Wow, last Saturday night was a shocker. Did you see any snow flurries where you are? That was just a taste of what is to come, but for now we are back to seasonable weather. The outdoor gardening season has definitely come to an end, but you can still do some indoor gardening.

Hydroponics is a great way to grow fresh vegetables indoors over the course of the winter. Getting a basic set-up is not as daunting as it may seem. A simple set-up would include a basin to hold the water, a small pond pump, tubing, some sort of a plant growing device, like PVC pipe or poly gutter, and a growing media like clay pellets or perlite. You have half of that list laying around the house right now. There are plenty of designs online and even more videos on Youtube about how to make a hydroponic garden. With hydroponics, the principle is that instead of using soil for your plants to grow in, the plants instead grow in a soilless environment where water is slowly dripped over the roots bringing all the moisture and nutrients that the plants will need. The nutrients in the form of fertilizers can get very specific depending on the crop.

I spoke with Frank Monteleone at Monteleone Gardens in Eldred as they grow hydroponic crops in their greenhouse all year long and are open to the public Thursday through Sunday. His fertilizer regimen is very specific and runs different for the different crops, but for the home hydroponic gardener, Foxfarm has a line of water-soluble fertilizers that will fulfill all your fertilizer needs. Now, you just can't drop some seeds in the water and expect them to grow. There is a product called rockwool, they have it at Monticello Farm Home and Garden, that you cut into small cubes, punch a tiny hole into it with a pencil and then after you put your seed in just set it in a tray of water (only about a quarter inch). Once the seedlings sprout and start to get some root that is when you would add them to your hydroponic system.

Now, being that you are doing this in the winter you will need some supplemental light as our daylight is dwindling every day. Your plants will need at least twelve hours of light a day so if our daylight hours are down to ten, you'll need to add the other two. You should use grow lights as they give off a different light spectrum than typical household lightbulbs. There are many different types of grow lights from newer LED's, fluorescents and even still some old incandescent bulbs. Of course, the LED's are the cheapest to operate. Growing indoors has the advantage of being insect free and for the most part disease and fungus free too.

Don't get discouraged if your first, second or even third attempt fails. Start small, trial and error, and eventually you'll figure out what works best for you. If you have kids or if you have grandkids that come over often, this is a great teaching tool on how to grow vegetables and herbs. Now, not every set-up will work for every crop - a horizontal set-up is better for tomatoes and peppers, while a vertical set-up can be better for lettuce, radish and most short herbs. Watch different videos on Youtube to get some ideas, just bear in mind they always make it look sooooo easy. It's not as easy as they make it look, but it's not hard either and once you have a set-up you like, you'll have it for years to come. Imagine a salad of fresh greens you just picked ten minutes ago or cooking with fresh herbs from your hydroponic garden.

When Frank and Phyllis opened Monteleone Gardens years ago, I wasn't sure that they would have enough clientele in Eldred to sustain them through the winter. Well, now that I live in Eldred, I can say that there is nothing like a fresh tomato or cucumber right off the vine in January or February. Garden in soil for six months and garden in the water the other six months.