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we often have water restrictions as we had a drought for years so, we could only water early morning and evening, with a bucket and not a hose...
I honestly dont know about out door, my garden out...

Basically you want to mimic the sun and seasons. From like from like long days with warmer sun and shorter days with a colder sun

For the lights yes plants require a full spectrum of light.. but at various stages.. usually devided into a warm spectrum and a cold spectrum. You can vegetated the plants to whatever size you desire...

There many examples of DIY easy to build deep water systems and many other systems all over youtube.

depends on what you want to grow,
but I agree with rick the most important thing is the lights
you could go led..but i see a lot of HPS (high pressure sodium) like maybe a 400watt
ummm a good...