Marriage of Ideas.

Keeping in mind my own goals and restrictions - I've put a lot of thought into what I want to do and how to go about it.  I have an overreaching goal that would incorporate a lot of different ideas from a lot of different places.  What I have to work on is how these ideas slot together. Although information on the internet is easy to find - finding objective information is trickier, and trying to get info and advice on putting together 2 different methods and ideas is harder still, you'll run into a lot of people of the 'one true way' mindset - and of course the folks that follow them.

Every system and every method for everything is going to have a downside.  For example Hydroponics.  They popular opinion is that it saves water by using a reservoir that circulates water delivering nutrients sans the soil. We all know the basic principles, and on the surface it looks pretty good - but those nutrients run out... you add more... but not everything is taken out, only the good stuff. Eventually you get a buildup of salts and other things that facilitate that water being changed.

So you have a bunch of water you have to get rid of that's not much good for anything, and replacing that water - and you have to do this with some regularity.  It's the downside that isn't advertised.

Now some bright spark decided to marry another idea to it - in aquaculture, the raising of fish, you have the same problem of water toxicity.... so someone married it to hydroponics - the waste of the fish passes through the hydroponic mediums and bacteria cultures form that convert those ammonia products to nitrites then to nitrates which fertilizes the plants, the water - sans nitrates is cycled back to the fish as clean water.  It's the nitrogen cycle that occurs in nature and soils. Raising plants and fish at the same time.

Now the downside to this is that if a hose breaks, a syphon fails, water stops moving - too many fish overload the system - your plants die. Then your fish die.

The funny thing is - as much as aquaponics had to do the breakthrough with the hydroponics crowd, a year ago suggesting using a soil medium with aquaponics methods was met with so much vitriol you'd have thought someone suggested using kittens for fertilizer.

Anyways - at this point in time I have neither a hydroponic nor aquaponic system (YET) - but I'm trying to illustrate how people will tell you a 'one true way' without letting you know the pitfalls, and sometimes get really bent out of shape if you bring them up, or God forbid, try and solve them. In the realm of computers you can equate this to 'PC or Mac?' or any good Operating System or preferred web browser discussion - or on some forums I frequent 'What is a Virtual World?'... very little useful information comes out of this. It's like discussing religion or politics in a pub.

My ideal system - what I want to work towards - and fulfills all my criteria is as follows:

Wicking (self watering) 4x4 raised beds on a reservoir filled with sand and course medium covered by soil.
Each bed broken down for intensive planting using square-foot-gardening methods.
Each bed containing a one foot (making each bed 4x5) compost area for worms.
Water cycled through the wicking bed reservoirs and overflows pipes back to a tank for raising of tilapia.

An aquaponics system fed into self watering soil beds further fertilized by composting worms - providing the nutrients to sustain an high yield intensively planted garden.
Self watering, self fertilizing, nearly self weeding.

And the best part: composting worms live on veg and garden scraps and paper (in my current worm farms - kitchen leftovers and junk mail).  If fish weren't in the equation any source of ammonia could take it's place - and as it so happens we all have access to a near inexaustable supply of sterile ammonia.. yes... that.... 'humonia'.

You could theoretically run this system on piss and garbage.

And I think THAT has potential.