Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Greetings from sunny California! I live in the foothills so our growing season in dirt does not start until after mother's day due to frost. In all honesty, I suck at gardening. I have a severe hatred of weeds. I get overheated easily. I am more at home on the river fishing than in the dirt. This has lead me to aquaponics! Water, Fish, Food, and no dirt! Seems almost too good to be true.

I have a good grasp of the basics but I am unsure about how to make it work in a cold climate. I don't have a greenhouse yet and am not sure I want to go grow light indoor. Anyone with thoughts on this please fill me in. I have plenty of room for a green house but with twins on the way I don't have plenty of money. I have a 1200 sqft shop but fear costs for grow lamps and power may outstrip cost of a contained greenhouse. Hope to hear from the experts here. Thanks in advance.

Hi AngleDangle, welcome to the forum!

I can't afford a greenhouse either, so I'm building my own. A few other posters are DIY-ing some really impressive things, but I'm going lower-tech (and easier) with a hoop house. Might be worth looking into something like that?

Hey Angle.... What are your winter temperatures like?

Range from 17f-75f. It has been a weird year.

OK, since posting originally I have decided to just get things done. I bought a size 10 tank and some tiny feeder gold fish. I popped a 75gph pump in and an air stone. Small planter on top with a grow light placed in the entry and I am off. Feeding organic pellets and hit the system with zym bac to get things going. Only thing looking rough is the dill transplant. I have a 40 gal tank waiting to see how this trial run goes. If things run smoothly we will go from there.

I've heard that dill doesn't like being transplanted, so maybe that's why its looking rough. Mint, watercress and basil are some good options.

I put some strawberries, thyme, mint, lettuce, dill and chives in. I have basil ready to go but the box filled up much faster than anticipated. Figured I would have some die off but aside from the dill everything seems fine. I will likely keep this system solely as a kitchen herb garden and move any survivors to the bigger system when I build it.