Well, we survived the winter and the garden is looking great!

For those who have been following along, I started with one media and one raft system so I could compare. I have decided that for me the media system is much better. So... I converted my raft system to a media bed. Now I have two beds made from the top section of the IBC totes used for the tank plus one large 4x8 bed that is being fed off of on of those systems.

I decided to experiment with onions this time around. Not sure how they will do in an aquaponics system, but so far they look happy. I planted half of each of the IBC tote beds with onions and the other half with mixed lettuce to start of the season.

My larger bed has been productive, even through the winter. I harvested a nice batch of chard a couple of weeks back. It was enough for 7 people to have a nice helping, and that was just from the bottom mature leaves. Those plants are almost ready for another harvest already!

I cleared out one of the collard green plants as it was kind of crowding the cabbage. It was darned tasty and made a little bit of room to tuck in another lettuce plant between the cabbage and the chard.

Between the more mature lettuce in the large bed and the bottom leaves of the newer lettuces in the IBC tote beds, I have already harvested two nice bags of mixed greens. I had some of those for lunch today and they were delicious.

I'll do my best to post some pics soon along with a nice design I have come up with for a much better bell siphon.

Happy gardening!