Aquaponics - Compainions For Gardening
by John Yazo
Gardens and ponds are two parts of the landscape that many think of as being two separate entities. The truth is that these two are great companions and will benefiting each other. Aquaponics, the combination of aquaculture and hydroponics is a method of gardening that is gaining popularity with the home gardener. It is becoming the new generation of going green in your gardens and landscape.
Most owners of koi ponds and water gardens also enjoy their flower and vegetable gardening, along with indoor and outdoor gardening. Aquaponics gives you the flexibility of joining these two pleasures together and grow productive crops of berries, flowers, fruits, herbs, and vegetables, along with a large variety of ornamental plants.
This method of organic gardening is done by cycling the nutrient rich pond water produced by fish into your garden beds and allowing these nutrients to be naturally filtered by plant life before cycling back into the pond. The plants will naturally clean the water of ammonia and nitrites that are toxic to fish, and beneficial to the productive growth of plants. It is a very cost efficient method and a way to conserve the water that you would normally have to dedicate to watering a garden independently with the traditional methods of gardening.
Naturescapes designed with aquaponic grow beds, native plants and by organic methods will add a uniquness to your landscape like no other. Most plants sold at your local garden centers are hybrids, therfore they all have the identical genetics. Native plants, however are sexually propogated, their DNA is similar, but not identical. Therefore native plants have a greater genetic diversity, and as a result less predictability of there shapes and size.
Compared to the traditional method of landscaping, manicured shrubbery and mulch covered beds, naturescapes are tremendously lower in maintenance. Native plants grow well together, they evolve from growing along side eachother. They don't need to be watered, except during there time of establishment, and they don't require chemical fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, or fungicides because they are adapted to local conditions. Maintence wise, they don't need raking of leaves or cleaning up of spent debri. These are all organic materials and are soil builders, weed suppressors, along with being natural fertilizres and a food source for the natural biology that lives in the soil working hard to improve it's structure naturally.
Designing and building ponds and gardens can be an enjoyable and a rewarding experience for the indoor and outdoors gardener. With the method of aquaponic gardening, you imagination is the limit, from the choice of plants you want to grow and to the type of fish you want to raise. Let nature work naturally and work for you.
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