Geoff Lawton and Frank Gapinski

Just came back from filming all the links to Geoff Lawton’s Permaculture Soils DVD over the weekend. Its a wrap – finally – with all principal photography completed and now its just a matter of finishing off the edit. Squeezing it all down to 90 minutes will be difficult as there’s heaps of good Permaculture information in this DVD. From Compost Teas, Kitchen Gardens to Ripping the Soil, working with cows, ducks, chickens and worms – an in the middle of it all – Geoff’s 18 day Compost formula – Geoff was in top form. Despite not drinking any water all day, exhausted from nursing a cow the previous evening that was expecting to calf at any moment Geoff was able to stay awake, stay focused and deliver on queue.

As Geoff privately said to me, “Making something like a Soils DVD sound interesting can be very difficult.” Geoff has studied soils all his life and read many books on the subject and the topic can appear to be seriously dead boring. I know, when people ask me what I’m working on and I say “Soils” – they’re eyes glaze over. I can sympathize. Once you get into text book science – you really can get lost in the tedium of it all. But Geoff has a way to make the most dull subject appear interesting and relevant to your life and really – learning about the organization of soil life diversity can be very exciting – if you have Geoff Lawton explain it in a holistic way.

This has been a great project to be involved with.

Fungal Hyphae The Internet of the Plant Kindgom

Plunging his hands into a woody compost pile, Geoff explains that there are different compost heaps that you can make for growing either forest trees or kitchen garden vegetables. We never thought that such a thing as “designer compost” existed. But with Geoff you never know where he is taking you. At his peak Geoff confesses he had about 18 compost heaps all on the boil – all a metre in diameter composting away in on his old farm. He fanatically gathered as much “inoculum” or biological diversity – from human hair gathered at hairdressers and exotic fruits that he gathered from around the world – a benefit from globalization he says -to organise the mother of all compost heaps – a compost ferment with as much biodiversity as he could gather. Whats the point you say? Well its a bit like making a fine home brew – the more diversity of microbes in your compost – the finer the garden. The better the food. The richer the tapestry of life.
Thats Permaculture.
“Focus your camera on the top of that compost heap” says Geoff as he lifts the top six inches of mulch. The woody mulch underneath soon appears as if wrapped up in white cotton string. “Fungal Hyphae!” says Geoff who explains the intricacies of how trees communicate with one another through the long white strand of fungi – the internet of the forest kingdom. “If you don’t have Fungi on your farm – you may need to locate and source it.” he says with a knowing smile.

Geoff Lawton’s Permaculture Soils DVD will be released very soon. Worth viewing.

Ever wonder what happens to all the portions of uneaten gourmet restaurant food? Chances are it ends up in landfill somewhere.

Bistro C Restaurant

But a new Noosa resort restaurant is changing all that. Bistro C upmarket food waste is being delivered to worm farms and chicken coops located nearby.

The restaurant is located in Noosa’s prime real estate tourist hot spot along Hastings Street. Tourists come and dine – but they leave a lot of waste behind.

The chef wanted to do something about that problem so he put a call out to the local Permaculture community.

Permaculture school gardens teacher Leonie Shanahan stepped in an organised a waste roster. She knew the restaurant had a surplus of food that could be turned into something useful for the garden.

Food Waste Delivered

She had a bathtub compost system already in place that needed food waste to process.

She organized a roster of people to rid the bistro of its weekly waste. The problem was that she was getting far more food waste than she could process through her worm farms.

Here’s where our chickens at Ecofilms step in. Getting a variety of food for the chickens can be difficult. Although they will eat grain – our chickens much prefer eating greens.

But there’s never enough for their daily needs. A crate of gourmet food from Bistro C is like a huge basket of goodies for the birds.

Gourmet diners

They feast on scraps of parsley, bread rolls, asparagus tips and all the expensive uneaten portions that are left behind. If you’re wondering what they dine on – check out the menu. No wonder they give the grain a miss!

Leonie provides us with food for the chickens on a regular basis. Usually there are two heavy milk crates of food she’s picked up outside our chicken coop every week. She gets a dozen eggs for her troubles as small compensation.

Everyone wins. A great solution to a common problem.

Anything that’s left behind by the chickens goes into the compost bins and is reprocessed by the worm farm. Because the spoiled food is mixed with chicken manure – the composting process is sped up dramatically.

If you keep chickens – its worth speaking to your local restaurant about how they dispose of their food waste. Your chickens could well be dining on 4 star food too!

Here’s the trailer to Murray Hallam’s third installment of his aquaponics DVD series – Aquaponics: The First 12 Months.

What makes it more intriguing is that it’s about our system at Ecofilms. When it was installed over a year ago, we decided to film its construction from start to finish and document its good and bad points over the course of 6 Months – the critical period for Aquaponics systems as they mature.
That period stretched out over Summer, Autumn and Winter and we decided to wait and follow its journey over the entire 12 Month period and have Murray Hallam inspect the system every month or so and comment on how it was developing.

Our knowledge in Aquaponics was quite new and we wanted to discover the way an aquaponics system develops the way a new user would encounter it – the ups and downs of running an Aquaponics system from start to finish. The finish part meant the bit where you actually harvest and eat your fish – something we didn’t really anticipate doing. When we first got our fish they were tiny so we never expected them to grow more than the size of goldfish. But grow they did. We also wanted to do a faithful interpretation of what it was like to do something without any prior knowledge in fish rearing or plant growing. If the fish all died – then that would be the end of the story. We intended to film the evolution of our system and include it as a rolling segment in the Aquaponics Secrets DVD. But what happend was as we were making the Secrets video we realized that this was a separate story altogether. it had a momentum of its own. The fish were all growing well. The plants were just popping out of the growbeds like they were on steroids – it was an amazing experience.

We managed to grow the sort of things we have never grown before or were difficult to grow. Vegetables like Broccoli. You stuck a seedling into the growbed and that was that. The system just took over. A month or two later – up came the broccoli floret. No pesticides or sprays needed. This Aquaponics thing really does work well! No wonder people that had a system like this were addicted. So we kept filming our system as the months rolled on.

Eventually we had enough material to make a great documentary. One that would work best on its own as a separate title. It had never been our intention to film our system as a separate title – but this is what happened – and the journey was well worth the wait.
At this stage we aren’t sure whether to release it as a DVD title or digital download file. Maybe both. Let us know if you’d prefer to watch it online. Murray is a fantastic presenter and this title really shows the evolution of an aquaponics system from start to finish. At the end of 12 months – we felt like experts!

This DVD title will be released soon. Look out for it on Murray’s Aquaponics website.

Ask anyone why Aquaponics took root so strongly in Australia and you might be left scratching your head unless you live in Western Australia. Back in 2006, the Australian ABCTV Gardening show recorded a little interview with a backyard gardening enthusiast called Joel Malcolm. This little video clip when it was first shown on Australian TV caught the imagination of a whole heap of frustrated Australian backyard gardeners who watched the segment and wanted to learn more on how to grow fish and vegetables together – in their backyard.

Ask a lot of the “old hands” amongst the Australian Aquaponics forums what started them off on their Aquaponics journey and they’ll tell you it was Joel and this video clip that sparked their thirst to learn more.

A lot of Australian Aquaponics enthusiasts are an inventive lot – and capable scroungers. The more gifted were able to source materials from the local junk yard and build their systems from what was commonly available at hand.

Soon all kinds of tubs, drums and odd pipe connections were being setup in the backyard to the disapproving look of their puzzled wives. When Joel Malcolm setup his Backyard Aquaponics Forum it enabled Australians to log on and post photos of their often strange and crazy aquaponics inventions. Ideas were freely exchanged. Knowledge was rare but methods were quickly shared and people soon ferreted out the good ideas from the foolhardy notions.

The merits of systems were debated. Was Flood and Drain better than Continuous Flow? Should one use a timer? What about float switches?

Whereas in the United States suitable fish were mainly confined to the one breed of Tilapia – here in Australia you could try all sorts of local fish that oddly enough seemed to survive quite well in recirculated fish tanks. From Silver Perch to Barramundi and Murray Cod to Rainbow Trout the list went on except for Tilapia! That fish was banned in Australia.

The blue barrel aquaponics system

So the tinkering in the backyards went on. From old plastic swimming pools to leaky plastic liners all kinds of enthusiasts shared their experiences online. Then there was the blue barrel. The standard Aquaponics setup. The humble blue barrel became a prized possession as enthusiasts debated which way should the barrel be cut to make ideal grow beds – sliced from top to bottom or sideways? People shared where the best barrels could be obtained cheaply. The blue barrel became the pride of many a backyard system – and still is used by many today. All kinds of variations were made and no idea was sacred. There was even a competition for Aquaponics systems made from garbage wheelie-bins – anything that was deep enough to store water was fair game to the home handyman.

Today there are two main Aquaponics forums. Joel’s Backyard Aquaponics Forum on the west coast and Murray Hallam’s Practical Aquaponics Forum on the Australian East Coast. Both Forums have an online shop where plenty of spare parts and free advice can be obtained.

In the United States Silvia Bernstein’s Aquaponics Source is emerging as the dominant player. The central ingredient to success is to build a hub or base where ideas could be exchanged and a scattered community of online enthusiasts are able to come together, hang out and share knowledge.

Weeds are one of the most despised plants on the planet. People go to many lengths to eradicate weeds from the garden. Judging by the number of herbicides you can buy – its obviously a great money spinner for the chemical companies. But if you speak with Geoff Lawton a Permaculture teacher you get a different perspective on what actually is a weed and why it crops up in your garden.

“Weeds are just plant elements that fit into particular niches.” he said. “in every square meter of soil, there can be up to 2,000 potential seeds that will germinate.”
But here’s the catch…
“They will only germinate – given the right conditions.”
Those conditions can vary depending on the nature of your soil. If you thought weeds are just weeds and you’ll end up with the same weed constantly popping up – you’re quite right – until you change the nature of the soil.

What does that actually mean?

Fire weeds bring up potassium

“The germination condition here is the important thing – and not the weed!” he said.
“The weed is just the symptom of the germination condition.”

The weed plants that grow after a fire event are the long straggly deep rooted sort of weeds. What they are doing is harvesting potassium by their longer root system and bringing it up to the surface. Its a particular sort of weed plant that will flourish in these sorts of condition.

What about Compacted Soil?
Farmers often struggle with land that is heavily compacted by machinery or hard footed grazing animals.

“If on that same piece of land we compact and knock all the air out of the soil and compact it very hard – then different weeds germinate.” he said.

In this type of soil different weeds will thrive. Dandelions will pop up in lawns. Deep tap-rooted plants will grow in these conditions.

“The plants that germinate on compacted soil have deep tap-roots.” he said. “Their function is to de-compact the soil.

Nature is in no particular hurry. When that plant dies – that long tap root is a compost corridor into the soil.

A perfect infiltration mechanism for air, nutrient and water.”

Plowed Soil encourages different weeds to germinate

“If we go the other way, on that same piece of land – if we plow and till and dig and loosen the soil and keep it loose for a while and then walk away and watch – we don’t get fire-weeds to harvest potassium.” he said, “We don’t get deep tap-rooted de-compactors in these conditions,”

“We get plants that have a very dense fine hair root system that holds the soil particles together.”
“Their germination condition is soil that is too loose and susceptible to wind erosion and easily washed or blown away.” he said.

Amazing stuff.

Overworked Soil
“If the soil has been overworked and needs to recover, and it needs more organic matter…then the first pioneer plants, the plants we typically call weeds are typically nitrogen fixing plants.

Plants that are legumes. The beans and pea family, which have root attachment bacteria on their roots which are high in nitrogen that bring the nitrogen content up.”

“Once that nitrogen content is up – off you go into succession towards a climax eco-system of very sophisticated plant and animal interactions.”

Weeds don't germinate in compost says Lawton

What soil conditions will weeds NOT germinate in?
“Weeds don’t germinate in compost!” said Lawton, “A good one that is!”
“High quality compost will only germinate sophisticated high quality trees or high quality rain-forest or woodland trees.” he said.

Why is that?

“Because the soil condition is so good,” he said, “there is no germination condition for those reparative weeds.”

“Lets make sure we are friendly to our weeds and learn the lessons they have to teach us about landscape repair.”

We take a look at weeds in depth in Geoff Lawton’s Permaculture Soils DVD when it will be released later in the year.

“Don’t trust anyone who tells you that aquaponics isn’t addictive. It is. It’s like a drug habit where you just have to keep getting more and more to be satisfied. If you don’t believe me, prowl around on the Australian forums and see what is happening….” wrote Sylvia Bernstein in her first blog post on Aquaponics.

Since then, Sylvia’s addiction has spread into creating an active Aquaponics forum, Facebook page, Twitter account, an online shop specifically catering to the US growing fascination with all things Aquaponics – and then there’s all the little videos clips on YouTube and now even a DVD on the subject! A month after starting her blog the New York Times interviewed her for a story on Aquaponics. Interest in Aquaponics leapt immediately.

Anyone who can extol the virtues of bacteria farming and compare it to the rolling pastures of grassland farming whilst reading “The Omnivores Dilemma” can’t be all that bad we thought – because Sylvia is also very good writer and evangelist for all things Aquaponics. If anyone can succeed bringing Aquaponics to America – it’ll be Sylvia and her single-minded determination to succeed.

We caught up with Sylvia Bernstein preparing to bring Murray Hallam over on a speaking tour of America later this year and managed to pry her away from her busy schedule to answer a few questions.

How did you first find out about Aquaponics?
I first heard about aquaponics during my early years at AeroGrow International around 2003 – 2004. I was reading everything I could get my hands on about hydroponics at that time because I was part of a small team that was developing the AeroGarden product. I think I first heard about it through an article in The Growing Edge magazine. At the time I remember thinking that it sounded very fringe and too organic, granola crunchy to really work. It wasn’t until 2008 when my good buddy, John Thompson started telling me about his experiments with aquaponics in his basement that I started paying closer attention. On a rainy day in early 2009 my then 14 year old son and I were looking for something to do together so I suggested we go check out John’s basement aquaponics setup and his newly hatched chickens. We were both astounded at the life emerging out of this humble basement setup. Enough so that we spent the entire car ride home designing our first aquaponics system, and had it mostly built by the time the weekend was over. A personal obsession was launched.

Aerogrow garden

What is your background?
I went to college at the University of California with a degree in Agricultural and Managerial Economics and a minor degree in English. The funny thing is that while having an agricultural degree would imply that I actually had an interest in growing plants, nothing could have been further from the truth. My first job out of college was with Andersen Consulting in San Francisco where I learned to program computers in COBAL. Another pretty serious mismatch for my skill set and temperament. I was assigned for two years to an easy job in downtown Chicago so I sure couldn’t complain.
I count myself very fortunate to have been able to spend this time with my kids, and out of the luxury of the relative flexibility of my life came the discovery of a dual passions: gardening, especially vegetable gardening, and cooking. I was constantly in the dirt, to the point where my husband gave me a portable spotlight for Christmas one year so I could garden in the dark! I started gardening projects at two of my kids schools, and during the winter I took classes, and read everything on gardening and cooking that I could find.

My husband retired from consulting shortly after we moved to Boulder, CO at the age of 49. Two adults in the house full time was one too many, so it was time for me to go back to work. I came upon a classified ad for a local startup company named AeroGrow looking for someone to run their hydroponic plant growing laboratory. Finally, the perfect job! I joined AeroGrow in early 2003 as a part-time employee and quickly became a full time member of the senior team. I created, ran and later managed the grow lab and the nursery and was the Director of Plant Products. In fall of 2007 I was promoted to VP of Innovation and Product Development, and a year later became the VP of Marketing and Product Development. I left AeroGrow in the fall of 2009 to start The Aquaponic Source with my husband.

Sylvia's Aquaponics System

Tell us about your home Aquaponics System?
I have a 12’ x 20’ 15 year old glass greenhouse that came with our current house. The guy who built it was an intense water gardener and he built it to winter his water lilies and as well as grow orchids. In 2004 I retrofitted the entire greenhouse for hydroponics and started using it to both grow vegetables over the winter and to start seedlings for the outdoor garden for the spring. In 2009 we retrofitted the entire greenhouse again, but this time for aquaponics and for testing and experimenting with design prototypes for our AquaBundance aquaponic system. It now has 4 complete AquaBundance systems (a fifth resides inside our house, and a 6th on our deck) and a variety of other product development experiments.
I grow a wide variety of heirloom tomatoes, Turkish cucumbers, Rainbow and Rhubarb Chard, strawberries, about 6 kinds of peppers, 3 kinds of basil, parsley and many other herbs, and several types of flowers just to keep it all colorful! The most unusual plant that I’m currently growing is from seeds brought back from France by a friend for a physallis plant. It gives off wonderful sweet berries that are in a tomatillo-like husk and has grown to about 8’ tall, covering part of the roof of the greenhouse. I mostly grow tilapia, and have about 100, with a pacu, an Oscar and a few goldfish thrown in for fun and learning. I spend about 5 minutes twice a day feeding and observing the fish, about ½ an hour a week tending to the plants, and probably an hour a month doing other maintenance. I never add supplemental nutrients, and the pH has been stable at 7/0 for about 9 months now. It is a remarkably easy garden to take care of!

Your Forum website? What motivated you to build one?
The forum website I manage is called AquaponicsCommunity.com. I started it because, while forums are incredibly important to emerging, grass-roots technology like aquaponics, I was never really comfortable with the typical forum user interface. Our site uses Ning as a platform which means that you can easily access forum topics, blog posts, photos, videos or other activity right from the home page. I also felt that there was a need for more, and better, community sites in the U.S. There are tremendous sites in Australia, but they often focus on Australian fish species that we can’t get here (barramundi and jade perch) and on growing in a year-round gardening climate. Our community site was started in January of this year, has been very active and has been growing steadily. We currently have about 300 members.

Why are people turning to Aquaponics?
I think that aquaponics is a natural outgrowth of the urban homesteading movement that has brought about the explosion in home vegetable gardening and backyard chicken raising. As we continue to lose faith in the institutions that control our food supply (the government, the agricultural complex, chain restaurants, food processors) self reliance will become increasingly important.
It is also perfect for those innovative souls that are always looking for the next best way to garden. Aquaponics is a unique blend of technology and mimicking nature. When you really think about it, it is both amazing that it works (no soil, no filters, etc.), and amazing that everyone doesn’t grow this way. It is a fascinating hobby.

Aqua Abundance Aquaponics System

Whats the reaction so far by your neighbors and friends?
Interest here is growing slowly, mainly because I’ve started teaching local classes but that is really more of an effort to give back to our community rather than grow our business here. Our business model is different than Murray’s or Joel’s because we really aren’t a design/build operation. Our AquaBundance system has been designed to be more compact and turn-key, and is being marketed nation-wide.

Where do you see the Future of Aquaponics in America?
There are two tracks of aquaponics that are really just getting started in the US – commercial and home systems. There is a lot of wonderful energy going into setting up commercial systems in blighted urban settings, especially in warehouses. I think that aquaponics as a tool for urban renewal is very exciting. On the home / hobby side I believe the DIY community will continue to drive aquaponic innovation, but that aquaponics will move into the mainstream more and more. As that occurs demand for easy to set up, well made, attractive foolproof systems like ours will increase. I was just at an independent garden center trade show where one of the big news stories continues to be a focus on vegetable gardening and homesteading. Hydroponics is flourishing in the U.S. Both are macro trends that bode well for the future aquaponics in America.

Sylvia’s Websites
Website (and blog): TheAquaponicSource.com
Community: AquaponicsCommunity.com
Twitter: @aquapon
Facebook: TheAquaponicSource

A swirl filter or solids filter is occasionally used in aquaponics to remove particles of fine fish waste. Suspended matter in the form of fish poop, floating debris, food particles are removed to clarify the water that flows back to the fish tank. Improved clarity of water aids fish health.

The Davoponic DIY Swirl Filter

It also stops clogging the plant roots in a floating raft (DWC) aquaponics system and aids in the ability of the plants to absorb oxygen and dissolved nutrients.

In a conventional aquaponics system, your growbeds are in a way – your swirl filter. So extra filtration usually isn’t required. Most growbeds do a very good job in reducing the amount of impurities in the water that eventually cycle back in a recirculated aquaculture system.

Compost worms in the grow bed further help mineralise that fish waste and reduce the load that a basic system can handle.

swirl filter laundry basket

But sometimes – depending on fish stocking densities and on what species of fish is used in an aquaponics system – a swirl filter is a good idea to reduce the amount of solids in circulation.
If you find your water getting cloudy on a regular basis and the fish hard to see in a hazy murk – then maybe adding an extra growbed – or an additional solids filter might be the way to go.

DIY Swirl Filter

There are many commercial models in production that can cost hundreds of dollars. For those on a budget making your own swirl filter from a plastic drum and a cheap plastic laundry basket might be a better alternative and save you a ton of cash! A Do-It-Yourself Swirl Filter may not look very flash – but if it does the job keeping your fish water clean – then who cares!

Dave's DIY Swirl Filter

One person who has studied swirl filters and how to use them effectively is Australian school teacher and Aquaponics enthusiast Dave or “Daveoponics” as he likes to refer to himself on forums.

Dave raises Barramundi and Tilapia in Brunei in a tropical climate.

Barramundi or Sea Bass fingerlings as they are known over there are a lot cheaper to buy than in Australia and a natural way to secure clean organic fish for Dave to feed his family as well as growing the kinds of vegetables that are not easily found in the local Asian market.

If you read my recent post on barramundi you would know that these fish are notorious for pooping a great deal and when you overstock your system with too many fish – you need to find a solution to keep the water sparkling clean.

Building your Own Swirl Filter

Dave built his own swirl filter from a 200 litre blue barrel and a plastic laundry basket. Notice the construction of his spray pipes and the elbows that can be adjusted to direct the water flow in a centrifugal force or “swirl” pattern.

Solids are swirled to the sides and deposited at the base of the blue barrel before the cleaner water makes its way to the grow bed eliminating the heavier solids.

The laundry basket made a neat fit into his DIY blue barrel. He then found a sheet of thick foam and lined it around the inner wall of the laundry basket. At the base of his basket he used some natural coral for additional filtration,

Filter media and coral in laundry basket swirl filter

His system works very well and traps all the fish waste that his 100 barramundi produce. Cleaning the Swirl Filter is pretty simple. He can drain off the sludge by adding a small tap at the base of his barrel. The whole thing can be easily hosed out with a pressure hose as well.

Dave explains how his system works, “I made the drain dead centre in the bottom of the barrel. It is a bit more effective in removing all the muck but not critical.
I divert the waste pipe into my Papaya patch and everything in the dirt there is thriving. It feeds Paw paws, passionfruit, parsley, okra and indirectly the squirrrels who seem to think I’m growing all this stuff for their family.” he said.

“I drilled the bottom of basket with holes, lined edges with aquarium foam, in the middle is a laundry bad full of coral. You could go to town and fill the whole basket with light medium I suppose, but I have found the foam and coral work well. On the other filter I have filled the basket with some of those aquarium filter “toilet brushes”. It works even better. The whole unit is really easy to clean. I just hose it out every few weeks.” he said.
“It is easy to make.” he says, “I’m sure there are better filters (out there) but as a DIY one this is simple and works.”

Dave has two swirl filters on his other systems. Both filters sit about 1 metre off the ground on heavy duty hardwood stands. The water is pumped from the center of the Fish Tank and gravity feeds down to the top of the barrel swirl filters and then on to the Grow Beds.

“The one improvement I would suggest to the design is to put a conical base in the drums to help drain the solids.” said Dave, “When I clean the filters I just hose them out so they are low maintenance.”

Commercial Swirl Filters are further discussed and demonstrated in the Aquaponics Secrets DVD that we produce.

Update: Dave has alerted us to an error in the graphic of his DIY Swirl filter illustrated above. The Water Flow inlet pipe into the blue barrel should be at a lower level than the outlet pipe. The graphic has been fixed.

“Just one small error is that in the diagram of the barrel where you show the water outlet at the bottom of the drum going to the growbeds. In my filters, the water outlet is at the top. The water from the fish tank is pumped into the drum about one third of the way from the bottom of the drum.” said Dave, “Most solids then drop and settle at the bottom of the drum. Lighter suspended solids are trapped by the filter foam in the basket at the top third of the barrel. Clean, clear water passes through inside the basket and foam. Some biofilm also forms here as there is very little water movement. A 40mm ball valve is opened a few times a week or more often depending on fish density.”

A warning for anyone considering growing fish in any backyard pond or aquaponics system is to be very cautious when dealing with pest control people spraying chemicals in and around your home.

Recently Rod from Queensland got a reminder phone call from his pest control man.

“I got a phone call early in the week that house was due for annual spider and cockroach spray.” said Rod, “I Thought nothing about it until the same chap arrived on Thursday. Rod even showed the Pest Control guy his aquaponics setup.

“It was windy so I asked him – what about my fish?” said Rod. Will they be safe?

“Not a problem.” said the pest control guy, “The fish are far enough away from the main house.”

Rod was satisfied that this guy was an expert and knew what he was talking about. So he let the pest control guy do his thing – spray around the house and do the regular “treatment.”

Saturday morning came. Rod uncovered his main fish tank and looked inside to inspect the fish. He noticed something odd floating at the bottom of his tank.

“What are the white lines on the bottom of the tank?” He thought to himself. Looking further into the tank he saw the pile of dead fish resting on the bottom.

“Yep! The whole lot of my Silver Perch and Yellow Belly fish. Forty odd fish in total. All dead!” he said.

Rod's fish poisoned

“I had one fish frozen and I buried the rest.” said Rod. The frozen fish he would test for lethal chemicals.

Rod inspected the water in the tank and noticed something strange.

“It looked like couple of oil slicks on top of water About size of a 5c piece.” he said, so Rod took a sample of that as well.

“Sure makes you wonder what in hell is being sprayed around the place by these so called professionals.” said Rod.

“I think the problem was that the spray got onto the Grow Bed which is only about 4 meters from the house.” he said.

It was a windy day. The chemical spray wafted and landed on his grow-bed and then seeped into his fish tank.

Rod has another aquaponics system that was located on the other side of his house.

The Jade Perch in it are okay.” he said because they were located in separate systems.

Rod's poisoned fish

“Funny I had no floaters,” said Rod. All the poisoned fish rested on the bottom of the tank.

Rod contacted the pest control people who apologized about the incident and offered to compensate Rod for his nine month old dead fish. The manager said that the sprays used are similar to chemical sprays used in commercial agriculture. It certainly makes you wonder about the degree of chemicals that still adhere to the surface of store bought broccoli and strawberries?

Rod intends to wash and clean his poisoned aquaponics system, replace his vegetables and start again but using sacrificial goldfish this time to make sure everything is okay before introducing another batch of fish.

The moral of this story is to be very cautious when allowing anyone to enter your house and applying any form of chemical spray in and around your home. Aquaponics by its very nature creates 100% clean food. Even a small amount of chemical spraying – no matter how “food safe” the authorities tell you – can have disastrous results as Rod’s dead fish clearly display.

School Gardens are taking off in a big way and there’s no better designer in our view than Leonie Shanahan. Yesterday we had the pleasure to start filming with Leonie a new DVD that we are producing next year on planning an effective school garden that really works. The DVD on Edible School Gardens will is a much needed resource that shows permaculture designers and teachers the practical aspects of working with school principals, teachers and more importantly – school kids to help design and build a permaculture garden that delivers fresh fruit and vegetables and teaches kids all about growing food and better nutrition.

School Garden central location site

Leonie has built over 16 school gardens, but what makes this garden unique is the way it has been designed into a central location.

In the past, school gardens were usually assigned a bit of scrap land tucked away behind the sports oval, consequently very few people visited the site. But at this school, Leonie was given a prime location to build her dream garden.

Visiting teachers from the Gold Coast were knocked out by the location, as this garden was built right in the center of the school. You need to walk through the garden to get to the sports oval. Leonie has implemented many permaculture design features into her unique design. Spiral herb gardens and worm towers are tucked away in unusual spots. Climbing beans covered bamboo tripods. Arrowroot plants and bathtub worm farms appear suddenly as you weave your way through the arching pathway. Kids need to walk through an edible archway to enter the garden. Its covered in climbing passionfruit vines.
A scarecrow suddenly appears in the corner. Its use is to scare the neighboring crows and birds that suddenly appear at the school.

Leonie Shanahan in the school garden

A lot of the elements were designed by the kids themselves. Leonie says its very important in the planning stage to give the kids a free rein in designing the shape of the garden. Her role is to tie all the ends together and make sure all the design aspects work.
Because the garden was on a sloping site, Leonie designed the site to harvest rainwater runoff to soak into the slope. She implemented a line of arrowroot plants to suck up and hold nitrogen into the soil.

To prevent easterly winds from scorching the vegetables, shade trees are used as well as a line of fruit trees are cleverly designed into the system to act as windbreaks.

Kids enjoying the vegetables

The garden has been growing now for two years and speaking with the children its clear that they enjoy visiting and picking vegetables from garden. One boy said, “I used to not recognize any of the plant bushes. I used to say – that’s just a bush…that’s another bush and so on. Now I recognize the individual tomato plants, basil plants, onion plants…”

Understanding where food comes from means the kids are more keen to try tasting fresh new vegetables.

Yesterday was Harvest Day at the school. It was the moment when kids pick all the produce and get busy in the kitchen. It was a culmination of two years of hard work for Leonie and a chance to step back and reflect.

Visit Leonie’s website.

Imagine a world where we lost all our seeds?

it’s been estimated that each year 1–2% of crop diversity is lost and more than 75% of genetically diverse crops present at the beginning of the 20th century are now gone.

Here’s an interesting talk presented by Jonathan Drori who has a background in producing BBC TV documentaries.

Jonathan Drori encourages us to save biodiversity — one seed at a time. Reminding us that plants support human life, he shares the vision of the UK Millennium Seed Bank, which has stored over 3 billion seeds to date from dwindling yet essential plant species.

Jonathan Drori: Why we’re storing billions of seeds

Collecting Seeds
Don’t try and save seeds from hybrid plants varieties if you desire the plant to resemble it’s parent. Seeds from hybrid varieties end up producing a various mix of offspring. A lot of these hybrid plants end up having quite different characteristics than the parent.

What is the best way to store seeds?
Seeds should always be kept dry, cool (close to 4º C if possible) and dark. The refrigerator (NOT the freezer) is a good place to store seeds, preferably inside a film canister, to avoid light and moisture condensation. In the absence of a fridge, the back of a closet is OK, as long as your seeds are not exposed to moisture, heat or excesses of light. Some people recommend placing them in envelopes placed between the pages of old newspapers.