January 13, 2013 Have you ever seen the movie Starship Troopers? That is my life right now. I am at war with the bugs. Not one week after getting my aquaponics system fully functional the bugs have taken over (as shown by the small photo in the upper right). Luckily we found an organic pesticide…

December 30, 2012 Phase 2 of Aquaponics – Growing Fish Food “Duckweed” Aquaponics wouldn’t be very sustainable if we had to purchase fish food, so we are growing our own. “Duckweed” is a plant that grows on the surface of water that is extremely high in protein, doubles every few days, and tilapia love to…

Date Completed: December 23, 2012 My dream finally took shape yesterday when I had water running through the new aquaponics system. I have wanted to do this project for about 2 years now so to see it coming together was awesome. What is Aquaponics? Aquaponics is a closed loop system that grows fish and plants…

December 10, 2012 I’m attempting to grow strawberry starters hydroponically using floating Styrofoam rafts. Eventually these plants will end up in an indoor aquaponics system which is currently in the process of being built. The strawberry plants are runners that would have died off this winter so I plugged them through some Styrofoam and floated…

September 5, 2012 I made my first batch of compost tea using the compost rotator (See the dark water line) How it Works: After the compost has had time to decompose in the digester, add rain water to the barrel. The rain water will take on some of the compost nutrients and can be used…

August 9, 2012 Our first honey harvest from the hive! It is really good. You can eat capped honey like this straight from the hive by chewing on the comb and spitting out the wax. The wax can then be washed and melted down into candles, etc. Thanks for reading my blog! For the latest…

July 13, 2012 Growing strawberries saved me a ton of money at the grocery store this year. They produced about $3 worth of strawberries every other day. I actually planted these last year so this year required minimal work on my part. The plants are cheap, easy to grow, and stick around for years. Great…

July 13, 2012 There is something really cool about making dinner with food that you produced yourself. I had a plate full of sugar peas with dinner last night. If you haven’t jumped on the gardening bandwagon yet it isn’t too late to start. Thanks for reading my blog! For the latest projects and updates…

June 6, 2012 That’s right, we enjoy bee keeping so much we made ANOTHER hive. This hive doesn’t contain a colony yet. It’s been baited with lemon grass oil and old bee comb in an attempt to catch a wild swarm. Stay tuned for hive #3 which is still in production. Thanks for reading my…

May 18, 2012 This is an inexpensive raised bed garden. It contains tomatoes, corn, sunflowers, sugar peas, broccoli, and green beans. Here’s how it works: Clear an area and level the dirt. Roll out weed matting, place cinder blocks over matting. Then add dirt, seeds and water.