Screw this to be or not to be crap. I am, so stuff it. 🙂 But I am spending a lot of time lately trying to decide if I want to use normal soil razed bed gardening or if I want to step it up a notch and use aquaponic gardening… Oh yes this could be related to DDO. I might have to do some stretching but I can make it fit. I am not going to, but I want you to know I could.

For you that don’t know the idea behind aquaponic is you grow plants in water fertilized by fish waste where you use the plants to clean the fish waste out of the water keeping the fishes alive.

There are a new nice perks to aquaponic growing vs normal gardening. Growth rate is normally much greater so you can get more from you plants more often. Plants don’t have to be as far spread out since the roots don’t have to fight for nutrients, so you can plant more plants per foot. Depending on your needs available space you can make/get a system to fit almost any area. Oh and it grows what you want it to grow, weeding is super rare. Also you get more out of the system then just fruit and veggies but depending on the fish you use you can eat them. :p

There are some cons however, mostly in the from of energy. It takes a bit more of it to keep up a aquaponic garden. You have to feed the fish, you have to build or buy a system, systems need a pump. Or at least all the ones I have seen pump water up to grow beds. Stands need made to hold the grow beds so we can use as much gravity’s energy as possible when returning the water. You have to add lots of air to the water, both the plants and fist pull air out of the water. So you have to add in more then you think. Most people I have seen use both the return flow and an air stone/air pump.

Other then that it is a mostly closed system, so once it is up and running there is not a lot to do on a daily basis. The maintenance easily can become automated. With a timer for the pump and Bell Siphons in the grow beds.

Normal or dirt gardens have to be water at least once a day. But can be set up to auto water. They have to or mostly have to be out side. You could pot up and have plants in windows around the house. But for the most point take up some area. You could plan some vertical gardening but with that much work you could go aquaponic and do more with less.

So here is the deal. For me to plant my seedlings that are about a week or so away from going in the ground/water I have to get things ready. Be that do some tilling. Or build some tanks and turn my back porch in to a make shift green house.

So what do you think? Fishies or worms?

❤