Space Age Gardening

Reading my brother’s, uh, interesting I Only Have a Bell Pepper and Tomato in my Fridge Recipe reminded me of my childhood gardening hobby. I had my own gloves, gardening shears, trowel, mini-rake and loam ordered from one of Marikina’s garden markets. I had an extensive cacti garden that bloomed every month (yes, some cacti have flowers) and a small vegetable garden.

Fifteen years later, I find that the field of hobby gardening has had amazing technological advances. These aren’t new products, either; they’ve been around for about four years now, but I’ve only found out about them recently.

Get a load of this one, called Space Age Tomato Plant (also comes in Bell Pepper variety):

Apparently, you don’t need soil anymore to grow a six-foot fruit bearing plant in the comfort of your room or apartment. Imagine just plucking a fresh, ripe tomato right off the plant as you’re cooking. The best part is it costs only about $4. I’m guessing this will be the next ubiquitous “accessory” in every TV cooking show host’s kitchen.

This one is the Pepper Kit designed for office desks. It’s a colorful substitute to flowers and pretty foolproof to grow, or so the kit says. Greenhead.com says you only have to “choose whether you want the tomato or bell pepper kit and then simply add water, the nutrient mix and provide some sunlight to the starter cup which needs no soil.”

These weren’t the same pecks Peter Piper picked, that’s for sure.

At about $80, you can own the AeroGarden 3 (above) with a variety of 3-seed kits to choose from. You can grow three plants in one AeroGarden, whether three kinds of herbs or flowers. Portable enough for small kitchens, it claims to have an Advanced Growing System that “achieves up to 30% greater growth than the AeroGarden Classic.”

Like the Space Age plants above, no soil is required, just water and the pre-packed nutrients. Then one simply turns on the AeroGarden anywhere and anytime (it pumps water through the plants and provides its own full-spectrum light that stimulates and maintains plant growth). Andrea’s Reviews gives a comprehensive review of the AeroSpace after trying it out herself.

The Patio Garden ($79.95) is an upside-down planter that supports vegetable-bearing plants. The planter supports downward-growing tomato plants through built-in holes. The top of the planter may be filled with soil so you can plant other herbs or flowering plants. It looks like a perfect complement to modern and contemporary themed homes and offices.

But really, if I had a yard, I would plant The Zombie of Montclaire Moors Sculpture (below) every Halloween. It’s well worth the $90 to see the faces and hear the random screams of visitors and trick-or-treaters.