What is Aquatic Polyculture?
If gardening is culturing plants, polyculture is growing plants and animals together. Avid water gardeners often decide to place fish in a pond to add life, interest, and color to the garden. Enthusiastic practitioners of aquaculture may even decide to create or stock a small pond on their property, filling it with food fish.Instead of focusing on one plant species or one food crop, a polyculture creates an ecosystem on the farm or garden. The fish waste feeds the plants, while the plants help feed the fish. Why Use Fish in a Water Garden? Fish are a beautiful and useful addition to a water garden. They are excellent predators and eat insects that can damage garden crops. Fish also eat biting insects such as mosquitoes. Waste from a fish provides fertilizer for plants in and around a pond. Fish such as trout and carp are also a ready source of protein in many cultures. Traditional Ways of Raising Fish and Food Crops In a traditional polyculture, farmers raise edible fish and edible aqu
