photos of his work.

We feel passionately about indoor gardening, and we’ve come to realise that many of you do too out there. Having begun to realise some of the potential for having an online community around the aerogarden with this blog site, we’re very excited to be expanding the scope of our online social network, which we hope can become a place for thousands of aerogardeners to share tips, reviews, and documents of their succeses (or failures!).

Aerogarden Facebook Page

Aerogarden Myspace Page

Aerogarden Twitter Page

So come and join our groups on facebook and myspace, and start following our tweets on twitter to receive all the latest aerogarden news and tips!

I hope you all enjoyed the snow. We certainly did at Aerogarden Towers, most of us made it into work and built a snowman at lunch time – after attending to the many orders that had come in through the weekend. Sadly we were not dexterous enough to make an aerogarden out of snow. So we just built a great big snowman instead.

For those of you interested we have created an aerogarden facebook fan page – yet another way of communicating with our aerogarden fans. It would be great to have as many of you as possible join up and be our fans.
Happy gardening!

 
The Aerogarden gift wrapping team –

Sarah – Favourite seeds: Chilli pepper

– an easy going Northern lass who also works part time as a salesperson for The Water Cooler Company. She was drawn away from t’up North to work in the “bright lights of the big city and has openly confessed to be loving it!” When she’s not wrapping aerogardens Sarah likes to sit down with cup of hot brew and gravy to dip her chips in whilst watching Corrie, or drag her long suffering boyfriend around Westfield for a spot of retail therapy.

Patrick – Favourite seeds: master gardener.

- Young gun Patrick started his first day at aerogarden towers as a bright eyed kid full of naïve optimism and big ideas… and was quickly ground into a gift wrapping machine in the Christmas run-up. Well done Patrick, you worked like a Trojan.

Sophie – Favourite seeds: salad greens

– Sophie hasn’t been on the aerogarden team for long, but she’s already naming her chilli peppers; Mavis and Tarquin are growing nicely and nearly ready for cooking. She loves prancing around the office singing her socks off and making the twirly bits of ribbon on top of a parcel, and really likes the music that the boss plays in the office.

Robert Laughton – Favourite AG accessory – The Garden Starter Tray

Rob Laughton started aerogarden in the latter part of 2007, his other business include the Water Delivery Company, Man and Vans (removals), The Water Cooler Company, The English Meat Company (fresh British meat delivered to your door), Wishlantern.co.uk and iliketomoovit.com (selling Berg go karts for children). Look out in 2009 for Robert’s new business, selling wine aerators.

Likes: Robbie Williams, mountain climbing (Chris Moyles eat your heart out, Robert defied biology to climb Kilimanjaro here first)

Dislikes: Clutter, tardiness and anyone at aerogarden towers not working their fingers to the bone

Regional Director of Topsy Turvey Department – Marita
Aussie girl Marita has been a welcome addition to the aerogarden team, since expanding her role in the office from running http://www.wishlantern.co.uk, our sister company which sells Chinsese sky lanterns, to include heading up our sale team for the topsy turvey tomato planters – sales of which skyrocketed last year when they became a featured product on www.amazon.co.uk . Like any good Aussie girl she enjoys nothing more than a bevvie and a barbie, and recently went to see  Girls Aloud in concert.
Customer service/sales rep – Tom - Favourite Accessory: Extended season nutrients
 

Local boy Tom has become quite the expert in all things aerogarden whilst working here, he is the man likely to be fielding all your queries and questions, whether it be propagation, light settings, nutrient composition or how to turn the lights on, Tom is your aerogarden Einstein.

Likes: guitars, films and any aerogarden troubleshooting he can get his hands on

Dislikes: Tap water of an unsuitable pH for the aerogarden

Roger - DHL collection driver – Favourite seeds – Cherry Tomato
 

Turning up at aerogarden towers at a prompt 4pm every day, Roger is the legend who ensures that every one of your important orders gets to you the next working day after it is placed.

Likes: Parcels, Gary Barlow, mullets

Dislikes: Having his photo taken/ being asked about his likes and dislikes for aerogarden blogs

Martin - Our Postman
 

“Stop! Oh-oh wait a minute Mr postman, Mr postman look and see, oh-oh if there’s a seed kit, a seed kit for me…”

Martin is in charge of ensuring all of the smaller orders get out to you prompt and efficiently. Martin is our Royal Mail collections man, and a bloody fine one he is too.

Likes – His cat Jess, post offices, post boxes and penny black stamps.
Dislikes – Incorrect addressing, thrash metal, electromagnetic forces, hardcore origami
Favourite seeds – cascading petunias

Aerogarden employee of the Year:  Ed

Part-time Sports science student Ed is “delighted, overwhelmed and deeply emotional at being awarded joint employee of the year, and I couldn’t be sharing the award with a nicer kid.” Ed had been at aerogarden since the first seed kits came through the door and is still getting aerogardens out the warehouse with the same drive from day 1.

Likes: Running stupid distances in the Lake District, and telling rubbish jokes

Dislikes: Orangina and other hydroponic products on the market, all of which are of a far inferior standard in comparison to the aerogarden

Favourite seeds: International basil
Aerogarden honorary employee of the Year: Louis C-M (Tom Jr)

2008 also saw the birth of head of customer services Tom’s little boy Louis, who, like a cascading petunias seed kit, has blossomed into wonderful 5 month old

Favourite seeds: gourmet herbs
Aerogarden’s sister companies, run by http://www.root7.com

http://www.wishlantern.co.uk – Chinese sky lanterns, also known as sky candles or floating lanterns these are a safe and fun alternative to fireworks and look beautiful in the night sky
http://www.englishmeat.co.uk – Delivering quality cuts of British meat to your door at competitive prices

http://www.manandvans.com – Affordable removals jobs within the M25 providing customer service that larger removals companies simply don’t

http://www.thewaterdeliverycompany.com – Bottled water cooler rental for the office or for home, with a team of friendly drivers to get your water to you when you need it

http://www.thewatercoolercompany.com – Plumbed in mains water coolers that could save you money in the office, our friendly sales team and engineers provide the quality customer service
http://www.vinturi.org.uk – This exciting new product is a must have gift for wine lovers – the handheld device does the job of a decanter in the time it takes to pour a glass – giving it a fuller flavour, aroma and texture
http://www.iliketomoovit.com  – The home of the moov go kart system in the UK – a great toy for kiswho can re assemble the kart into several different shapes. We also sell the full range of quality Berg go karts.

Aerogarden tip of the month:

Make sure your aerogarden is kept topped up with water in the winter months if you’ve got the heating on high indoors. If the aerogarden is allowed to run dry it can seriously damage the pump.

Top 5 New Products of 2008
International Basil Seed Kit

At number 5 we have the international basil seed kit. The kit comes with 7 different kinds of basil from around the world to garnish your salads and cooking with a taste of exotic cuisine. It started off slowly, but has now picked up to become one of our most popular kits.

http://www.aerogarden.org.uk/aerogarden_international_basil.html

Three Tier Shelf – Coming in at number four is the three tier shelf, for the extra keen aerogardener who is not satisfied with one machine, but goes for three, really using it’s power to grow huge harvests. The sleek and stylish design is a must for any modern aerogardener’s home.

http://www.aerogarden.org.uk/aerogarden_three_shelf.html

Upside-down topsy turvey tomato planters – This great garden product is both fun and a great way to get fresh tomatoes for your kitchen. It hangs from a wall or awning outdoors and is aided by gravity in growing straight down towards the ground. Had a great month in Novmeber when it was listed as a top product on Amazon. Unfortunately we are not able to get stock of these until February now. 

http://www.aerogarden.org.uk/aerogarden_topsy_turvy.html

Cascading petunias seed kit – So close yet so far to the number one spot for this flamboyant new seed kit that proved a smash hit in our office. Beatiful petunias start to flower within a few weeks of planting and are great as a little gift to a loved one.

Top 3 Heroes of 2008  

Fiona Phillips – the GMTV presenter exclaimed her amazement at how big and juicy the basil leaves in the aerogarden looked live on the Paul O’Grady show in early December. Watch it here…
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed7gUU1aarc

Aerogrow – the US manufacturers of aerogarden continue to improve and widen the product range. Their great site http://aerogrow.com has tonnes of information and troubleshooting tips for the product.

The team at the Gadget Show – Channel Five’s gadget show featured the aerogarden in May, and it proved to be a massive hit with their audience, and so for us! 

Top 3 Villains of 2008

French customs – where our gourmet herb kits were held and delayed in coming into the country at the end of December. Sincere apologies to all those who had to wait on these.

Andy Murray – His match against Richard Gasquet at this year’s Wimbledon extended into the air time for the Paul O’Grady show, foiling our first attempt to have the aerogarden on there. The production crew loved it so much though, they got it back on the show in December.

Snakes – for biting Paul O’Grady on the day that the aerogarden was featured on his show. Paul wasn’t going to let that stop the day that would go on to be the highlight of his career though – when he finally managed to get an aerogarden on his show. Good man.

What we’re looking forward to in 2009…

New Products – The aerogarden space saver, a more compact system that is great for growing decorative flowers or for those with a smaller kitchen, and the pro 200, with twice the lamp arm height, and lamp power of the classic aerogarden, are just two of the new products with a planned release for 2009.

We also expect to expand our seed kit range and bring in exciting new customized seed herb kits…
Watch this space for more info, or email sales@aerogarden.org.uk with your name and phone to be contacted when we have more news on new products.

We wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2009!

The Aerogarden team x

We are proud of our association with their product range which includes over four different versions of the Aerogarden.