Growing Organically

Wow!  Tilapia grow so quickly! Just a few months ago these guys were only about 3"-4" long and not very meaty.  Now they're 7"-8" and pretty heavy in my net!  I'm going to have to get a bigger net eventually! I love growing fish and plants together!  They really do compliment one another in sustaining each other to grow healthy and thrive! The best part is it's EASY! I wish everyone had one of my set ups in their yard! They are so handy and exciting to have. For example, yesterday I pulled a couple of my sweet banana peppers off and made a delicious egg casserole  from the recipe at this link(http://www.yummly.com/recipe/Baked-havana-style-eggs-299372). Doesn't growing your own organic ingredients seem so much healthier and more interesting to cook with.  It really makes you think about where your food comes from. In fact, being in tune with what I eat and where it comes from is one of the reasons I started aquaponic gardening.  Do some homework and you'll see!

This photo doesn't do justice. They're about 7.5" from mouth to fin.
(Do not name the things you eat)

June - August

     I wanted to post this sort of time-lapse so that you can have a good view of what has changed from the time I started in June till now three months later.  

     Over the past quarter I've had many plants die, due to my lack of a green thumb, but I still have a few pulling their weight.  My original plants started were: one green onion, oregano, tomato, greek basil, and a red bell pepper. I lost the green onion, oregano and recently my red bell.  I would say that the cause of death for all of them was due to water;  too much water leading to root rot.

     Others that I have planted were the green bell pepper, jalapeno, sweet banana pepper and duckweed.  Unfortunately I lost my jalapeno to root rot. The duckweed didn't have the right conditions.

     The tomato and basil I would say have tripled in size from then till now and have been doing very well.               

http://www.gofundme.com/4o01i4 

My Aquaponics in Arizona - YouTube

Self Sustainable Living

Urban farming is growing rapidly.  Aquaponics is an amazing way to do that. Watch this video and see their story and learn from what they're doing that you can implement at your home and share with your community. It's like homesteading in a sense that the goal is to be off the grid and produce your own food sustainable but stay in the city rather than off in the woods some where.  This uses less water, it's organic, it's character building and there are so many ways to benefit from running a system like this.