This Sustainable House

Winter is starting to close in at TSH and in this climate that has implications for what can be grown. Specifically we have very harsh winters at Mulloon with very heavy frosts. This makes growing the kitchen garden somewhat challenging.

In order to alleviate the ‘issue’ of fresh greens over winter I am trying a new gardening technique… indoor hydroponic gardens. The system I am trialling initially is a flood and drain table placed alongside a north facing window. It is hoped that the window will provide enough light without artificially introducing additional light.

Of course there are other benefits to indoor gardens not least of which is humidification of the air inside the house. This is a fine line between adding a little moisture and creating a mould farm so a hygrometer has been installed to keep an eye on the ‘issue’.

The way that a flood and drain system works is that there is an electric pump in the resevior which turns on for 15mins per hour during daylight hours, with an additional 2 x 15min intervals during the evening. In this case we are running the pump for a total of 3.5 hours per day (in total). The pump floods the table to a predetermined depth during each flood cycle, and the nutrient enriched water then drains in-between.

The plants are growing in an inert media, in this case expanded clay, and are fed purely from the nutrient rich water which floods the table.

At this stage the garden has been planted with seedlings purchased from a nursery (kale, parsley, coriander & rocket) however over the weekend seeds will be planted in rockwool cubes to further populate the garden. Planning on planting silverbeet, basil, beetroot, chives & warragul greens. The garden isn’t very large so it’ll only be one or two of the above… but it’s a GREAT opportunity to test the new system.

Check out the photos below. I’ll keep you updated on it’s progress.