Gardening Methods

Would hydroponics be the way to go? I live on 80 acres, but don’t farm, need a small steady supply of veggies

Can be outside in the sunshine. I already do some container gardening and composting, I enjoy that. Garden has almost always failed because of the hard clay soil and insects. I would like it to be as organic as possible, and no weeds (not the other ‘weed’ either!). Also, does it need full sun or part-sun is OK? Wouldn’t the water get too hot in full sun?

You would probably be best off with a greenhouse, as opposed to having an indoor or outdoor hydroponic garden. This would allow light to come in naturally, while maintaining a closed environment so the plants don’t dry out too much. This would also prevent insects from attacking your plants and weeds from developing.

As far as a hydroponic system itself, this is pretty simple to design and construct. Basically, all of your plants will be growing in solid (not draining) pots full of gravel. Attached to the bottom of each pot will be a supply line for the water. These supply lines are all attached to a pump that pumps the water from a reservoir up through the bottoms of the pots. You would then have all of the pots on some kind of draining shelf over a catch basin, so the water gets recirculated back to the main water reservoir.

At timed intervals, the pump will come on and the pots will start to fill with water from the bottom (along with some amount of fertilizer). As the pots fill up and overflow, the overflow is caught in the catch basin and recirculated back to the water reservoir. After a few minutes, the pump stops and the water drains back down to the reservoir. This is key, because the receding water draws in nitrogen from the air to nourish the plants and prevent root rot.

Hydroponic gardening is very healthy for the plants, as every aspect of their growth is tightly controlled (like changing from a growth food to a blooming food at the right time of year). It also uses a lot less water, since only enough water to keep the plants healthy is actually used, and all overage is recaptured and reused.

Oase Pondovac 3 at www.water-garden.co.uk