The Gardyn Hydroponic System
My One Year Review
July is the one anniversary of setting up my Gardyn brand indoor hydroponic system and it seemed appropriate to do an update.
When the pandemic first hit and the store shelves emptied due to panic, I decided to grow what I could for my family. To help ease the stress of empty shelves and high costs. And thus began that process of self reliance. But that created two issues for me:
One, I live on the west coast. We don’t have summer or even four distinct seasons. We have three varying rainy seasons, and about 10 minutes of summer at the end of July. As of 6–21–22, we STILL have not had one day above 75. And this year has been exceptionally rainy, even by west coast standards.
The second issue is space. I own my home, but the lot that it is on is small. So I had to use what little space that I had.
So I started with two different hydroponic units for indoor growing to help provide during the cold season. I have a Gardyn and an Aero-garden.
They are both are awesome units, but when I buy more indoor units, they will absolutely be Gardyn.
And most important… A year later and YES I still love, LOVE, LOVE, it.
It is still 100% worth the time, money, and effort that it takes to run it.
The change in my family’s diet was amazing and worth every penny.
My kids enjoyed helping me with the Gardyn and watching everything grow. Because they helped, and watched everything grow, they were more willing to try things… just because we grew it.
One kid loves dill in his scrambled eggs. He would have never tried that, prior to growing dill. Even though it’s something I have eaten my whole life and he’s seem me eat it a bazillion times.
My kids got to taste a variety of lettuces and choose their favorites. Which resulted in them eating more things that required lettuce. Tacos were no longer meat and cheese. They had fresh lettuce, cilantro, and chives as well.
We have a lot of fresh salad goodies on hand, so they eat more salads. They don’t have to worry about opening a bag of lettuce and wasting it. They can pick what they need, fresh.
Throughout winter, I grew primarily a variety of lettuces and herbs in my Gardyn. I also had strawberries, mini eggplants, cucumbers, and tomatoes.
I had four basil plants, which grew enough to require me to dehydrate twice a week, sometimes more.
Around April, I let most of my plants bolt, or go to seed. Then, instead of replanting it with Gardyn pods, as I normally would. I made my own pods, with seeds for the plants that I wanted for my outdoor garden.
I used my gardyn unit as a seedling nursery for my outdoor garden.
It worked perfectly. I had strong seedlings for spring planting.
Once those were planted, I did my first deep clean. I should have already done one, because they recommend them more often than that, but mine had shown no signs of needing one.
I clean the tank with every refill, but this was my first column cleaning. And it was easy. Tedious and a bit time-consuming, but that was because I recently had a seizure (my first one), and didn’t trim my roots for about three weeks, while I recovered. So I had a lot of roots, and in places where I normally wouldn’t have them.
I have found the app to be an unnecessary expense.
HOWEVER, if you are new to growing a garden, not very good at it, or not very experienced, it’s worth its weight in gold.
The app will literally walk you through everything. It tells you what to do, when, and even how. Growing is fool proof with the app.
I have never paid for the app that comes with the unit. When i got the unit, it came with a starter set of seed pods. I ordered rock-wool and seeds online. I just reused the baskets that came with the original pods.
For the first two months, I didn’t use the app at all. But one perk of having a unit is a referral code. If someone uses your code, you get a free month of the app and 10 free pods.
Even after using the app, I didn’t find that I benefited from it. I am pretty knowledgeable about growing, so I didn’t need the tips and tricks. I get my own seeds and rock wool from amazon, so I didn’t need that feature either. Although, when I earn free pods, I use them (and save the white baskets for my rockwool/seeds).
The whole point of growing food is to be cost effective. Free is very cost effective. :)
The bottom line is that if I had to choose between the two hydroponic units that i bought, id would buy more Gardyn units, and plan on doing so, before this winter.
It has made an amazing impact on my family’s eating habits.
It is beautiful and easy to care for, and grows almost anything. (except root veggie like potatoes and carrots)
I would 100% buy it again.
I would 100% recommend it for anyone who wants to grow, but hasn’t been very successful.
Rowen is a mother, Wife, Domestic Violence Victims Advocate, community volunteer, and nature lover. Most of her time is spent with her family or volunteering in her community. Rowen has a degree in Psychology, with a concentration in Family Counseling and Minoring in criminal justice. Writing has been her passion since high school, and she enjoys using it to help others.
My Gardyn, Day 7. Unplanned update: I have sprouts!! | by Rowen Quinn | Quinn’s Pen | Medium
Feed Your Illness, or Feed Your Health | by Rowen Quinn | ILLUMINATION | Medium
How the Gardyn helped Changed the Way We Eat. | by Rowen Quinn | Writers’ Blokke | Medium
Pandemic To Homesteader. City Homesteading update!! | by Rowen Quinn | Quinn’s Pen | Medium
Gardyn referral code: rfstephanie72795 will get you a discount of 125.00–200.00 (depending on the unit purchased)
Disclosure: I “technically” I get a free subscription with every referral code redeemed. However, I don’t use their app subscription, free or otherwise. I do however, redeem the free seed pods.
I LOVE MY GARDYN!!!! And will promote long after my code runs out. Even when I get nothing, I will recommend this unit !!!😊