Saturday, January 14, 2012

RESOURCES

here is a series of links to helpful resources for the duckponics pond project!

How to build a Skippy Biofilter
http://www.skippysstuff.com/biofiltr.htm

Helpful hints form Skippy
http://www.skippysstuff.com/plumbing.htm

Leisure's version of the biofilter - lots of great photos
http://leisure.prior-it.co.uk/pond.shtml#essential

Another version of the duckponics project
http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2228&hilit=ducks

The original Duckponics experiment form wifezilla! The best thread ever!!
http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/146829/the-duck-ponics-experiment-raising-minnows

Link to a good pump that handles solids
http://www.lagunaponds.com/lagunaeng/maxflopumps/maxflo.php?link=141

Marsh Plants for Greywater
http://tricia-edgar.suite101.com/marsh-plants-that-clean-grey-water-a114854

Aswesome govenment page full of links on constructed wetlands
http://water.epa.gov/type/wetlands/restore/cwetlands.cfm

That is it for the moment...more to follow!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Duckponics phase I - The site





Here are some photos of the site as it is right now. The logs mark the spot where I thought to put the pond. The marsh would probably be just uphill from that in a created terrace.

An exciting new project: Duck Pond + Marsh + Biofilter = Duckponics

I been wanting a pond since I got my first ducks....which is quite understandable if you have to live with the constant cleaning of kiddie pools that get bigger and bigger as the ducks get more numerous.
The duckponics idea originally belongs to one of the BackYardChickens forum members, who tried this experiment herself, providing tons of invaluable information on the process. But the original idea of duck pond/ greywater / marsh system actually belong to Penny Livingston (http://westbynorthwest.org/summer02/dedanan.perm.sum02.shtml). I was reading the permaculture classic "Gaias Garden" last year when I read about her system and instantly wanted one like that.
We finally happened upon the right place and time for my dream to have the chance to become reality!!
Now the research has really started to become of vital importance!
Unfortunately until now I did not find any detailed description of a system quite like I want...so I will have to puzzle it together on my own I guess!

In this post and the future ones I will try to share all the information and the process, so that it might be useful for other duckponics / greywater enthusiasts.


Let's start form my vision:
I would like to create a pond for my ducks to swim in, that would mimic as close as possible a natural ecosystem where the duck waste becomes fertilizer for aquatic plants, the marsh and plants for duck food. This system will eventually grow to include greywater recycling from the main house and of course rainwater harvesting.

I am still not 100% sure all this is doable in one project, but Mother Nature seems able to include 1000 different uses for any given ecosystem, so why not aim high?

I hope any readers out there will not be shy to leave some comments and some feedback, as this is a highly experimental project!

....to be continued.

About Me

Forest Ranch, CA, United States
Omnatura was born in 2005 as a line of handmade jewellery in collaboration with artisans in the poor areas of the northeast of Brazil. Since then it has expanded to different countries, and has grown more and more into a concept for living. I am Vivica, the creator of Omnatura, and when my visions and priorities started shifting and expanding, I decided to let my business expand and shift with them. After all Omnatura could be translated into "All-Natural" (from the Latin base "omni" and "naturae"), and my life has been strongly moving towards this all-natural state.... After living in the city of Los Angeles for the last 17 years, and the city of Milano for many years before that, the call back to nature finally became reality this year in April, when we moved to the small community if Forest Ranch in Northern California. My dreams of self-sufficiency and threading lightly on this much abused planet are now becoming reality. A different pace of life, and still managing my business of sustainable fashions...now with more integrity than ever!