From Tauranga

Good Morning. My name is Shirlee and I am living in Tauranga with 2 of my children and husband. I do not at present own a lifestyle block but plan to at some stage so, in the meantime I am practising - to a point. (As we only have a certain amount of room in our back yard. My heart is to have our own lifestyle block that has an orchard (always dreamed of my kids climbing the fruit trees, eating too much and getting diarrehoa (go figure) and I am hoping to get into hydroponic growing. I am looking into it at present. Planning to own my own fruit and vege market where people can feel safe about eating the food. See you in the forums.[8D]

Hi Shirlee and welcome aboard LSB.

Just a word of advice on a conflict you seem unaware of; there is already no shortage of hydroponically grown produce available widely. I would guess that almost all tomatoes, capsicums, lettuces and fresh herbs you buy in the supermarkets are grown hydroponically by large producers who do so very cheaply. To follow their lead doesn't seem a wise business choice for a small grower.

If you want to capitalise on people's growing desire for healthy food perhaps using the Bay of Plenty's fertile volcanic soils as your growing medium, and managed organically, is a better choice. Just choose your future property to avoid spray drift from orcharding operations