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 28 January 2018

A facelift for the front - before and after

Before...


After...


Follow the story below...

A facelift for the front

With the back of the barn complete, we turned our attention to the front doors. In desperate need of replacement, these creaky old doors were in a bad state and extremely heavy to open - especially if there was a brisk westerly wind blowing - which of late often seems to be the case.

Being the main entrance, we needed to try to complete the task in a day - so as not to leave the barn open to the elements. We had prepared the new doors which were now ready to be hung, but being a large entrance to allow easy access for tractors and machinery, both new and old sets of doors were not light!

As with the back doors, the first task was to take the metal cladding off so they were a little more manageable to remove and of course a little lighter.


The bottom section was straight forward, but the grinder was needed for the top.


But Melv showed it no mercy and it was soon on the ground, leaving a very large whole to the outside world!! The new door at the ready, with a bit of help from the mini digger it was soon wrestled in place ready for Melv to weld the hinges on.





With the second door soon up alongside, whilst Melv fixed it in place whilst Sal clad the inside with plywood - which would at least provide some overnight protection.


Over the next few days we started the cladding on the outside, a job we had really been looking forward to completing. Melv had designed the doors so that there was a small pedestrian door inside the big doors, this was going to make access so much easier.


As with the back doors, we decided to complete part of the top section with Perspex - which would again allow more light in.


Whilst Sal continued with completing the doors, Melv started on the much needed task of tidying up the entrance. This involved putting sheet piles alongside the ditch edge and back filling.

He tied the piles into the bank with reinforcing bar, this area was going to be excellent for parking vehicles, so it needed to be prepared properly, stable and suitably reinforced.


Next Terram was laid ready for the stone dressing, this would hopefully prevent any unwanted weeds coming up through.

 
Stone in place and cladding complete we now have a smart new entrance - can you spot the pedestrian door!!
 

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...