Geoponics

Geoponics- To Labor in the Soil

Soil is the building block of your garden. It is comprised of physical components, the organisms living within the soil, and environmental components that surround the soil (temperature, water, air). In order for your garden to prosper, you must understand the needs of the soil first, then manage the organisms and the environmental factors to create the best environment for the plants you wish to grow...

The Potager

Our fiberglass wicking gardens provide for a healthy contained environment no matter your geographical location. This easy to operate system allows for control of the soil's type, quantity and quality of the nutrients available to the plants, appropriate air flow, implementation of proper soil organisms (worms and beneficial bacteria) and water management.

The Potager Design has been developed for ease of maintenance and maximum production. The reservoir and soil depth allow plants to achieve the full range of nutrient benefits available. The waterfurrow with external fill pipe and overflow ensures that there are no dry spots in the bed, while allowing you to maintain optimal water depth from above without loss thru evaporation. Fertilization is supplied seasonally at planting time and supplemented with the addition of live cultures, soil conditioners and an appropriate supply of composting worms and their castings. Live cultures and worms are an essential part of this system, they provide a reliable, continuous cycle of bio-available nutrients completing the ecosystem. For increased productivity, we have an integrated a vermi-silo for worm feeding that will ensure a healthy worm population in your garden. Please visit our Potager Page to see available units and accessories

Worm Wicking Gardens

Although the origins of this system of gardening have been argued, there is no argument that worm wicking beds are an efficient use of water and amendments. They are, in fact, POWERHOUSES OF PLANT GROWTH. From a scientific standpoint, wicking gardens offer your plants access to essential needs and as a result they are

* More Reliable,

* More Productive &

* Take Less Work

than traditional gardening systems.

Our gardens take into account not only the mechanisms by which your plants derive their nutrients, but the physical characteristics of the one element, WATER, that allows those needs to be met.

What You Should Know

*No Digging is Required.

Bed is convenient and keeps pests out.

*Fertilize Once per Grow Season

Our worm castings and soil conditioner provide a balanced plant food source including naturally available minerals.

*Weeding is Unnecessary.

No water is applied to the surface, and therefore evaporation is minimized and weeds do not take root.

*Reduces Time in the Garden

The open reservoir holds a significant amount of free water reducing your time spent watering.

*Reduces Water Use

Healthy root structure is maintained by the wicking mechanism and the overflow assures that overwatering cannot occur.

*Grow Faster and Produce More Nutrients are immediately available without waste. Strain on plants is lessened.

How It Works

A wicking garden is it's own ecosystem, a self contained unit which creates a reservoir of essential water at the plant's disposal and mimics nature.

Because this is a closed system, irrigation runoff and loss of nutrients are a thing of the past. The wicking mechanism is provided thru the capillary action of the soil used and essential water/air ratios are determined by how much water is used by the plant. As roots uptake water and nutrients, empty pockets of air are created in the soil, the water is pulled up into the soil layer from the reservoir to replace what has been used.

Significant increases in production along with an estimated over 50% reduction of water usage over traditional gardening are the product.

Soils for wicking gardens are widely varied, but must take into account these essential elements :

Compactability, air supply, and water holding capacity.

Because this is a closed system, irrigation runoff and loss of nutrients are a thing of the past. Sustainable gardening principles allow for use of easily replenished local elements in replace of or in addition to soil, if these elements meet these essential requirements. Mixtures of native soil, sand, perlite, rock minerals, coconut coir, hay (straw), worm castings, gravel, rice hulls, sawdust, newspaper, mulch, bark, and other local materials have been used for growing medium. Fertilizers are used in quantities relative to the system size. Depending on the type of 'soil' used, amendments may be added to provide for the specific needs of the plant.

Generally speaking, soil is rock which over time has been reduced by environmental factors. Sand, silt, clay and mineral nutrients are all components of the original rock. Soil's physical characteristics (particle size, shape and arrangement) can be instrumental or detrimental to the life of your garden. Compactability, air supply and water holding capacity are the key elements that make your soil a hospitable environment for your plants. Take for instance volcanic soils, well known for their ability to provide available nutrients and aid in healthy plant growth, these soils are the result of a chemical reaction on the rock during a volcanic eruption and over time result in deposits of extremely fertile soil- without need of amendments.

Living organisms convert carbon and nitrogen gas into solid compounds, this is healthy for the environment as a whole. Your plants exchange soil nutrients for use as fuel to create fruit and continue it's circle of life, but in turn give us food. The roots of your plants create habitats through structural improvement of the soil and the living organisms in the soils, whether microscopic or other, thrive in this environment while returning their off wastes as another source of energy for the plant. Water quantity and temperature are the environmental factors which are characterized by the season or your location and can determine the possibilities of what you grow. These factors can be changed by you, the gardener, to balance the soil's ecosystem depending on the system you choose and whether you use a greenhouse or other weatherizing techniques. Managing the soil is essential to the life and health of your plants and therefore your garden. A healthy garden can not only combat insect attack, but in most cases, insects only attack plants that are unhealthy.