SAN ANTONIO – Sarah Rodriguez said her garden this summer is the most successful one she’s had yet, but it’s less about what she’s growing and more about where she’s doing it.
“I didn’t want to do what everyone else was doing,” Rodriguez said. “With this, there’s no bugs, and I don’t have to play in the dirt.”
In the middle of Rodriguez’s family room is a tower garden, using aeroponics to grow dozens of fresh herbs and greens.
As the owner of Chef to Table, Rodriguez needs a regular supply of fresh produce to help with her catering and meal prep platters. But with the summer heat, she’s struggled, so she turned to technology to find a solution.
“I had an outdoor garden, but I came back from vacation and everything was dead,” Rodriguez said. “Everyone has the right to fresh food, you know, and it should be accessible to everyone.”
The tower garden uses gravity and drip irrigation to grow plants. It’s a similar drip-irrigation system that Liz Campanella uses outdoors with her business, Uprooted Gardens.
“It’s the one thing you can set it and forget it,” Campanella said. “You’re getting consistent water. You’re not wasting water. It’s going straight to the roots.”
As a landscaper and gardener with Uprooted Gardens, Campanella said feeling defeated in the summer heat is easy. But she said finding ways to adapt can be as simple as learning about the soil in your own backyard.
“Gardens from Southtown to north of San Antonio in Stone Oak are drastically different,” Campanella said. “Especially in San Antonio when were surrounded by nothing but blacktop, If you can get greenery somewhere, it’s all about accessibility.”
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