Wicking Beds - a waterwise, small space solution

You can see the fill pipes and 'worm towers'

Wicking beds are a great way to grow intensively in a small space, with a minimum of water.

The first two pics in this post are of some of our wicking beds just as they were finished and planted. The second two are of the same beds 6 months later in Summer.

A little later (when the Summer weather cools a little bit more) we're going to make a new one, here at Ligaya and I'll be covering the step by step 'how-to' build in a post then.

For the meantime...a wicking bed is a raised bed with a water reservoir at the bottom. Over this is the soil or other growing medium that the plants live in. You water directly into the reservoir (usually via a pipe) and the water is drawn upwards by capillary action, evaporation and the action of plants.

Summer growth

A wide range of soil types are suitable and the water reservoir is usually a layer of gravel, with the water being held in the spaces between the stones. The gravel is separated from the soil by a layer of permeable fabric such as shadecloth or protective. This keeps the soil out of the pore spaces in the gravel while allowing water to wick upwards.

There is usually an overflow outlet just above the top of the gravel to stop too much water building up when filling or when it rains.

A layer of mulch is recommended, at least for the dry weather. This stops some evaporation as well as keeping the bed cool. Overheating is the one flaw involved with wicking beds made of metal. It's best to shade the side of the beds or, at least, plant some plants that hang over the sides.

Our beds include an additional pipe going about 10 cm (4") into the soil. This pipe we fill with compost and worms so that they can add extra nutrients to the bed. The worms live in the compost in the pipes and move out into the soil a little to do their wormy business.

We apply the principle of 'stacking' to maximise the space

Wicking beds are a simple,easy to make solution to watering and overwatering. If you're careful not to overkill them, there is no run off, there is little loss to evaporation and an adequate supply of water stays just where the plants need it. Even over the heat of this Summer (lots of days above 40°C and hot northerly winds), we only needed to water about every 8 days with a little 'refresher' water directly to the plants to cool them down and pick them up when they looked a bit frazzled.

This is #originalwork. The pics were taken by yours truly.

Check out how our garden grows on our blog, Ligaya.

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