Prelude to Aquaponics....

We have been looking for the right answer to our gardening problems for years.  This year I planned to do a lot of container gardening...thinking that it would be the right fit.  It probably would have been, except for the heat.  The containers just do not do well in the heat if neglected for even a day (which is very possible at our house). 

Aquaponics seems to be the answer for us.  I was an aquarium hobbyist for years...and even still have the fish tank that I got when I was 15 years old.  The more I read about aquaponics, the more I think this is going to be a do-able form of gardening for us.

Some of you may remember the greenhut.  Our plan is to use it to house our aquaponics system so that we can grow year round.  Of course, we've been using it as storage all summer.....

And the first big job of building the AP system is cleaning out this mess...

We have also started gathering the major components of the system.  This container will be our fish tank.  It's 325 gallons, and the rule of thumb is to house up to 1 pound of fish per 5 gallons of water.  We should be able to grow enough fish for our family, just with the one tank.

We also have several other barrels that will be part of the system...

And we are still researching what to use for the grow beds.  Space is a real factor since our greenhut is so small....but the small space has it's benefits as well.  We'll keep you posted on our progress!