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.


Sunday 31 December 2017

The barn gets a major makeover - before and after

Before...
 
 
After...
 
 
Follow the story below...

The barn gets a major makeover

Before we set up the aquaponics side of the business, we have always planned to get the barn smartened up, not just from an aesthetics point of view, but also from a convenience perspective.  To make it so that it is both fit for purpose and easy, particularly for access - for example so that we are not wrestling with heavy doors in high winds.

The first stage of this work was to renovate the large back doors leading from the chicken enclosure, so we started with the removal of the old tin sheets.


and with a little help from the hens...


We replaced this with wooden cladding at the bottom and Perspex sheets across the top, to let the maximum amount of light in.


It soon started to take shape, as Melv put up the framework and Sal followed on round with the cladding.


With a new pedestrian door installed, next it was time to make provision for the windows for the new office.


Melv made short work of this using the grinder...


Sal followed on behind...


With this face completed, we continued around the south facing wall, with room for another window, the removal of the corrugated tin along the top and cladding. At this point you realise how big the building is...


Melv worked on replacing the doors on this side, which a set of wooden ones which would be much more fit for purpose and manageable, but still large enough to let the mini digger through.


Sal continues the cladding...


The doors soon took shape, ready for Sal's handy work.

 
and Melv moved on to the windows - hey we are starting to look smart
 


 
 
All that was left to do was to fix the Perspex along the tops and creosote - wow - what a difference!

Home grown

Now normally with our horticultural hats on when we talk about home grown we are refering to vegetables. But for the first time since we hav...