Home and Garden

Welcome your garden into your home
year-round with grow lights

by Sara Holtz

It summer now, but cold, bitter temperatures are on the way. There's no time like the present to bring a little summer into your home. Hydroponics and grow lights allow you to cultivate plants whenever you want and without all the mess.

"You can control food and lighting," says Andrew Fowler, owner of U-Grow! Discount Garden Warehouse. "Basically you're force feeding the plants nutrients so they grow faster."

Hydroponic growing systems are ideal for flowers, herbs and vegetables. Since there is no soil involved, you don't have to worry about weeding, cultivation or pests. It also is believed to be the most efficient way to deliver food and water to plants.

Here are some factors to consider as you decide the method that's best for you:

> Growing media: Earth-friendly growing systems come in all different shapes, sizes and divisions. Media-based systems use a form of growing medium like ebb-and-flow, run-to-waste, drip-feed and bottom-feed. On the other hand, water culture systems like aeroponics, where the plant roots get misted with nutrient solution, don't use media.

> Active vs. passive systems: Active systems use pumps, timers and other electronic devices. Passive systems integrate some gadgets but do not use the pumps to run the process.

> Lighting: Of course you can place your herbs and veggies in front of a sunny window, but in the darker days of winter especially, you may want to highly consider an artificial grow light. Fowler suggests a 250 or 400-watt HID light for beginners. Artificial light increases the intensity of light plants would normally receive in the sun. Various wavelengths of radiation cause different plants to respond in physically different ways. It is important to remember as well that plants need at least 4 hours of rest at night.

Though hydroponics, ranging from $100-$500 for small or medium-sized systems, may not appear especially cost-effective, they can benefit you and your environment.

One place to start is the AeroGarden kit, which comes with the light, seeds and nutrients. It can be found at retailers, including Bed Bath and Beyond and Target.

"Start indoors early, then go outside and you'll have the first garden," Fowler says. "You'll be so far ahead of your neighbors."

If you don't want to spend the money on a hydroponic system, you always can start your vegetables and flowers in seedling trays with just a grow light. However, it's safer to transplant maturing plants into the ground after April 15.

Steffie Littlefield, horticulturalist at Garden Heights Nursery, says whatever method you choose, indoor gardening allows your plants to start earlier so they can grow to a mature size sooner.

If you wait to start your vegetables after the last frost date in April, they wouldn't be of any size until six weeks later. Growing inside permits you to get ahead of the season, specialize in the color of your flower garden and create unique plants you can't buy in stores, Littlefield says.