This is certainly one of the more unusual vegie gardens
that I've visited.
It's the driveway garden of Brian Bullock,
a mad keen hydroponics grower.
BRIAN: Hydroponics is growing plants in water
without soil and the fertiliser is added to the water.
Obviously it's growing well. Yeah, it's really productive
because fertiliser is in liquid form
so the plants are able to take it up
and it's optimised to the particular vegetables and to what they need.
And even at different stages of growth.
Brian is growing all sorts of produce on a very small footprint,
which has allowed him to overcome a lack of garden space
for a traditional vegie patch.
What are the advantages of growing hydroponically
compared to soil-base gardening?
Well, you don't need a garden if you've got a concrete block,
you're only in a small area on a fence or something like that,
you can utilise that space, you can grow vertically.
You're saving on water, you're using 20% of the water you would use
in a traditional soil garden.
You're saving on fertiliser.
Because the fertiliser is contained within the system,
it's not leeching away into the water table,
you're using it fully.
And you get accelerated growth because the fertiliser is blended
to target the plants just what they need,
nothing more, nothing less.
So they're always at optimum, as you can see,
you know, these leaves are perfect.
If the plants aren't growing in soil, what do they get their roots into?
OK, we just need to hold them in a media,
in this case, I'm using expanded clay
but you could use gravel or perlite or vermiculite
or a rock wall block
and it just needs something to anchor the plant in
to hold it there. And that won't break down.
Yeah, inert and stable.
And so, you know, people use pea gravel
or - that's very cost effective -
or this expanded clay, you can re-use this,
just wash it out and re-use it over and over.
Brian's hydroponic garden is a classic DIY project
made from found and second-hand parts, it's very low cost.
The main thing to keep in mind is to use food grade parts
and regularly check the concentration of nutrients
and pH level in the system
so that plants are getting exactly what they need to flourish.
Take a water sample...
Brian checks his daily.
..which is around about six, that's perfect.
There are a number of growing methods to explore as well.
This set-up is called the Dutch bucket method.
Take us through the basic process of a system like this.
OK, so you've got a reservoir or a drum
to hold the nutrient solution
and then we're pumping it up through this black line here.
I'll put two drippers in each bucket
and then it returns through the tap hole in the bottom.
And in this case, we've layered it,
so we're utilising that water again for this system
and then this returns and down into the drum
and it just pumps around.
Are these containers easy to plant up?
Very easy to plant. If you wanna help me,
we'll plant this one up now.
OK, I'll grab this.
I'll just use this net pot to screen the hole
if you could just pour some stones in there, please.
Sure.
Rightio.
So I've got these broccoli here, I was gonna plant in here.
How many would go into a container of this size?
I like to put two.
Like, one in each corner is a good...a good thing here.
Just dig a hole.
Is there enough moisture there to prevent transplant shock?
What I'll do now is I'll water 'em in
and then I'll check 'em tomorrow morning or something,
if they look like they're a little bit thirsty,
I'll give 'em a little bit more.
And then within three days, the roots will be down
and they'll be doing fine.
That'll do. And that's it.
We're growing broccoli. The Dutch bucket way.
Yeah. To grow two broccoli, they'll be fantastic.
The broccoli are up and running in the Dutch bucket
but there's an even simpler passive system
that even the most novice gardener could try.
It's called the Kratky method.
Oh, wow! Look at that root mass.
Yeah, look how healthy it is.
We're just starting with a bucket...
..and a lid.
We cut a hole in it here so that this goes through.
And what I do is I put a drain hole level with the bottom of the net pot
on each side so we can't overfill it
and if it rains, the rain won't drown the plant.
And so you just plant - in this case, we've got celery -
so we just plant our celery into there
and we water it from the top, like this...
With your nutrient-rich...
With the nutrients, with full-strength nutrients.
So we water it from the top. OK.
When it's over filled... Yep.
..it'll come out the side.
So once the roots are into the nutrient, you don't...
You only need to top it up, like, once a week or once every two weeks,
depending on the weather.
Does it go stagnant?
In warm weather, this is not suited for really hot weather,
it does go stagnant, yeah.
That's why I like to grow Kratky... with a Kratky method in winter only.
OK.
But you can grow in summer but it's tricky.
And perfect for things like celery that don't mind wet feet.
Yeah. Celery just loves this.
Making the use of vertical spaces
is a real advantage of hydroponic growing that I love.
Imagine the possibility of using walls and fences to grow food.
This looks like a good space-saver. This is great.
This is a... So we've built it on a vertical system.
What we do is we pump up to the top
and the nutrients go around the system
and with gravity, takes them back to the reservoir
and we just pump that around.
And the plants are planted into these net pots.
What we do...
..is by cutting a piece of plastic and gluing it like that, we can...
..keep the nutrient level at the right level,
so even when the system is off,
the plants are just touching the... the f...
..nutrients. I see.
So they've got their feet wet. Very neat.
And I guess you could grow picking greens, cucumbers,
anything like that. Yeah, for sure.
You can grow lots of smaller plants.
This system is fantastic for that. And great for up against a fence.
I reckon I've got just the spot at my place to try something like this.
Yep. In an urban environment where space is limited,
this makes great use of it, great use of the space.
I've got another project. Fantastic.
Hydroponics really makes sense for growing food where space is limited.
And as you can see, the results can be really impressive,
and as Brian knows, highly addictive.
You can grow pretty much any sort of food.
Obviously, you're not gonna grow a field of wheat or a field of barley,
but for your home-grown vegetables,
you can grow pretty much everything in hydroponics
via a different method.
And you have fun doing it? A lot of fun. Yeah.
It's so productive.
You come home and you can just see the growth every day
in the plants.