Hydroponic gardening is an alternative way of growing various types of plants and vegetables without the use of soil. Plants grown hydroponically are grown in containers (usually plastic buckets or glass mason jars) with the roots submerged in a water based, mineral nutrient rich solution. Most hydro gardens use some type of inert medium such a perlite, gravel, mineral wool or coconut husk, which helps to enable the plants roots to receive precious air. The increased air that the plant's roots get through hydroponic gardening is perhaps the greatest advantage of hydro gardens over traditional gardening methods. Other advantages of hydroponic gardening include higher crop yields and less nutrition pollution of the environment from fertilizer use.

Starting your own hydroponic garden, or hydrofarm, can be extremely fun and rewarding. A properly set-up hydrofarm requires less maintenance than a traditional garden, and achieves superior results. Hydroponic gardening is also a greener way of growing your own plants. Instead of allowing your fertilizers to make their way into rivers and streams, the fertilizers in a hydro garden can be continuously reused. This also saves on your fertilizer costs!

If you are interested in starting your very own hydroponic garden, don't be discouraged, it may be a lot easier than you think! There are many vendors online who sell specialized kits to get you started. There is also a vast amount of useful information to help you along the way, all you need to do is a "hydroponics" search on Google. If you don't want to buy a hydroponics kit online, then all you need to buy are some plastic 5 gallon buckets, perlite or gravel, an aquarium air pump, nutrients for the watering solution (I recommend buying premade solution online), and your plants of choice. All of these items are available at you local gardening supply store, except for the pre-made nutrient solution as this tends to only be available at select specialty shops.

Well, I hope this article has given you a little better understanding of what hydroponic gardening is, basically. For gardening hobbyists, starting a hydro garden can be a fun and different addition to their traditional in-ground or container gardens. If your like me, then your always looking fantastic new ways to produce awesome tasting vegetables at home, and avoid buying expensive and almost tasteless vegetables from the grocery store. Hydroponic gardens, as with all gardens, can be challenging at first, then they become exciting, and then towards the end they become extremely rewarding and beneficial. That being said, why don't we all get out there and get growing?!!!