Godney Aquaponics


Godney Aquaponics
In the village of Godney, with the beautiful back drop of the Glastonbury Tor, Melv and Sal are embarking on a new venture. Fed up with the poor quality of veg in the shops, they have the ambition to set up an aquaponics system to provide fresh vegetables and salad crops for the village, and with a little help from their hens a supply of fresh free range eggs too.


What is Aquaponics??


What is Aquaponics??
Aquaponics is a sustainable method of producing quality food with minimal external inputs. It is a system that combines conventional aquaculture (e.g. fish in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. Water from the aquaculture system is fed to the hydroponic system where the by-products are broken down and are utilised by the plants as nutrients, and the water is then re-circulated back to the aquaculture system.


Friday, 6 October 2017

The next polytunnel installment - the hoops...

My word it is not until you start wrestling with the hoops that you realise how massive our new polytunnel is going to be. Each hoop came in 4 pieces and with a little help from the hens and Melv's mate Matt, we assembled them on the ground ready to lift them into place.


 
 
With a bit of wrestling and gentle persuasion the first hoop was in place, but it made us wonder how on earth were we going to get them straight and stable???
 
 
However with 4 hoops in place we had something to straighten them up to and before long we were on a roll.
 
 
With 11 more to go we needed to get a wriggle on as we only had help from Matt for the day and there was no way Sal was going to be able to lift these whoppers!
 
 
 
 
By 6pm somehow by hook or by crook we'd done it and yes it is massive
 
 
Just think how many veggies we can get in here - we can feed the world - let alone Godney!!
 
The next job was to install the all the wood work, the door frames, doors and the side rails - then it really did start to take shape - our polytunnel started to grow - much like the food that it is going to help us grow.
 
 
With the doors and ridge on the structure was getting sturdier all the time and our concerns about being able to get it straight and it being stable disappeared.
 
 
Finally we are ready....
 
Next is the plastic - but for that we really do need the experts - we can't even lift the roll of plastic, never mind get it over the hoops. Fortunately there is a nursery just down the road who needs a polytunnel covering - and they have the contact for folk who specialize in such things - now we just need a calm, sunny day.
 
 

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