Latest Wicking Bed...
This is a bed that the Girls & I converted into a Wicking bed... What they learnt was used to help them design & make one each for themselves as a school project...
Left : The bed was dug out to a level of 480mm....Right : Drainage Assembly made from Shade cloth, zip tie, 13mm irrigation pipe & 13mm joiner
Left : Weed mat was placed at the bottom to of the bed to stop invading roots & to help protect the plastic liner from punctures... Right : Plastic liner is added & held to sides with Tape...
A 16mm hole was Drilled 11-14cm up from the internal ground level of the bed....This hole is the cleaned of any sharp edges to prevent tears in the plastic liner.... A hole is made in the plastic & the grommet was pushed through liner & tin... The Pipe is then pushed through Grommet... Extra slashes were made in the plastic 5cm above the pipe level so any extra water from heavy downpours can escape & not turn the bed into a quagmire...
The slotted Agg pipe is laid out & the filling end is Zip tied to the end of the bed... The end of the Agg pipe had weed mat zip tied into place to stop any sand clogging up the pipe...
The Agg pipe is covered with Weed Mat & covered with Bedding sand... Enough sand was added so as to cover the drainage pipe by 3-4 cm...
Sugar Cane mulch was added to help the "wicking" of the water into the soil mix.. A Soil mixed with "5 in 1" fertiliser, straw from the chook pen & a few worm castings was added by a Hairy Helper... 
The bed was then filled until water ran from the drainage hole at the other end of the bed...We have found that filling the beds with a low water pressure allows the water to penetrate through all the sand....
Worm Feeders....
The worm feeders were made from 250mm lengths of 90mm downpipe that had a series of 32mm holes drilled into them & an end cap is used as a lid when installed...... 
They were pushed into the bed with about 30mm of pipe exposed & a scoop of worms from the worm farm were added....We wizz all our kitchen & some garden scraps into a watery paste & feed this to the worms..We find they eat it quicker & as a result, they multiply faster... ; )»
The finished Wicking bed with Feeding stations.....
Left : We planted this bed out with Snow peas, Sugarloaf Cabbage, Broccoli & bush beans On the 20th of July.... Right : Today, 06-08-10.... Not much growth visible in the picture but it's getting there.... http://www.simplesavings.com.au/
2 sites that have inspired me the most are....
&
http://outbackharvest.blogspot.com/2008/09/wicking-worm-beds.html
Have a great one all.....
: )»
Looks great...nice having it all in one spot to look at and plan from. Thanks :)
ReplyDeleteHi! I found your blog in the comments of SGAonline. I have some questions about the wicking bed, maybe because I am a rather novice gardener. I live in Cheyenne, Wyoming, USA. We have a short growing season (6000+ feet elevation) and are hardiness zone 5. The wind never stops, and we do not get much rain annually. I want to put in some wicking beds next year. I am wondering about the water retentive layer of soil (the one just above the sand/scoria layer. What makes the soil water retentive, and how does one achieve that property? This area is primarily grassland; trees will not live if they are not on a drip system so we don't have an abundance of organic matter laying around. Leaves blow away as soon as they fall. I intend to purchase soil, but don't know what to look for in selecting one that is 'water retentive'. It seems you have been successful with these wicking beds. They are virtually unheard of here. At least I haven't talked to anyone who has any experience with them.I see this is an old blog entry, but you are still blogging so I hope you will have time to respond to my inquiry. I have gleaned a good amount of useful information from it.
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous ;-)
DeleteOrganic matter is your friend when it comes to getting soil to hold water.
Compost & worm castings would have to be the best 2 additives to use in my book as they are both filled with added microbes that will help the nutrients become plant available. If none is available to start off the beds my next choice would be well aged farm animal manures like cow, horse, sheep or goat. A lot of folks also use rabbit & guinea pig manures as they work well too.
Aging the manures (I leave ours for 8 weeks min) just ensures that any medicines the animals have been given (like worming solutions) breaks down & won't harm the microbes & worms in the soil. If you know the people you are collecting or buying it from you can also just ask when the animals were last dosed which helps ;-)
I dig these manures through the soil to help add organic matter as well as well as add food in for the microbes & worms. Not sure if it's available where you are but mushroom compost is a great additive to use as it is basically straw.
If you add compost worms to the beds you can install feeding stations like the ones in this post. Another option is to mulch the beds & the worms will feed on that material as it breaks down adding more organic matter into the soil.
I've posted a few clips to our YouTube channel on the different wicking gardens as improvements in the designs have been made if that helps any.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBcWprMIwYYizRYZra6RRbe_mrPdnXu4G
There might be a few ideas there that you could adapt to use in your own garden.
Hope that helps you out some.
Rob.