Gardening With Water Puppies, An Unconventional Approach: The Beginning

By Water Puppy Wrangler

Water Puppy Wrangler is not my real name, but aquaoponics is my game. Well, sort of. Actually, I'm a novice gardener and beginner aquapon, writing under the above pseudonym, who is interested in learning about and growing vegetables, herbs, and fruits for family and friends, while enjoying my water puppies.

"Why write under an assumed name?" you may ask. Doing so not only protects my privacy, though no doubt you wouldn't know me otherwise unless you're a family member or close friend, but the pseudonym also helps me to write creatively, unencumbered if you will. I can offer my personal experiences in aquaponics gardening, as well as my adventures with my water puppies, in a narrative that will, hopefully, both inform and entertain. The intent of this eBook is not to present myself as any resemblance of an expert, nor my research or experiences as authoritative. My goal is to simply relay what I have researched and learned, my decision process and subsequent actions, and how it all fared in a diary-like fashion. What better way is there to learn than to enjoy the experience and, even more so, to be able to learn and laugh through others' mistakes and blunders! That's okay. The Power Tool King, that's my husband, and I don't mind being the focus of humor for the reader. As we look back on our own experiences, we're sometimes amused, too!

"gardening with water puppies, an unconventional approach: The Beginning" chronicles our adventures in aquaponics as we garden and grow plants we love, with water puppies that are not what you may think, and with unconventional approaches that are, well, just that... unconventional! So, sit back and put on your seat belt for a roller coaster ride through our journey in aquaponics. I hope you won't be disappointed. Perhaps you'll decide to join my water puppies and me in this great adventure. We're looking forward to it!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Water Puppy Wrangler
• Release date: Dec 7, 2016
• ISBN: 9780998257808

Water Puppy Wrangler

Water Puppy Wrangler is not my real name. I am a novice gardener and beginner aquapon, writing under the above pseudonym, who is interested in learning about and growing vegetables, herbs, and fruits for family and friends, while enjoying my water puppies. I offer my personal experiences in aquaponics gardening, as well as my adventures with my water puppies, in a narrative that will, hopefully, both inform and entertain. The intent of this eBook is not to present myself as any resemblance of an expert, nor my research or experiences as authoritative, but to relay what I have researched and learned, my decision process and subsequent actions, and how it all fared in a diary-like fashion.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION

This is Water Puppy Wrangler saying, Hello and introducing my new adventures into the world of gardening with water puppies, an unconventional approach and offering information to, hopefully, interest and challenge the reader, with topics and how-to’s for an unconventional way of providing homegrown food for your dining enjoyment, with some fun thrown in for good measure. Whew! Let me catch my breath.

First, allow me to clear the air of any possible confusion. My water puppies are not cute, four-legged canines. Nor are they related to salamanders or crawfish. Now that that’s settled, let me also stress, I don't consider myself to be an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but imagination and perseverance I do have, and lots of each! My husband has even stated that when I come up with ideas, it either costs him money or sweat equity. Well...you could say the gardening project I started recently lived up to that billing. But, please, allow me to offer up a defense for my undertaking and to put your minds at ease.

MY INHERITANCE

While growing up, my corner of the small family garden consisted of carrots, which I used to supplement feed for my pet rabbit. Unfortunately, our dog had to settle for canned dog food. Just a few other vegetables were grown, as well as some flowers. The gardening chores were mainly the responsibility of my father and us youngsters, since my mother, unfortunately, missed out on the gene pool for gardening talent. She so wanted to grow roses, but it was just not meant to be. The only flowers my dear mother could grow and maintain were iris, tulips, and buttercups, beautiful but basically no-muss-no-fuss bulbs. Nothing wrong with that. They were beautiful.

As the years passed I quickly became aware that I had inherited my mother's gardening talents, or lack thereof! And since I wanted to have a garden to harvest and cook fresh, nutritious vegetables and herbs for my family and to give away to others, what was I to do? That's when I ran across some interesting online articles describing an alternative approach to backyard gardening. The articles referred to a process that combined raising fish, known as aquaculture, and soilless gardening, known as hydroponics, thus, aquaponics. The gears in my brain were almost spinning out of control! Maybe I was reading the solution to my plight — how to maneuver around my lack of gardening magic and grow wholesome food and beautiful flowers without drowning them in water and fertilizer. This had to be the answer I had been looking for all those years. I just knew it!

Also, while a youngster and even for a year in college, I enjoyed maintaining a small ten U.S.-gallon (37.854 L) freshwater aquarium. My parents and I loved to sit in front of the tank and watch the swaying of the aquatic plants and the antics of the fish. It was such a relaxing experience. In fact, later studies have shown that watching fish within an aquatic setting, such as an aquarium, is useful in reducing stress and even in lowering blood pressure. So, why wouldn't that same benefit apply to fish in a pond? After all, to grow enough vegetables to put food on our table and give surplus to others, something more substantial than a ten U.S.-gallon (37.854 L) tank would definitely be needed.

But, yet, another obstacle arose to challenge my wits. I don't like to eat fish and most other seafood for that matter. But then, that's just me. After additional research, it became apparent that my aquaponics gardening could utilize ornamental fish, instead of edible ones. That was fine with me, since goldfish, which were being considered, are beautiful, cheaper than koi, and are hearty fish that can withstand a fair amount of abuse, within limits. But, I began to waffle on my decision, since a more complete enactment of the aquaponics experience would be to not only grow some of our own vegetables, herbs, and fruit, but to also raise edible fish for my family’s consumption.

The carp family of fish includes many species that are sought after by sports fishermen and for the dinner table. However, goldfish and koi, which are a species of carp, are considered more as ornamental fish; although, if you were desperate, you could certainly eat them. There are more than enough college graduates still walking around to attest to this! So, that was my conundrum: to eat or not to eat. After a long, agonizing period of research and soul-searching, and the fact that my husband without further explanation insisted he would not eat any fish I raised, my decision was made for me. Goldfish would be my "water puppies." Now, all I had to do was make it so.

I live within a hilly locale with a temperate climate that normally has four distinct seasons. So I needed to make plans to not only protect my water puppies during the rainy spring, hot summer, and fairly cold winter, but to plant crops suitable for my locale. I was a novice biting off a chunk that some, like my husband, considered too big to chew. But, I was determined and on a mission! So with my nose to the Internet grindstone, I continued my research to discover the requirements on keeping goldfish alive during the four seasons and determining what vegetables, herbs, and fruits would be best to grow. Of course, I also came to realize that there was not a flat spot on our property within easy reach of the house to place an in-ground pond, or even one above ground. So that had to be figured out, as well.

I have to confess that I am an eternal student, out of desire and necessity. One, I just love to discover new things; I enjoy creating computer designs and bringing them to fruition; then, there's the need to keep me from becoming bored to keep me out of trouble and the local shopping malls; and, finally, to keep my brain active so it won't wither away. By Springtime I had the project all planned out and materials on hand, at least that's what I thought. [A word to the wise - always, ALWAYS, plan for the unexpected! And always have an excess of materials on hand or readily obtainable. Up front, determine if items can be returned with little loss in investment. Trust me on these.]

BUT WHY AQUAPONICS?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not averse to playing in dirt. I've made plenty of mud pies in my day, but I never ate any. Honest! And I'm not advocating the extinction of traditional in-ground or raised bed gardening, or the related field of hydroponics. In fact, I will soon have a couple of raised beds revamped to plant some fruits that don't do as well in an aquaponics environment. And, yes, I do have some no-muss-no-fuss flower bulbs!

I never learned the fine art of proper watering and feeding of my plants. Maybe I was just too busy with other things, like sports, studies (remember I did confess to being an eternal student), and marriage to take the time to learn. Or maybe it was that inheritance thing. Regardless, I shouldn't have to worry too much with aquaponics gardening. A water pump takes care of the watering while my water puppies take care of the feeding. That's a simplistic explanation, but it sufficed in quickly alleviating any trepidation on my part to jump in feet first and try to grow food for my family.

So with the thought of having plant life survive long enough to end up in my kitchen, what other advantages could aquaponics offer to me over soil gardening? Well, in my view, about four more than hydroponics versus soil gardening, as listed below.

1. Hydroponics and aquaponics provide environmental, monetary and time- savings in water consumption as compared to soil gardening since less water is required and you don't have to water by hand or worry about rainfall during periods of drought.

2. Hydroponics and aquaponics offer a space savings over soil gardening since plants can be located closer together due to less competition of root systems for water and nutrients — so more plants in a smaller space by at least two-fold.

3. Hydroponics and aquaponics have fewer problems with diseases and pests since soil has been eliminated from the garden.

4. Hydroponics and aquaponics practically make weeding much less of a necessity, if not nonexistent.

5. Hydroponics and aquaponics provide faster and larger crop yields than soil gardening, again, by at least a two-fold amount.

6. Aquaponics alone provides another nutritional food source for your table, if you raise edible fish and eat them.

7. Aquaponics alone can provide an additional income stream if you raise fish, edible or ornamental, to sell for profit.

8. Aquaponics alone can provide entertainment and stress reduction through the viewing of fish swimming within the tank.

9. As mentioned previously, fish in aquaponics take care of the fertilizing with minimal measuring or pouring on my part.

It all sounded pretty good to me!

MY PLANS

While researching aquaponics I saw photographs and sketches and read of various aquaponics systems that had been used and proposed by people around the globe. Some were very elaborate and some were very practical, some large, some small. All seemed to meet the needs and wishes of their operators. My wish, to the dismay of my husband, was to have the esthetics of a nice goldfish pond married to a practical, but attractive, grow bed system, and all within easy reach of the kitchen. So, with my brainstorming and initial research nearing their end, it was time to roll up my sleeves, and my husband's, and get to work. Remember, I did mention sweat equity!

WRANGLER'S SETUP

I realize everyone's situation is different: their goals, their tastes, their investment limits, their talents, and the topography or lay of the land they have to work with, among other things. For my setup I decided that in addition to a fish tank I would utilize a sump tank to house the water pump. This decision was guided by my fear of keeping my water puppies stressed and awake at night or having one sucked up through the water pump and finding the corpse somewhere down the line in my system. Oh, the horror of it!

To help keep my project on budget, I designed my system to use a single water pump to distribute the proper amount of water and natural, fish fertilizer to the varied grow beds in my system. I learned so much about flow rates and slope that I could bore just about anyone with the facts! To minimize any stress my water puppies might experience from fluctuating water levels, I devised a means of keeping the water within the fish tank at a fairly constant level. At last, I finally had the basics of my system designed and within an easy reach of the house. So, all I had to do was build it. If we built it properly, they would come, that is, the water puppies and vegetables, herbs, and fruits!

Now, if I've caught your attention and you're interested in learning more details about my aquaponics gardening while having a fun read, then continue on to the following chapters where I'll offer descriptions of traditional system tanks and types of fish that I had researched and important details that I felt needed to be considered while undertaking the first steps in the design of my unconventional aquaponics system.

CHAPTER 2 – BASICS AND COMPARISON WITH SOIL GARDENING

I'm presuming I've piqued your interest in the alternative gardening method known as aquaponics and, perhaps, my unconventional approach. Good! Let's not waste any time.

In my initial research on aquaponics I learned there are basically three types of grow methods that can be utilized in aquaponics gardening: 1) raft system, 2) NFT or nutrient film technique, and 3) media-filled grow beds. It is the latter on which this eBook will predominately focus, but we may venture out into the other realms in the future.

In this section of the eBook, I'd like to present the components of a traditional aquaponics system, briefly pointing out how my system may differ. This is only to demonstrate that imagination, within certain restraints, is a friend in building a system that will meet the needs of the individual gardener.

There's no need to reinvent the wheel; you can learn from my mistakes, and, possibly, from any successes. Your system can be simple or fancy, small or large, handmade or a purchased turn-key system, limited or varied in produce, all tailored to your needs and landscape. Your aquaponics system can be almost anything you want it to be.

FIRST, THE BASICS

In traditional soil gardening, as I understand it from research and the school of hard knocks, a soil gardener:

1. plans their garden's location and the crops or flowers they're going to plant,

2. prepares the soil by tilling,

3. adds nutrients and pH adjusters,

4. plants the seeds or seedlings,

5. waters and fertilizes on schedule,

6. performs soil treatments as needed,

7. weeds off and on until harvest,

8. tries to prevent in-ground, on the ground, and aerial pests and diseases from attacking their crops, and treats when their garden is beginning to be overrun with little critters or symptoms,

9. enjoys seasonal limits of produce.

Not bad, but now let's contrast the above with an aquaponics garden. Here, the gardener or aquapon:

1. plans the location of their aquaponics system and the crops to be grown,

2. constructs or assembles their system,

3. cycles water through the system to ensure proper water movement and to address any water leaks, if any,

4. starts establishing the nitrifying bacteria, called biomass or bio filter, in the grow bed and tank,

5. tests the tank water to determine when the nitrifying bacteria have been established,

6. plants their seedlings or seeds and has the plants in place for a short while, maybe two weeks,

7. introduces fish into the system and feeds them,

8. tests the water quality of the fish tank to ensure proper conditions for their fish and plants,

9. monitors and treats for aerial and ground pests; however, the concern for in-ground pests and some diseases has been eliminated, since the aquaponics garden is going soilless,

10. enjoys growing and harvesting their produce throughout the season and, perhaps, the year!

Since the watering and fertilizing functions would be delegated entirely to the pump and water puppies of choice, I felt this was almost like putting my future aquaponics garden on auto pilot. Now, the above