System Design Help: Outdoor DWC Vegetable

[cbird01]

I am ready to build my first DWC garden. I live in Tucson, AZ and am planning a build on the southside of my house which will have pretty full exposure through mid day but pretty good side coverage so as not to have too much sun.

I would like to grow salad greens, hopefully including spinach, Red Peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes and cherry tomatoes. We have 2 people to feed and were hoping for as close to year around production as we can.

I would like to know what the best system design would be. Right now I am thinking about burying several 5 gal buckets in the ground and having a reservoir for the nutrient water. I am new to this so I do not know how many buckets I should use or if that would be the correct size. I think I would like to have 8 options for different plants. I read somewhere that too many single pots with central reservoir would be difficult from a maintenance standpoint.

You feedback is appreciated.