What is Aquaponics?
Aquaponics is the combination of growing plants hydroponically and growing fish through aquaculture. Mari's Gardens is now producing Tilapia and Chinese catfish while utilizing water from that product to produce lettuce, beets, tomatoes, herbs, spinach, taro and cucumbers. Mari's Gardens is one of the pioneers in the commercial use of aquaponics on a large scale. Our method of farming is sustainable, organically certified and food safety certified.
Tours of our aquaponic facility are available from Monday through Friday by appointment. Group tours can be arranged for Saturdays if we are given advance confirmation. Cost is $12 per person for an in-depth tour and explaination of how our systems work and why we believe this is the most sustainable method of farming possible (demonstration area). This tour runs approximately 30 minutes.
Our grand tour (demonstration area plus commercial facility), which is $25 per person includes a tour of our different kinds of systems and how they work. We also take you to the commercial side where you can get a look of how our operation runs. This tour runs approximately 1 hour.
These fees helps us cover the cost of our time to provide the tour as well as to help perpetuate the ongoing research and development of aquaponics. For students and schools, tour cost is $6.