From high-tech urban agriculture startups like Gotham Greens, to celebrity-driven hydroponic brands like Lettuce Grow, the appetite for home or locally-grown produce is stronger than ever. The trend is all in-line with the self-care mania and the sustainability craze that have swept the country, especially after the pandemic.
Self-care and sustainable food are, after all, interlinked. Home gardening offers the power of knowing where your food comes from and the joy of growing it yourself, all while ingesting more healthy vegetables without ever having to open your wallet at the grocery. Altogether, it seems like a win-win-win. So why hasn’t hydroponic farming gone mainstream?
Sufficient space, wisdom about vegetable gardening and affordable equipment have all been barriers. Aaron Ewerdt, founder of Solaris Garden, knows this all too well. “Having lived in Florida, Colorado, and now Wisconsin, I always had difficulty matching available gardening time to the schedule of mother nature,” he writes on the Solaris.Garden website.
“I had not found the time to battle diseases, bugs, and weeds to produce healthy plants,” he recalls. “This was primarily my fault…but what if I could have my cake and eat it too?”
He developed Solaris Systems in 2019 to build the tech and hydroponic systems for Solaris Garden (https://solaris.garden), which officially launched in 2021. This has enabled Ewerdt to focus on growing and harvesting produce with minimal distractions, all while growing his company.
“Our systems are designed with the latest technologies to provide an effective and efficient gardening experience,” Ewerdt states. The Solaris systems include everything from LED growth lights, to timers, light stands, pH testing kits, humidity covers with vents, and so much more. It sounds like many moving parts, but Solaris Garden states its focus on customer service has resulted in an inclusive brand that welcomes gardeners of all levels, including continuous learners like its founder, Ewerdt.
For Soleil Aneiro, the company’s director of operations, a green thumb came naturally. “My passion for Mother Nature has been instilled in me since the beginning of my time on this green planet we call Earth,” she says in an online bio. “I have an immense love for gardening and growing healthy food.” She is also passionate about customer service, and armed with a degree in business and sub major in horticulture.
At first she thought nothing could ever come close to working directly with the soil and digging her hands in dirt. Then came a time when she quickly grew a mix of flourishing herbs, vegetables, and beautiful flowers all within her home. From then on, she has explored what it means to grow hydroponically and why the plants love it too.
Dedicated to learning as much as possible on how to grow the healthiest plants the most efficiently led Aneiro to hydroponics. Now the duo behind Solaris Garden hopes to not only popularize hydroponic gardening but build a community of growers ready to develop their own green thumb.
“Solaris Garden is making it possible for people to grow their own fresh produce from home, indoors or out, with very little space and no prior gardening experience necessary,” says Aneiro.
But there are barriers in business, just as there are in Mother Nature. “In the world of hydroponics, there is a ton of competition!” Aneiro says. “In order to be recognized and gain traffic to our site we had to spread the word as much as possible and show people what sets us apart.” She adds that having a beautiful and easy to navigate website helps Solaris showcase its easy and affordable systems as well as share the company mission.
She says choosing the .garden domain is one key to standing out in the sea of agricultural innovation. “We are a hydroponic company. Our entire product line and mission revolves around gardening,” Aneiro says. “Not only does the .garden domain complement any website name, but the domain name is easy for people to remember and spell, leading to more website traffic. It also sets you apart as unique and memorable.”
So far Solaris Garden has been flourishing with abundance. “When you start to see that people are finding your website organically and connecting with us via our support email and online chat, it confirms that your brand is growing and being noticed!”
Aneiro shares advice to anyone eager to turn their passion into a business: “Just begin with anything you have and do not worry about perfecting everything until later down the road. The sooner you get started, the sooner your brand will start to grow and your learning journey will begin!”
For Ewerdt and Aneiro, the Solaris journey is not just about sales, but engaging with communities. While Solaris Garden’s most comprehensive offering retails for $995, it also offers systems priced as low as $375. (The average range for hydroponic gardens are usually $500-$2,000).
“We also provide hydroponic systems to schools across the country to give students an opportunity to learn how food is grown and be successful with their very own indoor garden,” says Aneiro. In fact, the company offers specialized pricing for schools and nonprofits. After all, the Solaris mission is all about empowering educators to impart knowledge on plant life-cycles, and giving health enthusiasts of all backgrounds access to fresh, organic foods year-round. And, through its blog, serve as a free resource to anyone looking to pick up a green and healthy habit.