aquaponics | The HoBB

Lockdown Update 2020: The HoBB garden is only open for private family or individual guided viewing, by prior appointment, from Spring to October.

KEY

1: Summer Bod with views towards the source of the Ffrwdwen Brook
2. Studio
2a. Original Sheep Bod (presently housing plans of the World of Water Aquaponic units)
3. Wood Store. Wood Bods. To include greenhouse over grey water store.
4. Kudo cooking station
5. UV filter and Tank Bod
6. East Spring with water storage and distribution tanks
7. Grass composting and Willow Wood store.
8. West Spring and store for road run-off water.
9. Streamline Green water collection.
10. Embankment steps leading from greenery & hide into pond.
11. Old seed bods – now greenhouse for vegetables above wicking beds.
12. Water bod site for new natural pond with duckboat.

Not labelled on map:
13. Two-Oak Spring
14. Hedera Walk
15. Fruit Garden Screenhouse
16. W.E.T. system and osier bed
17. Road run-off water collection tank
18. Vineyard (Privately owned)

The HoBB Gardens are in their infancy, sandwiched between the remains of the C12th Castle of Cnwclas, one mile to the East, and the original site of its vineyards to the West.

The history of the castle and its medieval vineyards remains underground but the whole area is thought to have been first tended by the Monks of Abbey Cwmhir when they built their HQ in the Teme valley two miles down the road.

Most of the original farm layout has been retained and there’s still evidence of some 18th Century plantings. During the renovations, we are designing around existing features, levels and planting. Two new terraces are being added to extend the gardens (left) towards the South.

Here, everything is done ‘bit by bit’, and from early Spring each year, friends and student volunteers visit (via helpx.net and wwoof.org) to enjoy the HoBB Gardens and lend a hand with restoration and construction plans.

Garden Phase I – the harmony of Wood with Stone
Many elements are working in unison to create the HoBB. The ‘five early elements’ of EARTH, WOOD, WATER . FIRE & METAL are all here to be enjoyed at the HoBB. Certainly all FLORA, and FAUNA, have increased since we started to put our energies into the gardens. We have created a range of new ‘habitats’ for wildlife from ‘land reefs’ to ‘stone shelters’. More are planned so that the land provides food, shelter, niche habitats and wide variety of conditions for landscape harmony.

We keep track of what we are achieving using a large 300+ section grid of the site. As it is too large to view on your screen in any useful size, here is an example of fifteen of the sections: (shown below in a small scale)

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Posted by Grant.

aquaponic, aquaponics, elements, garden, hobb, plans

In order to feed everyone, we are now sucking the World dry of its freshwater faster than Nature can replace it. Satellites help us to measure this problem but we need to solve it.

Most food producers use a lot of water when farming crops and livestock, many drilling ever deeper wells each year to find the water their crops demand. In bad cases, the land dries, soil structures die, there are more droughts and food prices rocket. In terrible cases there’s poverty, starvation and death.

But there is a farming method that recycles nearly all of its water. Aquaponics.

The World of Water charity cares about water used in food production and through its work, aims to keep water clean and available for all to drink, enjoy – and use in food production.

In 1979 World of Water researched waste from fish farms.
In 1983 World of Water toured the UK with an educational exhibition on the future of aquaculture, “Wet Harvest”.
In 2016, World of Water returns to research the growth of aquaponics.

In trials at the World of Water field centre last year all our organically grown vegetables grew outside in a number of different aquaponic systems between March and September. This year we want to extend the growing season by raising seeds indoors and creating three greenhouses. Our charity has been very busy fundraising for this new work and has 68% of the funds required. We need your help to raise the rest.

With a more caring use of water, and land, the World will be able to produce enough food in the future.

We need to secure match funding. Please donate whatever you can.
Our charity’s research into aquaponics will bring about greater food security for communities around the World. By donating, students from around the globe will be given the opportunity to develop village farming systems to prevent starvation – ways that care for the water they have.

If we don’t help home communities to use the water they have to grow the food they need, those communities may continue to need food parcels. Without home food security, those communities may abandon their dried out farmlands or they may starve.

It is always better to teach the skills required to produce food than to drop ready-made food parcels.

Last year, students from Spain, England and Italy visited the World of Water field centre and were so keen on our aquaponic research that they built their own growing systems from recycled drink containers, food trays, gravel, pond liner, pipes and flower pots. Most village communities around the World can do the same thing – improvising with what’s available given the skills and knowledge of what’s possible.

World of Water aim to stop water being over used, abused, wasted and polluted. Join us and support however you can. We need to feed the World to truly blossom its full harvest.

Some images for you showing the work of our international students last year. The four aquaponic systems shown here are NFT (Nutrient Film Technique); Flood and Drain; MicroTube; Algae Screen

World of Water Aquaponics Yr.1