The Joy of Fresh Salads
A Hydroponic Gardening Adventure
I was inspired to write this thanks to JM Heatherly, who just wrote an article on growing hydroponically.
We had recently bought and moved into our first house and had heard about growing hydroponically. Our new garden was quite small and fairly shaded. We got very excited about this interesting concept and fell for it hook, line and sinker.
We had heard an ad on the radio for where to buy hydroponic grow kits, and off we went to check into it. The gentleman we were referred to was very nice and laid back and gave us a tour of some of the kits he had, which he had set up in the basement of his store. It was easy to be inspired by his enthusiasm and the beautiful heads of lettuce he showed us growing were incentive enough all by themselves.
He assured us that we would be able to grow a wide variety of vegetables, including tomatoes. We were convinced.
We would need shelves, fluorescent lights, and, of course, the hydroponic kits, which included the bin, the growing medium (small pebbles), a small pump, and plastic piping for the water to flow from tank to tank.
We decided we could set all this up in the basement of our new house. We crammed all the bits and pieces into Bruces’ small hatchback and took everything home.
I admit to not remembering in detail how we got everything set up, but it took a bit of time and effort.
My sketches do not show the plastic pipes running from the tanks and the small pump to run the system. Bruce, my husband, being the techy was the main architect.
The plants — Lettuce and Chives and Tomatoes, grew quickly. Much more quickly than we had anticipated, and we soon found ourselves enjoying salads from our own plants
For about a year, this all worked very well. Then, one day, someone suggested that we bring the setup outside. I cannot for the life of me recall why that was suggested, but we did bring the units up from the basement and set them up in the driveway. Whitefly got into the plants. We were unable to get rid of them and finally decided that we would not be bringing the units back inside. And thus, our short-lived experiment with hydroponics ended.
