What about Hydroponics?

Gardening for many of us involves the feel of fresh dirt beneath our fingertips, the smell of wet soil, and the anticipation for the harvest. For gardeners, it seems that soil and space are key ingredients to having a healthy, thriving garden, but what if it wasn't? What if you could grow more vegetables in a smaller space with no soil and recycled water?

With a technique termed hydroponics, this is in fact possible! The idea of hydroponics has actually been around since the 1600's when Francis Bacon published a work about growing plants without soil. Since then, hydroponics has evolved into a gardening and farming technique used to grow organic, healthy, and large quantities of produce. You are able to control the plants' environment and also, due to no soil being needed, you eliminate problems the soil may have as well as pests that could harm your plants. 

But how can plants grow without soil? Plants don't necessarily need soil to grow, actually. It is the nutrients in the soil that they seek and they can get these nutrients by simply being added to the water. 

There are multiple ways to do hydroponics. Here are a few examples:

Drip System Home Hydroponics!

Example of a Drip System. 

This is the simplest form of hydroponics:
The Wick System

The Wick system uses wicks to transport the
 nutritious water to the plants

The roots grow down reaching the
constantly moving water which keeps
the roots moist. 

Nutrient film technique requires no medium.
Just a drip system and a nutrient pump.

You can even have fish give nutrients to the water through a similar process called aquaponics!

The fish are in the bottom and the nutrient
filled water is transported up!

Aquaponics! The fish do the work for you!

Hydroponics helps in many aspects of gardening especially if you have little space. It can be done inside or outside AND help save money with water by recycling or using a simple drip system. There are different types of hydroponics to choose from and more information on this can be found HERE. 

Personally, I am excited to try hydroponics in the near future to see how it works. Thanks for reading and happy gardening to all!