Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

well it seems as though time has got away from me..... have been renovating the house and for the past 5mths or so have been quite slack really, until recently. I have finished the knocking walls out, kitchen, tiling and painting and now it is time for some much needed TLC for all the outdoors parts to the home. the beauty of aquaponics is that whilst in the chaos of renovating and forgetting or not having time to water the gardens, the aquaponics kept on growing and going to seed etc and when push come to shove, the dirt patch mostly died out except for a couple of tough herbs and chillis, whereas the aquaponics i had to pull everything out as it all went to seed and i thought there may have been orangutans hiding in the jungle. So over the last maybe 2 weeks I have begun to reclaim control over the gardens, I am turning the front yard into a native garden and getting rid of the garden edging and lawn, block planting natives along with my citrus plants (this will be an ongoing project as I do have a plan) step 1 however is getting some natives established. I am also installing a frog pond out the back beside the patio using a bathtub submerged into the ground, and it is coming together(I also have a plan for this one, which is getting closer), I have also composted and mulched my raised garden beds and begun new crops. and have cleared out the aqua for some new plantings, along with installing shade cloth 30percent to assist the seedlings establish with the harsh summer sun. Oh and I now have a native bee hive which i got for my birthday..... thanks mum. The main reasons I started looking at native gardens and frogponds was along with being native, good for the environment, native fauna etc.... they are relatively easy maintenance (i hate mowing lawns anyways) and I watched a permaculture video, gardening australia, permaculture with Josh Byrnes, and in it he talks about a reduced-almost no need for insect/pest control if you can entice natural predators like birds and frogs to your garden along with companion planting for predatory insects.... we will see anyways.. pics to follow

A couple of pics of the front yard and native plants to attract the local fauna

couple more pics of the backyard this time

and the last of the backyard alterations

another quick update. I uphauled my system a couple of weeks ago, and replanted about 2 weeks ago. some of the plants have almost tripled ie the first 2 tomato plants. doing extremely well. fish are feeding like maniacs, hopefully edible size by christmas.....

I also completed my frog pond garden, so far only one plant looks like dying, the mutt decided to help a bit, I think it was my use of blood and bone that encouraged her curiousity. I also planted some fruit trees in some barrels I acquired, completed planting them yesterday using directions recieved by some youtube video I watched from a horticulturist in W.A Peter Coppin...... So I will see how they go in the soil blend I created, I have planted a smaller variety of Olive, a Dwarf Mulberry and a Dwarf Mango I believe a Palmer variety. Fingers crossed. If it is successful I have a few more barrels I can use for next year, maybe try a Dwarf Avocado and who knows what else..... these three can be my test subjects.

Looks great Rob, huge improvement on your old set up.

thanks charlie, the PH has just started dropping the last couple of weeks, been waiting over 8mths or so, now it is sitting around 6.6-6.8 so I am happy about that, finally the system has matured and I should get some really decent growth, fish are probably sitting around the 15-20cm mark (some of the silvers are a bit smaller though).

I was just flicking through your system charlie, I cannot believe the size of the chards..... very impressive.... makes me a bit envious.

Another update..... Couple weeks growth.....

Couple more pics......

And my new eggplant seedling....