by Alice Rush
FOR ALL my previous complaints about bugs and bites and stings and itches, you would think that I would hate to garden. But I love gardening. I just have to take the proper precautions, and get motivated to put on clothing and bug sprays to help ward off the biting stinging insects, and that then necessitates what equates to a full decontamination when I come back inside finished for the day.
I also do my best to maintain a clear garden where I don’t have to come into much contact with the nasties. I plant marigolds around everything because they are helpful in keeping some bugs away. I’m a fan of all the plants that bugs don’t like including lemongrass and citronella, and all the flowering beauties that attract my absolute best friends in the garden, the dragonflies!
One of my favorite methods for gardening, that I use for as much as I can, is my hydroponic Tower Garden. Google it, it’s pretty great! I think I read once that hydroponic gardening, maybe it was even commercial hydroponic gardening, has been advocated in Holland for years? One of the features that I enjoy about it is that there are many fewer pests around the herbs and vegetables in my Tower Garden. Every year I map out what plants I want to grow there. Large and bushy plants like tomatoes and green beans can take over and cover up smaller plants like the lettuce and chard that I use for my salads, so care must be taken in how you arrange what you would like to grow.
THERE are spots for 20 different plants, and it is possible to grow more than one seed from each location, but not so many that they crowd each other out. This year, I “accidentally” planted a lot of cucumber seeds. I didn’t anticipate that they would all germinate, or maybe I thought I would put some in the ground instead of the Tower, I don’t know what happened. The bottom line is that I have 11 cucumber plants growing hydroponically. There is a 20 gallon water reserve at the base that feeds all plants, via a water pump system. In previous years I have topped off the water a few times during the summer, and of course fresh liquid fertilizer must be added weekly.
This year, during the hottest of weather, we have refilled the 20 gallon reserve as much as 4 times A DAY! I can only attribute this to the ever thirsty cucumbers that are growing like crazy and have produced quite a number of fruits for us. If we had to pay for our water we couldn’t afford the cucumbers! We have our own well, but I even had half a concern that they would run the well dry! It’s been a battle to consistently monitor the reserve water supply and keep it at a level that does not strain the pump. Several times we have checked and found the 20 gallon bowl nearly empty and the pump grinding away at nothing. It’s still working though, a testament to the quality of the product.
There is an optional timer for the water pump that after years of no change I have now reset, and either that change or the cooler weather has relieved us of some of the water refilling duties. The garden seems happy and continues to produce, and we aren’t running outside 3 and 4 times a day to top off the reserve. I still come in many mornings with arms full of cucumbers, as proof that indeed I have created a monster. But surprisingly, we aren’t sick of them yet!
* Alice is a Maine realtor and a licensed helicopter and fixed wing pilot. She first met her Dutch husband in Maryland in 2005, and married him four years later.
