Hydroponics as a Spiritual Experience

I got started working on hydroponics because I didn't like digging and weeding. Besides that I'm a techie and we like to make measurements, build things, and just figure out how things work. It's a lot of fun. Hydroponics was a natural. So when I started fooling around with it now about thirteen years ago it was a never stopping kick, each different system, each different plant or instrument was a different adventure.

Now I think all work is fundamentally spiritual. We are creative beings and we imitate our creator as Tolkien pointed out with our ability to subcreate. We can't create from nothing as God can, but we can create marvelous things by manipulating the elements of God's creation that He has made available to us.

But there's another dimension beyond our own subcreation and that is the reflection on close inspection of God's own creation. St. Paul says in Romans 1:20 "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; ..."

As one tends one's hydroponics system the wonder of plant growth is a constant revelation. I encountered a picture on the internet of dew drops on leaves of grass and I've added a picture of just one drop of dew here. The wonder is everywhere and it fills up one's spirit.

Passing of a Giant

Yesterday I got a painful email telling me that The Growing Edge had published its last issue. It was to be no more. I am very disheartened to see such a high quality magazine in an industry that I love pass from the scene. I have written a lot of articles for The Growing Edge, some about the wonderful people I've met through hydroponics but most about my Summer adventures as I experimented with hydroponics system configurations and grew a lot of tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers, as well as basil, lettuce and miscellaneous larks like a bit of corn, some egg plants and some squash. With enough attention you can grow anything in hydroponics.

The Growing Edge will be missed because it was the best magazine in the industry. It was a great run and I love the folks who made it possible down through the years I was associated with them. Good luck all!