I grew 100 lbs of fish and 80 lbs of vegetables in 16 square feet!

I lived in Cancun, in a 3 bedroom house with no yard, or not the size yard you would expect around a house that size. More like a cement patio the size of trampoline, if a trampoline was square.

Being so close to the beach made the soil sandy, horrible for growing veggies. I bought bagged soil, used half barrels to grow as much as I could. I managed to grow quite a bit of food in those barrels, to my surprise, and the house was soon surrounded with vegetables growing in every direction.

Neighbors loved it, said it reminded them of their mom, granddad or aunt, and they always had a story to share about someone.

I was running out of gardening space and then discovered aquaponics.

Aquaponics combines aquaculture with hydroponics.

Wikipedia defines aquaponics as:

any combination of aquaculture (raising fish) and hydroponics (the soil-less growing of plants) that grows fish and plants together in one integrated system

Little did I know, that it would end up producing 100 pounds of fish and 80 pounds of vegetables in a 4' by 4' area. That's just 16 square feet.

Basil grew bigger than I've ever seen or thought possible. I was making so much pesto and giving basil away to my coworkers.

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This my YouTube video of the aquaponics system that I built right after I planted it and stocked it with

Here's the best part. Once the system was set up there was;

No dirt, No fertilizer, No sprays, No chemicals.

And if thats not enough to convince you to try it, the food tasted great and it only uses 5% of the water of conventional farming.

All I had to buy was fish food and they can eat lettuce scraps too, they loved it.

I just wanted to share this with people who would like to grow their own food but don't have much space to grow in. If there's a will, there's a way. You could do this in a small yard.

I even met a guy that raised lobsters in his backyard. Imagine that! Homegrown lobsters.

When my friends came over, they always wanted to see the fish. They ask me if I named them and I'd say, "Yes, they're named, Fish and Chips, and this one's Basil and Garlic, and that one over there is Wasabi Ginger. I named them after the meal I made in their honours, it's the least I can do.

If you're interested in more about aquaponics, there's many YouTube videos showing all about it My favorite was Murray Hallam, on YouTube. I bought and online course he sold for $10 and learned a lot .I just wanted to show you my set up. Hope you enjoyed it.

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Thanks for reading my post and Steem On. Follow @luzcypher

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