this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2023
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Create some seat high beds and turn the edges into seats.
Have you heard about wicking beds? This website looks fucking terrible https://www.waterright.com.au/ but it's the only method I'd recommend. Regardless, creating an under bed watering system saves heaps of water and creates stronger healthier plants as they have to send roots down further. I made a bunch of them at my last house and a mate and I made amazingly productive ones he over-engineered during one of the city lockdowns where I couldn't work but the bush had almost no covid so was open. If you use the "Colin Austin" method and not one of the youtube ones the idea is that over time the soil becomes a hotbed of microbial action and this creates food which is healthier and better for your gut. The website is hard to navigate for a reason, he's annoyed people steal his idea and don't use to try and make better health outcomes and profit etc... He's an interesting chap that's for sure.
Unfortunately the budget will not stretch to fancy wooden beds - I'll be doing a mix of brick and bamboo edging, as I have those in abundance.
You weren't kidding about the website being a mess. I think what he refers to as a sponge bed is close to what I am planning to do. A layer of clay on the bottom to hold in water, then a layer of wood which rots & becomes spongelike to hold & release water, then the soil etc. on top of that. I've seen reports of people having good results from that, and it avoids using any plastic.
hahah, my son and I had a lot of laughs about the website.
We made some wicking beds out of plastic 44gallon drums, cut in half with an old long washing machine hose for the water tubes. I had some old irrigation bits we used for the drains. they worked really well. Had four, I'm sure they're still being used by the new owner. She loved the idea.
The ones I made using builders plastic were not as good, as it tears easily and its a huge job to dig soil up to replace the thing. Your clay / wood one sounds great though and seeing as we're expecting a dry summer making water saving beds are a no brainer.