Sunday, September 30, 2012
If you want to grow veggies but hate kneeling for hours in a garden, you may want to try aquaponics. From the Tucson AquaPonics Project website (www.tucsonap.org), aquaponics is "the growing of fish and plants together in a closed recirculating system."
The organizer of the project, Casey Townsend, offers several events to educate and inspire the public. He reports that aquaponics systems can not only feed people, but also save water, conserve energy and reduce land usage. Systems can be individual size all the way to commercial systems. (Read more about Townsend and the Tucson AquaPonics Project here).
On the first Tuesday of every month (next is Oct. 2), Townsend teaches a free Intro to Aquaponics class, starting at 6:30 p.m., at the University of Arizona Controlled Environment Agriculture Center, at 1951 E. Roger Road.
On Saturday, Oct. 6, a Fall Tucson Aquaponics Systems Tour will take place. The TAPST is a self-guided tour of more than 10 aquaponics systems in the Tucson area. Participants will see different ways of growing plants and fish together. More details will be announced at the group's Meetup site here.