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.


Thursday, 22 November 2018

Getting ready for winter

As the days get shorter and the weather a little more unpredictable we are turning our efforts to having a good tidy up around the outside beds and getting ready for winter.

 
The area directly adjacent to the polytunnel always hangs particularly wet, largely caused by the run off when it rains and runs down the polythene. So to prevent this happening and make this a useable area we have installed a drainage pipe which we will cover with Terram and surface with stone.
 
 
Melv first levels the area and lays the pipe covering with Terram which is a permeable membrane and will prevent the perforations in the pipe from getting clogged up, but allow the water to escape.
  

 
 
 
 We the area now flat, I laid the Terram over the whole area, tucking under the bed and the polytunnel to prevent as much as possible weeds growing up through.

 
 Melv followed on behind with numerous muck truck loads of stone
 
 
 
This was not only going to tidy up the area and provide the drainage that we needed it was also going to produce a very useable south facing, sheltered spot - which could be excellent for fruit such as strawberries. 

 
To connect to the new raspberry and gooseberry area to the north we extended the path around the end of the polytunnel. 
 
 

 The end result was excellent - and just what was needed, a job well done - no more worries about long periods of heavy rain well known in the Somerset Levels!!
 

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