Wow, I can honestly say that I'm quite shocked by what this worked out to show!
There are lot’s of different hobbies that I have gotten involved in over the years and they've all been fun but most of them were eventually set aside because they were just getting to expensive to continue with. The RC trucks for example got way out of hand, as did the paintball equipment before it. For the most part we've gotten rid of most of the clutter from those pastimes but there are still a couple of pretty sweet RC trucks in the attic that I’ve been thinking about getting down lately …
As some of you who follow my outdoor channel & blog are aware I have recently gotten back into more ‘manly’ hobbies like fishing & hunting. Although to be honest there are a LOT of women that are taking an interest in these activities now as well so … sweet. Anyway, equipment for either or both of these hobbies is kind of costly as well but it’s different because these both provide meat for dinner.
Aquaponics falls into that same sort of ‘grey area’ of spending as a hobby because it has that same bonus. There are costs to setting up an aquaponic garden but as it turns out they really don’t have to be that much. Please keep in mind that prices will be different for EVERYBODY building an aquaponic garden because we all shop in different stores and have different levels of urban foraging skills but basically here we go.
What I most commonly refer to as my greenhouse is, in fact, just a poly tunnel hoop house with delusions of grandeur. Since it’s not heated, or really environmentally controlled at all, it sadly doesn't count as a proper greenhouse. Well, not in my thinking anyway but I want to have something more like a conservatory anyway. Ideally. For now, I have built this little hoop house and it cost about $60 so far. I’m okay with that compared to say several hundred for a smaller, but premade, garden greenhouse. DIY is fine by me and Chox doesn't seem to mind either so … perfect!
Inside my little hoop house I am currently running two separate aquaponic gardens, as I discuss in the video on YouTube Assessing the Cost of my Aquaponic Greenhouse Garden as a Hobby. The first garden has some of the older & more expensive pieces in it so it totalled out at $244 as I recall, the second garden was built with a little more experience and I was able to put it together for $168. So the total cost of this is some $472. Not bad.
Now, as I already said, the price of setting up your aquaponic garden will probably be different from that. I was brought up to salvage lumber & reuse the nails, things like that tend to lower costs somewhat. If you look around I’m sure that you can put an aquaponic garden together for WAY less than that.
So, for less than $500 I've been able to keep myself busy in the back yard growing herbs, fruit & vegetables for my family that are clean, fresh and healthy for them to eat. Nice. How many wives would gladly pay more than that to keep their hubbies happy and within eyeshot? I feel confident to say that with all of the better than organic herbs we have stored away in the house from that garden, the countless green salads we've eaten, the heaping bowls of tomatoes that have come in and that Malabar spinach that was so excellent for sandwiches that we've gotten WAY more than our money back from this little garden. What’s even better is that it will just keep on growing more food for us, all year round, year after year … oh ya.
What do I think after assessing the cost of my aquaponic garden in the greenhouse? I think that money was darn well spent and if I had the space I’d double my greenhouse!
