Hydroponics gardening is an important subject in the gardening and vegetable field. In fact, one thing that you will definitely hear about when it comes to gardening is hydroponics. This method was used for the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Floating Gardens of China but because of its advantages, it is used in our times (21 century) too.

But don’t get confused if you are still a newcomer to the gardeners’ club and hydroponics sound totally unfamiliar to you.

By the end of this article you will have a perfect idea of what a hydroponics garden is and you will be able to explain confidently to anyone who is interested in this about the drip system, or the ebb and flow system and about the advantages and drawbacks of each one of them.

But let us first start with the explanation of this type of gardening as a whole. The meaning of the word hydroponics comes from Greek where  ‘hydro’ stands for water, and ‘ponics’ means labor, so basically the word hydroponics in gardening terms is used to describe the type of gardening that doesn’t need the plants to have their roots in soil.

To make it clearer this soil-free type of gardening replaces the soil with a water based system which is enriched with nutrients added to it. They can be either produced as specially formulated chemicals for hydroponics type of garden, or in the form of a variety of natural nutritional ingredients found in nature itself. But it is the gardener’s choice which type to use.

If you are wondering which is the best method for growing, you will probably prefer containers since it's a soil free system. Besides a number of different varieties of containers, and pots are available to find on the market nowadays.

And another thing you have to consider is the growing medium for the plant which means something for it to get its roots into. When it comes to the growing medium, different gardeners will have different likes and dislikes.

For instance, a very simple and easy solution, especially for the first time gardener, is shale, but you might also give preference to Rockwool or Hydroton which in certain cases may turn out to be a better growing medium for your plants than shale would be.

You have to keep in mind that while horticultural Rockwool can be applied for just about any system used to pass along the nutrient enriched water to the plants, Hydroton and shale can be used only in an ebb and flow system.

And finally we reached the most essential part – the two types of system mentioned above. On one hand, the flow and ebb system is able to flood and then drain the containers regularly by using a pump , on the other, a steady ration of water solution is supplied to each plant by the drip system continuously thus maintaining the plants constantly in good shape.

The idea of hydroponics gardens is used by many gardeners who take advantage of its higher growth rate to create high yield fruit gardens and vegetable.