Hydroville

Gardening helps older men and women reap more than flowers, fruits, and vegetables — it benefits them physically as well, researchers report.

In a small study, 14 gardeners between 63 and 86 years old reported an average of 33 hours of gardening during a typical week in May, and 15 hours each week during June and July.

This level of gardening activity, “offers physical health benefits,” Dr. Candice Shoemaker, of Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, told Reuters Health.

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Using the Aerogarden to grow plants without soil is by all means a neat idea, but the product isn’t exactly urban chic. We like this concept more. 

By designer Gabriela Mombach, the Broto Domestic Greenhouse grows plants through aeroponics (in which nutrient mists replace soil) while constantly measuring pH, temperature, nutrients, and humidity. A row of LEDs support photosynthesis while keeping the pot’s handle cool to the touch.

It’s certainly not the warmest method to infuse your home with plant life, but it would certainly keep the dirt off your electronics.

(source: gizmodo)

Terry Fujimoto sees the future of agriculture in the exposed roots of the leafy greens he and his students grow in thin streams of water at a campus greenhouse.

The program run by the California State Polytechnic University agriculture professor is part of a growing effort to use hydroponics — a method of cultivating plants in water instead of soil — to bring farming into cities, where consumers are concentrated.

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An active gardening is one of the categories of Hydroponics gardening. In this system water is provided through the pumps to the plants. This is simple and easy method. This is an attempt to give some tips that will help you to manage Active Gardens. The following tips should be considered when you plan or prepare an Active Garden.

Decisions:

First important thing is that you have to make proper decisions of each and everything. Just find out answers of the following questions. What you want plant? Where you want to plant? and How you will plant? You have to learn growing methods. Or you have to know all things about growing methods. Knowledge of planting is the starting point of gardening or farming. Knowing information affects on the ventilation type, lighting, and temperature. These things are essential for Hydroponic gardening.

Types of Gardens:

Once you gave the answer to above questions then you will get many options of root systems like trickle system, ebb and flow system, NFt system, Aquoponic system etc. These systems are in different sizes and shapes. They have their own plus points. Prepare garden for your favorite corps.

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It used to be just religion and politics we had to avoid discussing. Now lines are drawn everywhere from Casual Friday to Tupperware. I’m always amazed how willing we are to argue about things, when the only facts we have are second-hand. That’s one of the nice things about talking gardening with a gardener. We’ve all been duped by deer repellents and black spot cures. We know gardening is an applied science and there are few absolutes. We only know what works for us.

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Over the next few weeks I hope to be able to enthuse you into getting started on growing some of your own vegetables and salads next summer. Because I am writing for a wide variety of climates – some of the things I write about will not be relevant to your part of the world, but by and large gardening common sense is pretty general, so I hope what follows will be interesting & useful.

If you are keen to grow some of your own vegetables, fruit and salads – now’s the time to start thinking and planning.
Firstly, think what you, or you and your family like to eat – don’t just accept a generalised list of things you should grow – should is not a helpful word!
Try not to get carried away and buy endless packs of seeds, garden gadgets and packs of compost, (I used to love seed catalogues & I’d spend more on seeds than I would ever grow, given the time and space that I had at my disposal) but just pick a few things that you would really like to grow and start small.

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With the price of inputs and land values on the rise, producers are looking for the least expensive way to get the most out of their crop ground.

Shannon Osborne, a research agronomist with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS), says cover crops have a number of advantages when it comes to getting the most from your land without taking too much away.

“There are a number of advantages to cover crops. Some of those include increasing soil organic matter. They increase water infiltration. They decrease soil erosion,” she said. “They can help you conserve soil moisture by leaving that residue on the soil surface. They can reduce soil compaction by having that living root zone there.”

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Organic gardening is popular today, and for good reason: It works wonderfully! Organic gardeners shun the use of synthetic chemicals to keep their yards free from potential hazards. But the real success of organic gardens lies in the methods used to keep plants growing vigorously, without a heavy reliance on sprays. Organic gardening cuts right to the heart of the matter: soil.

Soil is the life force of the garden. When enriched with organic matter, the soil becomes moist, fertile, and airy — ideal for healthy plants. It also nourishes a rich population of beneficial organisms such as earthworms and nutrient-releasing bacteria. And it harbors root-extending fungi that help make growing conditions optimal.

Organic gardeners also stress problem prevention in the garden. Putting plants in the right amount of sun, along with suitable soil, proper spacing, and ideal planting and watering, allows most plants to thrive with minimal upsets.

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If you’ve ever placed a plant clipping into a glass of water in the hopes that it will develop roots, you’ve practiced in a form of hydroponics. Hydroponics is a branch of agriculture where plants are grown without the use of soil. The nutrients that the plants normally derive from the soil are simply dissolved into water instead, and depending on the type of hydroponic system used, the plant’s roots are suspended in, flooded with or misted with the nutrient solution so that the plant can derive the elements it needs for growth.

The term hydroponics originates from the ancient Greek “hydros,” meaning water, and “ponos,” meaning work. It can sometimes be mistakenly referred to as aquaculture, or aquiculture, but these terms are really more appropriately used for other branches of science that have nothing to do with gardening.

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