Rosemary wanted something small and compact that was going to provide her with some fresh salad greens and herbs. The courtyard system is perfect for this purpose as it takes up no more than 2.2m x 1.7m and can easily fit into the tiniest of spaces.

A system this size requires no more than 15 minutes a week in maintenance of the plants and 1 or 2 minutes to feed the fish each day.

Rosemary loved the idea of having plants float on the water and so purchased a foam raft planted with Lebanese watercress. Lebanese watercress is a culinary herb used mainly in pasta, soup and stews. It has quite an earthly taste resembling a carrot.

Certain types of fish such as Silver Perch will nibble at the plants roots as a source of food.

Lebanese watercress floating in the fish tank