Gardening that goes with the flow

She’s never had a pet fish and has never had an edible garden, but Graciela Pargas wanted to try caring for both after getting excited over something in a kindergarten classroom.

What Pargas, a speech pathologist at Summit View Elementary School, saw was an aquarium aquaponics system called a FlowGarden.

“I love plants and I walked in there and saw it and fell in love with it,” says the west-side Tucson resident.

The combination aquarium and garden system was developed by Tucsonans Stéphane Herbert-Fort, who owns Local Roots Aquaponics, and Sean Herman, who works there.

In aquaponics, plants are grown without soil. Roots are anchored by a medium such as pebbles and are fed by nutrient-rich, aerated water.

Waste from fish provide the nutrients in the water that is pumped to the plants. The plants’ roots take the nutrients from the water, filtering it before it is pumped back to the fish tank.

The FlowGarden “is a showcase piece of what aquaponics can do,” says Herbert-Fort. It was developed as a way for teachers and students to study how aquaponics work.

Available online at premiumap.com and at the EcoGro store, 657 W. St. Mary’s Road, the conversion kit ($89-$99) and the all-in-one system ($99) allow people to keep fish as pets in an aquarium while growing small plants in the garden.

The conversion kit turns an existing 10-gallon aquarium into an aquaponics system. The all-in-one includes a 5-gallon tank ready for aquaponics growing.

Neither product includes fish, aquarium accessories or plants.

Pargas bought the conversion kit, a 10-gallon aquarium, three tetra fish and two purslane starter plants. She also bought a grow light because her apartment doesn’t get enough sunlight for indoor gardening.

Since setting up the system in June, her purslane has grown several inches and she trims them to keep them from overtaking the aquarium.

Her regular routine calls for feeding the fish and turning the grow light on during the day.

Occasionally she skims film from the top of the water and adds more water to make up for loss from evaporation and plant transpiration.

“I don’t have to clean (the aquarium) that often because the water recycles itself,” she says. “The plant uses up the fish waste.”

While purslane is edible, Pargas says she bought the plant for its flowers and as an experiment to see if she can make plants grow.

“I wanted something I won’t kill right away,” she says.

With success in hand, she now wants to try strawberries or peppers.

Herbert-Fort says the best plants for these small systems include leafy greens and herbs. The strawberry plant he grew did yield a couple of fruit. “It tasted great,” he says.

Gardening that goes with the flow