Is Aerogarden Worth the $? Calculating ROI

A frequent comment I get on my videos is:

Is Aerogarden worth the money?

A lot of times people question whether the cost of an indoor garden really saves you money on your grocery bill.

I get where they’re coming from – pre-built indoor gardens can be pricey!

(Although I would argue there are very affordable options these days)

And there’s definitely a learning curve and time investment to growing vegetables from seed to harvest.

So today I wanted to run the math to show you how much utility you can get out of an Aerogarden.

I’ll also give you my tips and tricks for maximizing the value you’d get from a hydroponic garden to save even more money!

Does Aerogarden Save You Money?

To calculate if Aerogarden is worth ‘investing’ in, there’s a simple calculation called return on investment (ROI).

We compare the revenue we get from the item, less ongoing costs, divided by the cost of acquiring it.

ROI (return on investment)

ROI = Net Income / Cost

It’s usually expressed as a ratio or percentage, and calculated for assets like companies, real estate or stock.

The higher the ROI, the better.

What makes an ROI ‘good’ varies depending on the investment type + industry.

In the stock market, an average market return is 10%. Meanwhile, in the world of real estate, a property has a good ROI if it’s over 5%.

I don’t know that people typically calculate returns for gardening, to be honest..

But the concept of measuring return can be applied to any investment!

So let’s crunch some numbers and see what we get!

Aerogarden ROI

For gardening ROI, we’ll take the value of the produce (ie ‘the harvest’), less the costs associated with growing said harvest, divided by the acquisition cost of the machine.

Spoiler alert: getting maximum value out of an Aerogarden depends heavily on which machine you’re purchasing and what plants you’re growing.

Not all vegetables are created equally!

For that reason, let’s run 3 different gardening scenarios:

1. Herbs in the Aerogarden Harvest
2. Lettuce in the Aerogarden Harvest
3. Tomatoes in the Aerogarden Farm

Scenario 1: Herbs in the Aerogarden Harvest

1. Genovese Basil
2. Thai Basil
3. Curly Parsley
4. Dill
5. Thyme
6. Mint

Harvest Value

At my local grocery store, organic herbs cost $2.99/each for a small 0.75 oz plastic packet.

Conservatively, by month 3, each herb in the Aerogarden has grown large enough to harvest the equivalent of 0.75 oz.

After cutting the herbs back, they’ll regrow and continue to produce each month. With proper care, herbs can last in the Harvest for quite a while – up to 6 to 9 months.

Let’s be conservative and estimate our harvest value based off of 6 months of production.

In the first 9 months of indoor gardening with the Harvest, you’ll grow $107.64 in herbs.

Herb Harvest Cost

In year 1, seeds and supplies (the pods, sponges, stickers and nutrition) are included with the machine purchase.

So the only cost associated with growing herbs is electricity.

The Aerogarden Harvest uses 23 watts of power and costs me $1.64 to run each month.

(You can find an in-depth breakdown of Aerogarden electricity costs here)

9 months of electricity costs for the Harvest total $14.76.

Aerogarden Machine Cost

The basic Aerogarden Harvest retails for $89.95, but you can always purchase it on sale.

 

Aerogarden runs frequent deals, so you can often get the machine for much cheaper.

Because the prices are always fluctuating, I have a guide here outlining good price points for every single Aerogarden.

You can also regularly find used Aerogarden machines on Facebook marketplace or Goodwill.

Let’s use a conservative machine cost of $76.46 (retail less 15% off via my discount code)

Herb Garden ROI in Year 1

Growing herbs in an Aerogarden Harvest is profitable in the first 9 months, with a 121% ROI!

In fact, the breakeven point occurs around month 5.

Aerogarden Harvest Herb Garden – Ongoing ROI

In year 2, the costs are a little different.

You’ve made your investment back on the machine, but you’ll now have to purchase seeds, pods, sponges and nutrition for subsequent grows.

Luckily, these materials are all very inexpensive.

Aerogarden sells a Grow Anything kit that contains all the materials you need to use your own seeds.

I started out buying those in the beginning, but have since switched to cheaper alternatives as so many third-party brands now sell Aerogarden compatible options.

Read more: How to Use Your Own Seeds in Aerogarden’s Indoor Gardens

New Planting Costs

I usually buy a whole packet of seeds for under $3 so each individual seed cost is just 1¢.

Pods can be re-used or purchased cheaply for 26¢ each and sponges are just 4¢ a piece.

You can purchase new stickers or simply use alumnium foil to keep costs down.

In total, a new round of planting in the Harvest will cost $1.86 in set up costs.

Read more: How to Make Your Own Aerogarden Pods

Nutrients are also very affordable, about 8¢ per feeding for light feeder plants like herbs and leafy greens.

I typically add nutrients once every 2 weeks.

Over the 9 month herb garden lifespan, nutrients would cost $1.44.

Read more: A Complete Guide to Understanding Hydroponic Nutrients

The main on-going cost is electricity.

Let’s again estimate that herbs grow large enough to start harvesting in month 3, and continue to produce until month 9.

So again, electricity costs for the Aerogarden Harvest would cost $14.76 over 9 months.

Read more: How Much Energy Do My Aerogardens Use?

Herb Garden ROI in Year 2+

How to Maximize Your ROI

To save even more money, you can buy an inexpensive garden system like Ahopegarden, iDoo and Letpot.

I have more in-depth reviews on these in my Amazon Alternatives guide.

Once you have some experience with indoor gardening and want additional machines, I recommend getting one of those inexpensive gardens!

 

once you have experience with hydroponics, you can grow similar vegetables in the inexpensive gardens!

Amazon Indoor Garden ROI

This Ahopegarden is very similar to the Aerogarden Harvest (but without any of the bells and whistles) and costs ~$35.

It’s also small and compact, and has space for up to 10 plants.

To keep things comparable, we’ll assume we fill just 6 of the garden holes with herbs.

The Amazon indoor gardens come with supplies (pods, sponges, stickers, nutrition) but no seeds.

So you will have to buy your own herb seed packets

However, if you remember in our calculation above, a packet of seeds costs under $3, so on a per seed cost it’s pretty negligible.

I like the varieties True Leaf Market, Botanical Interests and Renee’s Garden offer.

Online seed companies will have your standard Genovese basil, dill, cilantro etc but also unique heirlooms and hard to find varieties!

Buying Seeds

On my list to try are herbs like

• Munstead lavender
• Vietnamese bac lieu cilantro
• Shiso
• Cardinal basil
• Danish dukat dill
• Watercress
• Mexican tarragon
• Creeping thyme
• Marshmallow

I’ve found that certain dishes really taste quite different if you’re able to get your hands on the authentic ingredient.

birds eye Thai chilis are really easy to grow indoors – try them if you like spicy food!

For example, one of my favorite Thai dishes is pad kra pao.

When I cook it at home, I often substitute Genovese basil and it comes out fine.

But in Thailand, they use holy basil (and lots of Thai chilies), which gives the dish a really distinct pepper-y, clove like flavor that’s hard to replicate without the same herb.

I can sometimes find Thai basil at Asian supermarkets but I’ve never really seen holy basil (tulsi) so I just grow it myself – it grows very easily!

Amazon Herb Garden ROI in Year 1

¹ Ahopegarden doesn’t disclose their garden light wattage, so I estimated Ahopegarden electricity costs equivalent to the Aerogarden Harvest.

So growing the same herbs in the Ahopegarden gets you an even better return – 265% ROI!

Because the machine is much cheaper, you earn back the cost of the machine in the 2nd harvest month.

Incalculable Benefits to Indoor Gardening

This post was math-y because I know some people really want to get into the weeds of maximizing their purchases.

But, I can’t sign off without mentioning all the non-quantifiable benefits I get from indoor gardening!

A lot of the gains don’t necessarily have a dollar value.

Gardening as a Hobby

There’s something really calming about having greenery inside my apartment.

I get a lot of joy out of growing my own food.

And even if my tomatoes look a little small or my eggplants don’t grow perfectly shaped, knowing that you grew a whole vegetable from seed is really, really rewarding.

learning to garden has given me a huge appreciation for food – where it comes from, the work that goes into producing it, cooking, etc

Clean & Organic Produce

I also care a lot about nutritional value and cleanliness, which isn’t really captured in a pure dollar return analysis.

By growing vegetables from seed and harvesting them at their peak, I know exactly what went into that produce, how ‘clean’ it is and how fresh it is.

I know for sure that my produce is ‘organic’ and hasn’t been sprayed with any pesticide.

I remember being shocked when I discovered that USDA organic doesn’t mean pesticides weren’t involved during the growing process…

It just means the farmers used pesticides from a USDA approved list.

Peak Nutritional Value

Another important aspect that’s not captured in a ROI calculation is nutritional value.

Produce at the store is often picked too early or stored for too long, so you have no idea how fresh something is when you buy it.

For example, apples are typically over a year old. Limes are picked when they’re green.. but the ripe version of a lime is actually yellow.

Lettuce frequently gets recalled for bacteria outbreaks.

So a big part of my motivation to continue to grow my own vegetables is to eat the freshest possible food.

once I started gardening, I noticed a huge difference in how long veggies from my indoor garden would last, vs. produce from the grocery store. I’m pretty sure commercial growers + big box stores are liberally spraying food with preservatives – even the organic stuff!

All produce has a peak nutritional window.

When you grow your own food, you can harvest at the best time and maximize the nutrients that you’re consuming.

Unique Varieties

And finally, I often grow vegetables that you can’t find at the grocery store!

There are hundreds of varieties of every vegetable type but often only 1 or 2 varieties available to buy at the grocery store.

Typically, commercial farmers choose vegetable varieties for their storage qualities.

Transporting vegetables hundreds of miles and keeping them looking good for as long as possible is more valuable for a seller than taste.

That’s why you typically see just 3 types of bell peppers (red, yellow or orange).

…but did you know there are brown bell peppers, white bell peppers, purple bell peppers etc?

And eggplants – most American grocery stores will sell large Black Beauties, which (imo) are tasteless and mushy.

If you’re lucky enough to have an ethnic grocery store in your area, you might be able to get your hands on long Japanese eggplants, skinny Chinese eggplants or cute round eggplants.

These smaller eggplant varieties have thinner skins, sweeter flesh and less bitterness so they don’t require pre-soaking and they taste so much better!

thai eggplants I grew from seed… to plate! I’ve never seen these ribbed eggplants sold in grocery stores or farmer’s markets

Having an indoor garden allows you to use your own seeds and grow whatever variety you want.

I love browsing seed catalogues and picking out exotic looking heirlooms to experiment with.

Some of my favorite online seed companies are True Leaf Market, Botanical Interests and Renee’s Garden.

I have a full list of my favorites here.

There’s probably the most variety with tomatoes and peppers – you should grow your own for truly flavorful, candy-sweet tomatoes!

Last Thoughts..

Calculating herb gardening ROI was pretty interesting!

I ran all my numbers based on local pricing – NYC is a particularly expensive place to shop for food.

If you happen to live in a utopia with access to affordable, fresh food and local farmers markets, you may not find it worthwhile to grow your own.

(I’m always amazed at the quality of produce in places like France and California and especially at how affordable food is in Europe. I dream of 2€ croissant + coffee combos…)

Electricity is the largest on-going cost, so your local utility rates will also change the ROI calculation.

I’ve noticed my electric rates have skyrocketed in the last year.

With so many indoor gardens, I’m starting to weigh the cost of large, hydroponic floor machines compared to small countertop systems.

And finally, there’s definitely a learning curve to hydroponic gardening, so your harvests may not be as productive in the beginning.

With electricity costing what it does, time is money! The key to high returns is to have productive harvests with constant produce turnover.

I would encourage anyone to start tracking their harvests and running ROI calculations!

I’d be super curious to see what you find worth growing vs what you’d rather buy at the store – drop me a comment!

And a big caveat, the garden ROI varies significantly for every plant category.

Herbs are highly profitable but not all vegetables are created equal.

I had planned on showing you the return on growing indoor lettuce, tomatoes, peppers etc but this post is getting a bit long..

So I’ll be writing future posts deep diving into ROI for various vegetable categories – stay tuned!

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