I was bumbling along, watching gardening videos on You Tube (lots of great stuff on there.) for how to take best advantage of a green house. I revisited "Hydroponics" because of the vertical and slanted space advantages - and ran into "Aquaponics" - using the waste water from fish. (There's been bream - that's bluegills for y'all up north. - for about four years, that I put in there with my step-grandson.) The ammonia in the "fish pee" meets a bacteria that converts it to nitrogen fertilizer compounds. (Etc. boring stuff) and the plants are on a steady ebb and flow watering system with a siphon drain. This is a completely new thing for me (I'll be moving the bees closer, too.) since our soil seems to hate water - even though I keep adding organinc materials to it every year. - the exchange is that the system "purifies" and aerates the water for the fish, helping them grow more efficiently. I'm fond of those self-sustaining systems because I think it's neato, and not for more elaborate reasoning.
I'll keep on sharing posts, and try to update on the developing system - If it goes well with Bream, we'll set one up for Tilapia - because they can be grown at a shockingly high density. (One fish per gallon - which equates to seven per cubic foot, although I'd say 5 because the fish displace water... bottom line a 300 gallon tank pretty easily hold 200 fish, but you have to "dispose" of the waste.)
The bed, made from the roofing tin of a torn down eyesore. (you can say "old junk" or "recycling" - it's the same thing.) The panels were 10 feet long, and since cutting aluminum is LOUD I decided three pieces for two cuts would suit me.
- inside the bed. I still have a bunch of shoring and bracing to do before filling to about a foot shy of the top. Then I'll top it up with pea gravel as the growing medium.
