These garden beds are wicked!

lined with black plastic to hold water layer

Wicked gardens beds have been seen on several TV shows recently and seem to be popping up in several publications and websites too. Or is it just that I’m looking for them now?

Whilst being wicked, as in wicking water up into their soil, they would also appear to be pretty wicked in the way they can save water and also create an environment which looks after the soil in wonderful ways.

Worms also seem to be an important component of the design of these beds, and need to be added rather than just hope they will turn up, as you can do for conventional beds, because the impermeable barrier used to contain the water also, of course, stops the worms getting up into the bed.

The following is a picture story of the construction of our first bed so far. Subsequent posts will address it’s use, worms, success or otherwise, and links to reference sources we used.

We did use treated sleepers for this bed so the plastic liner has been extended to the top of the wood to minimise leaching effects. If you have any concerns about using this material, go to the CSIRO website for details.

Brian.

leveled out and first layer down, the chooks will want to get into these beds

second layer of sleepers lined up

coach screws hold the sleepers together

full height box

lined with black plastic to hold water layer

filler pipes and agi pipe to distribute water across base

a single bale of straw, with biscuits left packed together, provides the wicking material

carpet over the straw and ready for the soil, and plants!