Avery Ranch Connects June 2021 issue

A V E R Y R A N C H G A R D E N E R S
Backyard
Hydroponic
Hydroponics is a growing gardening trend that allows you to
grow plants without soil. Hydroponic systems use a nutrient
solution to provide all the nutrients necessary for plant
growth in an oxygenated environment. This month, we
talked with Granite Shoals resident, Ben Henning, on how he
Gardening
set up his system.
How long have you been hydroponic gardening?
Interview with Granite Shoals resident,
Ben Henning
This is my third year and every year I try to do something
new. My initial garden had a huge system. I just kind of tried
to go too big at once. I had a vertical garden that was twice
as big as my current one. It was great; I got a ton of stuff on
it. The next year, I started doing something called recirculating
deep-water culture--where you grow with a
reservoir that can sit in a deep pot of water and the rest of
the water is circulating through all of the plants in other pots
all the time. Then there was another one I did with an ebb
and flow system. It’s when your plants are positioned in a
spacious grow bed that’s packed with a grow medium like
rockwool or perlite or clay beads. You flood the grow bed
with a nutrient-rich solution for a certain amount of time,
then the excess water will be drained off and sent back to
the pump.
Why did you choose this style of gardening?
I have tried growing a garden in the ground but I have a
black thumb in comparison. For me, the reason I went to this
is because I'm lazy and especially in Texas summer, if you're
not watering every day your plants will die. So, if we go on a
vacation you know the plants will die. This started out as
just a way for me to be lazy because you don't really have to
manage the garden. I'll just check the levels maybe once a
week, but yeah it will never run out of water because it's in
water all the time.
Avery Ranch Connects • June 2021 p. 9