by: Charlene Rennick
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How well do you have to know someone to ask them to come in and water your plants for you while you languish for two weeks on the beach? Does bringing over some junk mail deposited in your mailbox, but addressed to your neighbour, count as acquainted?
Desperate, you leave the key to your house and all your worldly belongings with a neighbour you barely know. After two weeks of veritable bliss, you return home. As you climb over the pile of newspapers to open the front door, your heart rate begins to pick up speed. You slowly open the front door, afraid that if you open your eyes you will see a bare room. You let out the breath you have been holding as the familiar silhouettes of your antique furniture begin to take shape in the darkness. As your eyes scan the room, you notice that something is missing from the bay window. Curious, you try to remember what was there. Dolefully, you realize that the gap you see used to be filled with the lush greenery of your treasured houseplants.
Oh, what a sight. Your favourite fauna is a nothing but a yellow twig draped over the side of the pot, stiff as a board and so dead that the roots and the soil have become one unit, merged forever like a cement shoe. Muttering under your breath, you bid farewell to that relaxed “I just got back from my vacation” feeling, swallow back unshed tears and gently bury the remains of the root system, cemented soil and all, in the back yard clinging to the hope that some of the roots might still be alive.
This scenario does not have to be the end to your vacation! You don’t have to choose between a home full of living things, fresh herbs in your grandmother’s recipe for spaghetti sauce or summer holidays complimented by a career that requires travelling.
Hydroponically grown plants are the less stressful solution. Because a hydroponics growing system requires no soil and recycles its own clean, nutrient-rich water, they do not need the same kind of constant care that a traditional soil-based plant needs. Hydroponic systems rely on less water and natural light is usually supplemented with grow lights. These systems can be automated with timers. In addition, because plants grown by hydroponic methods are fed the natural minerals and salts that they need, they are healthier than their soil-based relatives.