Hydroponics

I moved into an apartment after having a house with a garden for years and the saddest part was that I could no longer grow my vegetables. I would check my vegetable garden every night after work and would often enjoy a glass of red which checking to see what had grown during the day it was great stress relief, very therapeutic.

I moved because I needed to for work and after a few weeks of pondering the problem I came across hydroponics while I was surfing the Internet one night and looked at my nice big open apartment and a light bulb went on in my head. I hadn’t thought of it before but why not turn my apartment into an indoor garden paradise with hydroponics.

I loved the idea of living in my garden and the next day I visited the local hardware to start putting my hydroponics together. The night before I had sketched out a plan of what I wanted to do and the plants that I planned on growing. I wanted to grow hydroponics tomatoes in the large living area, near the French doors to the terrace. The red would go well and be in stark contrast to the white walls and there is nothing better than a freshly grown tomato, thanks to hydroponics.

The leafy greens needed a cooler area to grow and there was an ideal spot near my bed for lettuce, Swiss chard and some yummy hydroponic spinach. Carrots and potatoes in a corner near the television between my two big palms and the beets, cucumbers, peas, broccoli and cauliflowers can live in a hydroponics setup behind the couch.

I then thought about fruits, I love my berries in particular and frozen berries are just not the same. So I looked around my large space to think where the berries would go and on the huge bench in the kitchen looked like the best place for the hydroponics strawberries, blueberries and raspberries – my mouth was watering at the thought.

And last but by no means the least would be my hanging hydroponics herb gardens with fresh oregano, basil and sage to spice up all of my dishes.

The first things that I bought for my hydroponics at the hardware store were the containers that would hols the net pots, I chose some large Styrofoam, oblong containers that would fit the areas that I had carefully measured out before leaving home that morning. Next, some hanging planters for the herbs and my hardware store are bit of a hydroponics specialist so I could buy the net pots as well for the growing media.

I talked to them about what I wanted to achieve with my hydroponics and they said it was pretty unusual but they were fantastic and helped me out with the rest of the hydroponics gear and even delivered it free to my home. Geoff from the store even hung around for a while to help me set up the hydroponics and it looked pretty good by the time we had finished three hours later and sat down to enjoy a cold beer while we admired our hydroponics handiwork.

After that it was exciting to watch my hydroponics garden grow. In every room of the apartment there were living plants and there was such a fresh atmosphere to the place. Things started to really take shape and I decided to plan a dinner party with a couple of my closest friends, they hadn’t visited my new apartment yet and would be surprised by my budding hydroponics garden.

So I would have a dinner and all of the dishes would be prepared with foods from my hydroponics garden. So I sent out the invites to Penny, Steve, Josh, James and Franny for the next Saturday night. I didn’t tell them that I would be making them dinner from my wild hydroponics garden I just told them that I was serving them some special food and that they would be crazy to miss it.

They must have thought so too because they all replied with a big yes and I set about planning the menu. I did need to use some other ingredients to add to the menu but the food was mostly from the hydroponics garden that was flourishing, maybe it was also from the music I played to it every night as well.

Half an hour before my guests were due to arrive I surveyed the banquet prepared from my hydroponics garden. There was a vegetarian lasagne (I even made the pasta sheets myself), a green salad with lots of juicy hydroponics tomatoes, vegetable stacks individualised for each person and for dessert a berry surprise with homemade blueberry, coconut cream ice cream.

My mouth was watering at the thought of it all though I had been eating food everyday from my hydroponics garden and my food bill was costing me now next to nothing, my electricity a bit more but I use economical lamps for my hydroponics garden beds to minimise costs. My guests arrived and they stood staring, mouths open at my amazing, indoor hydroponics garden.

There was greenery and plants everywhere and Steve asked me if I had moved into a hothouse. Penny was the best she said that she absolutely loved what I had done with the place and she told me I was amazing when we all sat down to eat in front of the hydroponics home grown food.