Imagine having your own self-renewing salad bar in your home.
In our tiny red dot where space is a prized commodity, having your own garden and growing your own crop sounds like a fantasy. However, one couple got the right idea: If there is no space, build upwards. Singapore’s architecture of skyscrapers and high-rise apartments have kind of shown us this concept.
Aerospring Gardens introduces the concept of vertical gardening — think HDBs instead of landed property for plants.
The vertical aeroponic gardening system is designed and manufactured in Singapore by Nadine Keller, 40, and Thorben Linneberg, 46. Aerospring Gardens is patent-pending, and is simply perfect for urban gardening with limited space. Home gardeners who want to grow their own herbs, fruits, greens and vegetables, but have no land, will find this innovation useful.
This gardening technology employs water rather than soil to cultivate a diverse range of vegetables and greens. Thus, it grows upwards instead of outwards, says Nadine to Singapore Business Review.
With the setup of Aerospring, you can start your vertical farm right in your own apartment, balcony, or rooftop without the need for a lot of space. The structure stands tall and has little pods for the assortment of greenery you would want to nurture. All you need is a sunny spot in your house that also has an electrical outlet.
When you purchase a system, every pole comes with free little plant seedlings so you can start your garden from day one. The starter kit also includes all the necessary liquid nutrients.
According to the website, it merely takes 15 minutes to assemble with no tools required.
Grow Your Own Food
According to Home and Decor, Danish entrepreneur Thorben was first turned off by how expensive vegetables and herbs cost at the supermarkets in Singapore. And thus the idea to grow his own vegetables sprouted in 2013.
Together with his Singaporean partner Nadine, they planted mint, tomatoes and rosemary in small pots and planters in the balcony of their three-bedroom condominium.
They did not start out with green fingers, though.
“We failed at gardening,” Nadine said as they returned home after a trip to find their plants dead despite having an automated watering system.
Thorben, who has lived in Singapore for 18 years, did not want to give up. He wanted to invent a device that would let them grow their own food without having to worry too much about taking care of them. As a result they devised the Aerospring technology a self-watering system that requires little maintenance.
He was first inspired by a video of someone making a “strawberry tower”, where gardeners use a method of stacking modified buckets on top of one another, with holes cut into the plastic containers so that the strawberry seedlings can grow out of them.
After spending $2,000 in tools and materials and several prototypes later, he was able to build a system that flourished.
Now, Aerospring allows you to grow 36 different edible plants and vegetables from tomatoes to basil to cucumbers. The couple even proudly showed off their growing muskmelon on Facebook.
“No soil, no mess. Lots of success.” The tagline sits proudly on the Aerosping Gardens website.
In the interview with Singapore Business Review, Nadine said:
“The future of food is at stake and conventional approaches to agriculture need to be addressed.
“We need to come up with clever solutions and community initiatives to address our own needs locally.
“There is nothing fresher than homegrown vegetables and teaching someone how to grow their own greens is a gift we feel keeps on giving.”
Hobby Turned Family Business
Their company Aerospring Gardens took root when their friends who saw their test garden in the early days wanted one of their own. Soon, more wanted it and the home project became a real demand-and-supply.
Thorben continued to fine-tune his system and finally, the first prototype was ready in early 2014.
A year later, the couple registered their company, Aerospring Gardens. They had by then spent about $10,000 to test and research their product.
“The business was born out of the desire to grow our own food at home and it started out purely as a hobby, there wasn’t any intention to start a business,” says Nadine.
For her, gardening helped to relieve stress and as for Thorben, he enjoyed inventing and building the hydroponic system. Nadine left her corporate career to help Thorben.
Aerospring Gardens has starting exporting to some countries overseas and plans to launch an indoor system with lights in the next 12 months — this is good news especially for those who do not have a balcony or outdoor space.
They have also hired a horticulturist to help them improve the gardening aspect of the operations, such as testing plants that would grow better in Singapore’s climate, fertilisation and pest control.
The Aerospring Garden Pro designed to house 36 plants is currently priced at S$780, which does sound a little steep, but then again, you no longer need to buy herbs from the market. It is also the price to pay for innovation and convenience.
The 1.95-metre tall device takes up about 1 square-metre of your home.
The system also comes with nutrients, detailed instructions and free seedlings from mint to lettuce and much more. The couple will also provide advice based on your interests and lifestyle needs.
Imagine having your own self-renewing salad bar in your home! You get to sample the freshest self-grown produce, and you know exactly what pesticides (or the absence of it!) was on your greens.