Hydroponics Gardening Essential

The open space to grow plants is decreased day by day. Many buildings, sport stadiums, houses, and other facilities were built, gardens and crop fields reduced significantly as the consequence. What if you want to make your garden but the land is very limited? If you have the same thoughts with me, maybe hydroponics gardening is the answer for you on this issue.

What do the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Floating Gardens of China, and a popular science fiction television program have in common? Hydroponics gardening!

You may have heard of a hydroponics gardening system before this, in which case you’ll understand what I’m talking about. If you haven’t heard about hydroponics gardening, don’t worry. Hopefully by the time we reach the end of this article, you will have a clear idea of what a hydroponics garden is, and if someone asks you whether you think a drip system, or an ebb and flow system is better, then you won’t have to squint at them and say ‘eh?’ in that confused way.

Before we get on to the subject of drip, and ebb and flow systems, let’s take a crash course in hydroponics gardening.

Coming from the Greek words ‘hydro’ for water, and ‘ponics’ for labor, the word hydroponics in gardening terms is used to specify a type of gardening that doesn’t have its roots in soil, if you will forgive the pun. This soil-free type of gardening depends entirely on a water based system that is enriched with nutrients.

These nutrients can either be in the form of specially formulated chemicals for hydroponics gardening, or they can come as a variety of natural nutritional ingredients found in nature itself. The use of either nutrient form is solely dependent upon the gardener.

Since hydroponics gardening is a soil free system, containers are the best methods for growing, and a number of different varieties of containers, and pots are available to buy.

As a growing medium for the plant, something for it to get its roots into, different gardeners will have different likes and dislikes. Shale is a simple and easy solution, especially for the first time gardener. With a little bit of research however, you can easily find out if Hydroton or Rockwool is a better growing medium for you than shale would be. (Hydroton and shale can be used in an ebb and flow system, whilst horticultural Rockwool can be used with just about any system).

“Any system’ referring to methods used to pass along the nutrient enriched water to the plants. Again there are many options for the hydroponics gardener to choose from, but I will explain here only the two systems that I mentioned earlier.

Simply put, the ebb and flow system uses a pump to respectively flood and then drain your containers at regular intervals. The drip system uses a continuous drip that supplies a steady ration of water solution that’s right for each plant. 

Also it should be noted that hydroponics gardens have a higher growth rate, and many gardeners take advantage of this to create high yield vegetable and fruit gardens.

Now that you know what hydroponics gardening entails to a large extent, with a little more research you should be able to set up your own hydroponics system, and keep yourself year round in fresh fruits and vegetables!

Shade Gardening Tips

There was so many shade gardening tips out there. Honestly, shade gardening is not an easy thing to do. Shades may affect the part of your garden. The larger the shade area will have larger effect also.

If you’re a first time gardener, or you’ve inherited your garden along with your house, then you’ll probably not have noticed that your garden has a shaded area. Believe me it will have a shaded space somewhere, even if it is in the very corner of the yard. That’s why you’ll need to be doing shade gardening this year. Executed properly, your shade garden can take you through for a long time.

If you find the shade in your garden is due to a tree or trees, even if it is your neighbor’s tree, you’ll find that the soil will be dry and full of roots. Planting may be difficult and you may have to improve the soil slightly before anything will grow. Be careful when doing this as some trees, like Oak, are very particular, and can be extremely sensitive to changes in soil depth. Also, if you have to till the soil around the roots, you’ll again need to be very careful as root breakage may occur and the tree might be damaged in the long term. No one ever said shade gardening was going to be easy!

When choosing your plants, you’ll have to keep in mind the conditions that are likely to be prevalent within your shaded area. Low, dappled sunlight, to perhaps no sun at all, or perhaps sun at only certain times of the day. Limited water in the soil due to an extensive root system, poor air circulation caused by low lying branches, or intrusive walls. These are only some of the conditions you’ll have to deal with when shade gardening.

Having passed through the more serious parts of shade gardening, we can now move on to the more fun parts. Namely designing, and laying out your garden, and buying your plants!

Since plants that thrive in the shade aren’t as vivid and bright as plants that grow in full sunlight, it’s best if you lean more towards flowers with pastel shades, as darker colors will only tend to blend into the background.
Foxgloves are a favorite, as are Daisy’s, and Begonias. Bluebells and Forget-me-nots are also some true blue favorites. If you plan your shade gardening carefully, you can have blooming flowers for almost the whole year.

Other plants to consider are groundcovers. Hostas, are traditionally a good groundcover plant, with its big leaves that tend to hug the ground. English ivy, Wintercreepers, and Ajuga are also very good for groundcover.

No matter what you decide upon, make sure that you enjoy shade gardening, and all the benefits it can bring to you, like the peace of mind and relaxation that you can get from the natural subdued colors offered by the shaded garden.