Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

So Im sitting outside under the pation in the heat today . looking at my sad droopy dirt veggie garden and planning the eventual change of that into a 10k litre system with 3 of Joels growbeds suspended above it , then looking across to my 4m x 4m patch of lawn and thinking "I better water that lawn tonight"

ZAPPP !! a light bulb turned on in my head

am I addicted to aquaponics now ? Is this an insane idea ?

I wonder how deep the "bed" would have to be to support the lawn , and how tough it wouild have to be to supprt the playing kid & swingset ...

alot of digging at the bottom of the lawn slope to dump a big sump in there

I need to go outside now with a torch and a measuring tape and laugh maniacally about my newest insane plan

wow , imagine the filtration 4 x 4m of buffalo grass would do !

you've got it BAD boris!

LOL
You might set a world wide trend if you had a lawn that uses 1/10 the water of a normal lawn. How big would your sump need to be ? People pay big money here to keep good lawns. When there are limits on the amount of water people can use they often pay people to haul lake water to their lawn.. Go figure..

You do have it bad boris. Idea is flawed though. Firstly - I believe that a lawn AP system would use more water than normal lawn and 2 - who needs lawn. When I started reading I was sure you were going to say - 4x4m, get rid of that lawn and replace it with an AP system

Why do you think it would use more water VB?

I was thinking it would only get watered once a day , which is a hell of alot more than its getting at the moment

Id need some sort of valve on a timer , which opens & lets the water from the system ( which is above the lawn , 4 courses of bricks ) flow down the natural slope of the lawn , to a sump under the paving against the house . maybe a plastic rainwater tank , braced inside so it doesnt collapse when empty .

Id have to get the valve to open just long enough to flood the lawn at the top , fill the sump , then switch off . Then a pump kicks in when the sumps full & sends the water straight back to the system

2 layers of black plastic underneath , 20cms deep bluemetal for strength ( I still would want to be able to use the lawn )

maybe the lawn roots would poke its way through the plastic though

this idea may have to be put on next years list ...

KP, dunno if thsi what vb was thinking but i know that whenever we get a nice shower here then a bit of sun the grass doubles in size.

so given the water and nutes its probably a very quick grower.

give it ap water once a day and you'll have to mow the bastard once a week and growth = water usage too.

do lawn clippings go into worm farms ?

damn , if they do Im gonna need to plan one of those too . thne train the excess worms to launch themselves into the fishtank as feed ....

That would make expensive lawn too!!
Find a way of extracting the nutes fixed in the lawn, selling compost and liquid fertiliser, or a biodigester to produce methane to do cooking and the lights could work too. Or getting the lawn mower working.
A new AP cycle has started today.
I think you dug a hole you'll never come out!
But a very good idea!

yes, but the skew the C:N ration badly............cant remember which way i think towards the N, and can also make it anerobic if added too quickly........

but hey man, give it a go on a 1mx1m patch for a laugh!

Or cut it in squares and sell it for cat grass or footy stadiums.

hmmm maybe grow a crop on you lawn like lupins or something fish will eat Steve? then you have grasslike lawn, and practical use? But I see your point. most lawns are quite hardy these days, they'd go ballistic under AP

Imagine what the media would do to your mower if disturbed!!!

hmmm maybe grow a crop on you lawn like lupins or something fish will eat Steve? then you have grasslike lawn, and practical use? But I see your point. most lawns are quite hardy these days, they'd go ballistic under AP

Imagine what the media would do to your mower if disturbed!!!

with buffalo you could grow it on a 1x1 patch and have it cover 5x that! i found a 1x5 area of concrete at the back of my yard that had a mat of buffalo grown over it. i threw a hammer one day and it hit the grass and went "clunck"