Placing Renee's Garden order, suggestions, please.

[daisybelle]

I'm a big fan of Renee's Garden and I'm placing an order today.  And since I'm a newbie to AG, does anybody have any other suggestions of things they like from Renee's Garden other than what I've listed.

Here's my list so far

French Thyme
Fine Leaf Chives
Amsterdam Seasoning Celery
French Rosemary

Now for the lettuce - 

They have a whole selection for container gardens and I'm wondering if these are better choices or if I should just buy from their regular selection of seeds, has anybody had experience with any of these?  

Garden Babies Butterhead
Sweetie Baby Romaine
Ruby & Emerald Duet
Jade Gem Little Romaine

My kids kept telling me "mom, you need a hobby."  Well, I've got one, three days into this and I've bought two AeroGardens.  But it is so much fun and I was positively giddy when I got up to germinated black seeded Simpson this morning.

[lynnee]

No specific suggestions, but you really should try some variety of Romaine. It is very productive when you regularly harvest about 1/3 of the plant and come back when the plant has grown replacement leaves.

Since you are already a fan of Renee's seeds, does that mean you keep houseplants and an outdoor garden, too? We love all kinds of photos of the things people grow.

[daisybelle]

I used to be an avid outdoor gardener, but I'm older now, it was a different time in my life, so I just have lots of plants in the summer on my porch.  We live in the Nashville area, we have a heavily landscaped yard and that Arctic freeze we had in December has really destroyed so many plants here.  I have twenty five laurels surrounding our house that are totally brown, hoping that they will see some life if they are cut back. You see devastation everywhere, so many evergreens are lost, it's really sad.  

I started buying from Renee's Gardens back in the 80's when it was Shepherd's Seeds and they had a wonderful printed catalog.  Sadly, they don't have that any longer.  I think their prices are very reasonable, I do try to order several things at once to save shipping costs.

I don't really do houseplants, too many variables, light requirements, maintenance, etc.  This is such a better option for me and I'm beyond excited.

Thanks so much for getting back to me, I think I will try one of the Sweetie Romaine or the Little Gem.  This is all a learning curve, but what a fun adventure it is...

[lynnee]

Recently I had some visitors who were awestruck by my Aerogardens. "Is this real?", one of them asked when they spotted the ripe red Sweet Heat pepper plants. Then they said they wanted to "do this" themselves. And that was before I could even tell them how easy it is to grow things in an AG.

AGs really do sell themselves when people see the growing plants! And the lettuce, peppers, tomatoes are so much fresher than what you get at retail!

[scarfguy]

Yup,  ya can't get better than "just picked" fresh!

As for lettuce, the romaine varieties always grow well.  I've had success with the little gem.  The jericho is good too although it takes a bit longer to germinate.  AND... don't forget to try the Aerogarden "unknown variety" of romaine.  I don't know if the folks at aerogarden pick hybrids that grow particularly well in their gardens but their lettuce and cherry tomatoes grow very well.

NOTE: that lettuce always seems to get brown on the tips in an aerogarden. I read that it may be due to the rapid growth rate causing the plant to outgrow it's ability to transport water to the extremes but I don't think anybody knows for sure.

[Shawn]

Renee's has some wonderful I always get.

Culinary Chives, Fine Leaf Chives, Windowbox Mini Basil, English Thyme.  As for Lettuce I Sweetie Baby is a good one as is Little Gem.