Tuesday, April 30, 2013

How to make an easy as worm barrel farm for lawn clippings & garden scraps..


It really can't get more simple that this barrel farm.. I call it a dump & walk barrel as that is how I feed it.. A catcher or 2 or lawn clippings get dumped into the barrels & I walk away, its as easy as that.. The prunings & old plants from the veggie bed in the patch go in whole if they are small enough or get the once over with the lawnmower to chop them up a bit if they are to large..


A great type of farm to have under a fruit tree as any nutrients that leach out will feed the tree.. One like this will be added to a new bed we are making out the front soon..

For more regular updates & pictures from the patch come visit us on our Bits Out the Back Facebook page..
Have a great one All...
R☺b..

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Aquaponic garlic…

Decided to have a shot at growing some aquaponic garlic after some prompting from a fellow Aussie Tuber, Shaun.. I already had some sitting in the fridge chilling out so it was only a 2 min job.. Took me 4 days to get to the 2 min job but such is :D



Shaun has an Aquaponic system & a great soil garden as well that he posts about on You Tube..
http://www.youtube.com/user/thehittmann1981

For more regular updates & pictures from the patch come visit us on our Bits out the Back Facebook page..
Have a great one All...

Monday, April 8, 2013

Aquaponic system Maintenance.. Dealing with a nitrite spike..

Have had a bit of fun trying to get some fluctuating nitrite levels in the system under control over the past few weeks but think I have it sorted now.. Made up a clip explaining how I think it happened & the steps taken to keep the fish safe..


Will be keeping what happened with this system in mind as I start to plan for the new tanks & beds that will be going onto the system.. Have already thought about altering the way the filter is set up to try & remove as much solids as I can before they make it to the grow beds..
I found both the folks on the Backyard Aquaponics Forum & Paul from Earthan group very helpful with the advice that gave .. Paul's site also has a great salt treatment calculator that might come in handy to some..

Thought I would post a bit of a look at how we managed to clean out the grow bed that was loaded with fish solids.. I think this is part of the reason there was a nitrite spike in the system in the first place..

Held off posting on the bed cleaning just so I could see the levels drop & stay stable for a week or 2.. I think this shows that the cleaning was successful in reducing the solids that caused the nutrient "spike".. 
Making the air spear was really easy & came in handy cleaning out the beds..

Thanks to Paul from Earthan group again for giving me the heads up on the design of the DIY spear..


For more regular updates & pictures from the patch come visit us on our Bits Out the Back Facebook page..
Have a great one All...
:)»