ponics

A while ago a friend showed me the difference between his dirt plants and hydroponic plants, very impressive. The pile of trash next to it was less impressive. All of the nutrients came from bottles bought in a store and most fertilizer is made with a large input of natural gas. I was still surfing the web for hydroponics info and daydreaming about setting something up a little more earth frienly when I found this website.

http://www.trendgrinder.com/living-room-aeroponic-farming

The site very clearly makes a case for an aeroponic tomato business. Still with most of the drawbacks from hydroponics it leaves some to be desired. Even with grow lights they estimate you can make $750 a month as a part time/weekend business.

Not long after I started reading about a local thing called Feed Denver. They are using the techniques from the super cool Growing Power.

http://www.growingpower.org

Among the many things they do they grow fish and food in a system called aquaponics. The mixing of aquaculture and hydroponics. The beauty of this system is that the fish poo, effluence, fertilizes the plants and the plants filter the fish water. A good description can be found here,

http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/information.html

I've seen sites that describe using fly larvae (you know, maggots) and extra worms from vermicomposting to feed the fish. Done right you can turn trash from local restaurants into fresh veggies and fish.

My yard is looking smaller and smaller.