Long living plants to help while we are away

[thebloks]

Hi guys,
We are going away for a 6 month trip and wondering if you know of some good plants that we could put into our sand beds that will grow for a long time and not need much supervision?
I've looked it up online but most of the aquaponics systems aren't sand based...
Some ideas I saw were Basil and Mint. We have some basil in there now and also some strawberries. We just managed to get rhubarb established too.
Any ideas would be welcomed.
Oh hey I have a problem with moss growing in some of the valleys of our furrows. Has anyone else seen this or dealt with it? Not sure if I should rip it out or not.
Thanks
Greg

P.S. We have a friendly local villager who will feed our fish while we are away and top up the level of water in our fish tank. Not sure how much he will look after vegies though...

[Gary Donaldson]

Hi Greg,

If I was going somewhere for six months, I'd shut down my iAVs (and any other integrated aquaculture systems) and restart it when I returned. With the best of intentions on the part of your "friendly local villager' I feel that such an arrangement is likely to end in tears.

If I have to 'mothball' a regular garden, I usually plant it out to herbs...like parsley, sage, oregano, rosemary, thyme, etc. Insect pests don't much care for herbs, they keep the soil covered and require very liitle in the way of care.

How has your iAVs functioned in recent months? Can you update us on what's been happening?

[thebloks]

Yeah our system is doing okay.
Kind of have to get into a better routine for planting new things. It's looking a little sparse in the planting beds now as the new stuff hasn't really come up quick enough. I have two beds that are 4 meters and 5 meters long by 1 meter wide. Half of one of them has strawberries growing in it. The other three halves kind of have things in various stages from doing well or being too old to being too young.
We've planted lots of basil and capsicums (bell pepper for our North American friends) and lettuce tomatoes and lots of other things. Most of them have done pretty well. Basil was the most successful. The moss is kind of starting to take over hence my question above.
We've had lots of different plants in there but the fish haven't gotten big enough to eat yet which is annoying as its been just over a year now. Well one or two of them are probably big enough - not sure. What's a good size to eat and how to get them out??
Anyway I'm a bit loath to shut it down before we get some fish from it. We aren't planning to leave till June so we might get some fish to eat yet. Its cold season here and that means 13-18 degrees C overnight and then slightly warmer during the day. 21-25 celsius. When the hot season gets here we will have 40+ during the day and mid 30's during the night. (We don't really like the hot season as much).

[Aufin]

Apologies to Gary for differing with his opinion as i offer mine.
June is a long way off. Plenty of time to teach your friendly buddy the basics of such an easy system as iAVs. My system runs pretty much on cruise control. If he's willing to keep an eye on your system for you, why not educate him a little and let him know that any vegetables that were produced would be his. He just might get excited enough to do a really jam-up job and when you return you might find things really popping in your beds. I'd even plant some things just for his family's benefit. Never can tell, you just might have to become an iAVs consultant in your area when word spreads about your setup.

. 'Course all of the above is said without knowing your particulars. I could be totally off base. Just thinking out loud.

As for what can be planted with minimal supervision, that can be just about anything. Especially if your friend is looking over things. Haven't tried everything, but I've found that just about anything grown in dirt can be grown in iAVs sand as long as the plant can take having their roots constantly damp. I have found that onions and garlic don't appreciate iAVs.

[Gary Donaldson]

Hey, no need to apologise for disagreeing with me. Most people do about some things....sooner or later.

Upon reflection, I like your suggestion. The best case scenario is that, on their return, the Bloks will have a thriving garden and a new convert to iAVs. Letting the caretaker take the produce for his own family is also a great idea - and will get him personally invested in the task of looking after the system.

The worst thing that can happen is that your fish will end up dead. Either way, we're going to learn something from the whole experience.

If any integrated aquaculture variant has the resilience to withstand a situation like this, it's iAVs.