Taken just after I started the hydroponic Ebb & Flow system note the dry ground, that's what it is like in Western Australia in the summer.

My very first Hydroponic system (cute hey). I am growing a tomato plant in a bucket with a dripper dripping in to the lower bucket, I used to just pour the water in to the plant pot/bucket and let it gradually drained into the lower bucket, I then poured it back into the top again. It took several hours to drain. The diagram is of a slightly more refined system.

 
In mid summer the heat becomes a real problem in Western Australia, so here i've added shade cloth to the hydroponic ebb & flow system, I also added some micro sprinklers connected to our main irrigation system, which came on twice a day on hot days, it worked well.


The enemy bless em, they are Silky Bantams. Pictured in their cage but they are mostly free range. Unfortunately they have a nasty habit of pecking holes in low hanging fruit and they will eat all of your lettuce given half a chance.


The hydroponics drip / pot system prior to installing the bigger pump
the old truck side used as a table doesn't look too attractive does it

Here I am tending to my garden, looking at a young Tomato plant I think. In the foreground you can see my first major hydroponics system

My abandoned veggie patch as you can see the weeds were quick to take over, hence my move to hydroponics. I gained far more production from a space less than a 10th of the size and in a climate were waters is very valuable I used far less water.

Hydroponic rhubarb in expanded clay pellets, this plant went on to be transplanted into a half 44 gallon drum. It produced a lot of thick and tasty stems.

Young hydroponic potatoes started in half a plastic 44 gallon drum the growing media is perlite. I didn't use a dripper on this one but a small twist type sprinkler.

The same hydroponic potato crop a few weeks later.
The crop was very good but given the cost of the perlite it made it hard to justify doing again.
Need to find something cheaper.

Me again this time studying the Potato crop.
In the foreground you can see another of my hydroponic experiments, this was a 90mm pipe cut open at the top you can see the drain tube at this end, the nutrient was fed in at the top of the other end. It worked ok.

Part of the hydroponic drip/pot system
the black containers are recycled 20 liter drums cut around the join
again I've used Perlite as the growing media

Several varieties of lettuce growing in my
hydroponics Ebb & Flow system. The leafy varieties seem to do best in the ebb and flow system.

View showing the pot system in the foreground with the Ebb & Flow system in the distance. They ran independently with separate pumps at this time, eventually I link the nutrient tanks but they still had to have separate pumps and timers.

Top view of pot and tube perlite as the growing media, growing Marigolds & Strawberries I think

Another view of the pot system at the back you can see the hydroponic garlic sitting on top, it's still in a self watering pot, I've just plonked it onto one of the drip pots and added a dripper to the top. You can see some celery growing in the foreground (it did very well).

The engine room of my hydroponics system with pool filter and Onga pump and filter.
This was "the business" and would have run a much larger set up than I had.