Gardening is one of the best ways to have great tasting safe food. In our area, Northern California, we are blessed because the weather is so good for growing so many things. It is easy and fun to start plants indoors and the whole family can enjoy watching them grow to be transplanted later. We are in Zone 9 which always seems to be favorable for so many things.

If space is a problem, grow bags and container gardening are all very effective. We generally have dome of our tomatoes growing in grow bags.

Hydroponic gardens have become extremely popular and pretty easy to do. It involves plant growing without the use of soil. Plants are essentially grown in just water with nutrients added to the water.

Another form of gardening is to have a self sustaining. mini eco system called Aquaponics (different from hydroponics).  A basic description of Aquaponics involves a water tank feeding the planter. The excess water is drained into a fish tank where the fish droppings are mixed with water and pumped back into the main water source, only to repeat the cycle over and over.

Hydroponics on the other hand involves plant roots being fed by continuous or periodic flows of fertilized water, This is becoming a very common way to grow things without the dirt. A couple of examples of hydroponics that we use are the Aero Garden, which is a tabletop device that you can you can use to grow small plants or use for seed starting.  

Our main hydroponics systems are the "Tower Garden" distributed by Juice Plus. These are large and self contained.  They allow several  plants to be grown in the same "garden" if desired. You can check these systems out online.  Be aware, they are a bit pricey but can sometimes be found second hand like ours were. While checking out hydroponics, you will find many other devices and even some DIY hydroponics systems. We have seen a number of them on YouTube.

Below is a picture of one of our "Towers". It has zucchini, bell peppers and Black Cherry tomatoes all growing in it.