The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Aquaponic Gardening: Discover the Dual Benefits of Raising Fish and Plants Together

Sustainable and organic, aquaponics gardening is the most efficient method of raising both plants and fish--cultivate an entire meal with your self-sustaining aquaponics system

Aquaponics is a way to garden by combining fish and plants in a garden with no soil. In this closed system, the water is constantly recycled and the nutrients needed to nurture the plants are derived from the fish waste. This is a great way to grow your own vegetables, without chemicals, in a relatively small space. Feel good about the fish and vegetables you're eating by harvesting them from your own backyard.

The Complete Idiot's Guide(R) to Aquaponic Gardening is your comprehensive guide to this farming method, from choosing a setup, to selecting fish and vegetables, to maintaining your system. You'll be pleased with the variety of species that your aquaponic garden can support and how easy it is to maintain.

In addition to everything you need to know to run a healthy aquaponic garden and care for both the vegetables and fish, there are step-by-step plans with photos for building the appropriately sized system for your needs.

Engineer and blogger Meg Stout expertly explains how to garden indoors and how to resize and move a garden inside or outside, depending on the season, to produce an abundant supply of edible, organically-raised vegetables and fish.

Meg Stout is an engineer who blogs about aquaponics. She specializes in home-scale aquaponic systems, using her training in physics (George Mason University) and product development (Naval Postgraduate School) to design inexpensive systems. She has conducted hands-on workshops of systems at the Aquaponics Association Conference, the Philadelphia Flower Show, and the Home-Grown Institute. She also assists businesses and nonprofits to create aquaponic systems to further their organizational goals. Stout was a founding officer in the Aquaponics Association and served as the director of programs and policies.