Aquaponic Gardening

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Sustainable and Progressive living, Permaculture and Ideas.

Wanted to start a discussion about other ways to become sustainable. Ways to improve our self sufficiency and ease our impact on the earth. Topics from raising animals to dirt gardening, tree propagation. Reusing waste products and water.  Such as composting toilets. Permaculture topics or any other ideas to maybe improve the world. I'm starting off with a photo of my new pregnant lawnmower and tree pruner. Please chip in would like to hear your ideas.

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The sheep have long been my dream of efficient lawn control. As you can see I have not mowed for some time in anticipation of newest additions. They do however like the citrus and Mango leaves, even with lots of grass and corn in the trough. They only ate the lower leaves so far so might help with the pruning as trees get larger. Might need to add some wire around if they get too greedy. As gas, mowers and meat become more expensive we might need to make some changes to survive well.

Do you do successive grazing? Successive grazing is like successive gardening where one plant is grown in the same spot another was previously grown. Successive grazing in my operation begins with goats to clear the way, followed in a week or so by sheep/ deer/ cattle, followed by fowl in another week or so.

I agree with you Steve if we are going to survive bad times and I hope they don't come but I live on an Island.  I used to sell my produce and buy my food>  How stupid is that.  Now that I am restructering everything I am planting what I need and if there is left overs then those can be sold or given away.  It really depends on how much land you have. I have just over an acre and not much grass because I did away with it years agol  I don't like mowing and tending to something that I don't use.  I want to add chickens to my land but I don't want to add anything until I can feed them without buying processed food.  What is the since of not eating GMO's and feeding your chichens something that is surley GMO contaminated.  I am working on growing BSF larvae and having enough for the fish and some chickens.  I had thought about a pig but then there is the butchering of the pig.  I used to do that many years ago but I no longer have the saw nor the strength to do so.  Here in our small community Of Waianae we are trying to get farmers together to help one another and bring about a change in our community.  We are the community with the bad reputation.  They say don't go to Waianae you will get killed.  We hope to change that image we can't outlive it.  We want to be know as the place where all the wholesome fresh food is grown and that we will teach you how to do it.  Just put some fence around your trees and let the sheep graze.

Steve, this is a great idea for a discussion/group.

I am still a bit of a newb at animal husbandry and have only kept mostly chickens, some ducks and a few rabbits. (Discounting all the scorpions and unusual tarantulas and their food sources, I've kept over the years. Those don't really seem to fit in to the discussion 

Excellent discussion Steve ;-)

I am of the opinion that Aquaponics is just part of the growing alphabet. For me it is the start, the ABC as well as the vowels. The recirculation and preservation of scarce fresh water and use of the natural fertilizer are the foundation from which all other gardening designs and methods of growing need to be incorporated so that we can establish sustainable living food jungles. 

I love your methods and enjoy reading such discussions which look and discuss the broader agriculture picture.

God bless 

Hi Carey, My successive grazing plan is to have different zones, for rotation of the sheep. A house in the center and different doors to varying pastures.The chickens are fairly free to roam and pick through the waste. Funny but any mention of animal waste fed to Tilapia raises some hackles. I do not but always fun to see peoples reaction to that. It required some thought as to which animals would not totally ruin my fruit trees. Being new to all this is difficult to learn, too bad a few years back many small farmers had much of this figured out.                                                                                                                                                                      Hi Rachel, I'm sure some of the locals would love to help you out with the job of processing meat for some sharing. One of my most successful parts has been the pigs and fruit. They like the excess fruit and salads too. I'd love to go to Waianae if only to meet you. Its reputation is growing steadily, especially when you can produce some good food.                                                                                                                                                                       Don't discount the scorpions Vlad. The last time I checked online they were sold out for human consumption.                                                                                                                                                                                       Thanks Sahib, I like your "food jungle" concept. Seems it wouldn't have to be difficult either if we share info. The problem is the time to build a project. Also proving that it can work efficiently enough others want to build one.                                                                                                       



Carey Ma said:

Do you do successive grazing? Successive grazing is like successive gardening where one plant is grown in the same spot another was previously grown. Successive grazing in my operation begins with goats to clear the way, followed in a week or so by sheep/ deer/ cattle, followed by fowl in another week or so.                                                                                                                                                                                      

Thank the Lord for copyrights that eventually expire. You can check out online book depositories such as archive.org. google books and more.

This link is for the 1919 book = Poultry houses and fixtures - How to layout poultry plants.

http://www.archive.org/details/poultryhousesfix00relirich

do a search for Small farms, Raising chickens. The wealth of information is enormous.

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