Waiting for Spring…but maybe I don’t have to?

A friend and I were talking the other day, planning out what flowers we were going to plant this spring and where we’d purchase them for.  Here on the Canadian prairies, the rule of (the green) thumb is that you don’t dare plant anything – flowers or your garden – before the May long weekend (the third weekend in May) lest you be left with a damaged crop because of spring overnight freezing.  And so, we wait…planning but waiting.

That is, until I heard about aeroponic gardening – and the idea struck me as really interesting though I’m not sure I could pull it off.  According to Wikipedia, “Aeroponics is the process of growing plants in an air or mist environment without the use of soil or an aggregate medium (known as geoponics). The word “aeroponic” is derived from the Greek meanings of “aero” (air) and “ponos” (labour). Aeroponic culture differs from both conventional hydroponics and in-vitro (plant tissue culture) growing. Unlike hydroponic gardening, which uses water as a growing medium and essential minerals to sustain plant growth, aeroponics is conducted without a growing medium.[1] Because water is used in aeroponics to transmit nutrients, it is sometimes considered a type of hydroponics.”  So, uh…what does this mean for the average home-owner?

It looks like the idea of aeroponics takes a lot of work, but there are websites out there that will show you how to actually create an aeroponic system in a space as small as the top of your fridge or a window sill.  I wish I had a green thumb but the truth is I kill my petunias pretty easily and I’ve never been that good at growing a vegetable garden.  Still, for someone who loves growing plants, something like this would be really fun (and maybe a challenge?) to attempt year-round!  You do it first and let me know how it turns out, mmmm kay?