THE WINDOWSILL, HYDROPONIC, INFLATION-BUSTER GARDEN

Image Gallery This is the basic $1.00 hydroponic tray made from an alum foil roasting pan that is described in the accompanying article. Please note the fiberglass insulation wrapped around the tray to protect its contents from sudden temperature changes.

James B. DeKorne—who lives with his family on a small homestead near El Rito, New Mexico-has had several articles published in MOTHER, including: "Hydroponic Greenhouse Gardening" (MOTHER NO. 29, pages 68-71), "Yes, Virginia, There Is a Free Lunch ... It's Called the Solar Greenhouse" (MOTHER NO. 36, pages 101-104), "Organic Hydroponics" (MOTHER NO. 39, pages 32-35), and "Feedback on Organic Hydroponics" (MOTHER NO. 40, page 30). -The Editors. 

Longtime MOTHER readers may remember my articles on greenhouses and hydroponic gardening that have appeared in past issues of this magazine. They may also recall that my original interest in those subjects was whetted because I live in the northwest corner of New Mexico... where growing seasons are short and rainfall is scant.

A few years ago, I slowly became fascinated by the idea of using one or more hydroponic greenhouses to beat these gardening limitations. And then, before I knew what was happening, I found my fascination turning almost into an obsession. Darn it! I really began to relish the challenge of growing an absolute maximum amount of fresh, tasty food in the smallest practical space over the longest possible period of time. Result: My family's experiments with hydroponic window boxes last winter convinced me that almost anyone should be able to produce an amazing amount of green and leafy salad fare in just an average-sized window.

IT ALL BEGAN LAST DECEMBER

On December 18, 1976, we planted three 11 X 19-inch hydroponic gardens with lettuce and Chinese cabbage seeds and placed them in our bedroom window. We added a fourth tray to the first three on January 21, 1977.

These four mini-gardens have a combined surface area of 5.1 square feet ... which is roughly four square feet smaller than the top of an average-sized card table. And the window we placed them in faces a full seventy-five degrees east of due south . . . which is certainly not the best orientation for growing anything, but was the only orientation we had to work with so we used it.

Despite the small size of our four-sectioned salad plot and despite their less-than-ideal exposure to the sun, however, we began harvesting lettuce and cabbage leaves on February 19. And we continued that harvest on a daily basis from all four trays for a full month ... and, believe it or not, as this issue went to press we were still picking leaves from two of them. (We needed two of the containers for some different gardening experiments on March 19 ... so we pulled all of the lettuce and cabbage plants from them on that day, leaving only the other two trays for the continuation of our window box experiment.)

During the one-month period between February 19 and March 19, we picked a total of 6.15 pounds of greens from our 5.1-square-foot hydroponic garden. That's almost 1.2 pounds of edible tissue per square foot of growing space. Or, to put it another way, Elizabeth (my wife) and I were both able to eat a fresh green salad almost every night for a month in late winter (when such fresh green edibles are most appreciated) ... and all those salads were picked from a space only slightly larger than half the top of a card table.