Disabled Marine Pursues New Goal of Aquaponics Farming

In Florida, a disabled marine has started up a new aquaponics operation where he grows “herbs like fennel, dill, cilantro and chives, as well as a wide range of greens including Bibb lettuce, Tokyo bekana, Cressida cress, mizuna, red Russian kale, Swiss chard, bok choy and red giant mustard greens.”

Besides the fresh produce, he’s also raising 300 tilapia fish which in turn feed the plants that he is growing in a closed-loop aquaponics system he built himself.

“The way I grow food here and give it to people is the way I eat it, the way I want to eat food, free of pesticides, the most natural way of growing things,” Mickell said. “This is a place where we take pride in what we grow and we care about what people are consuming.”

You can read the full article here: “MilitaryTimes.com“

Source By : http://www.urbanorganicgardener.com/2016/01/disabled-marine-pursues-new-goal-of-aquaponics-farming/

Soil, Your Garden's Engine Room

Soil is the engine room of the garden and healthy soil will help the garden perform at its best. One of the most important things that gardeners can add to their soil is organic matter. Organic matter provides some fantastic benefits:

• Absorbs moisture like a sponge so helps to increase the water holding capacity of soil.
• Helps improve soil structure by binding mineral particles together and creating additional spaces for air and water and allowing easier root growth.
• Encourages earthworms and beneficial microorganisms which enrich the soil and help create plant available nutrients.

Yates Dynamic Lifter Organic Plant Food is pelletised composted manure so is an easy to use, concentrated source of organic matter. Dynamic Lifter is rich in organic nutrients to gently feed plants over several weeks and is also boosted with the goodness of blood and bone, fishmeal and seaweed.