How to Grow Your Own Food in a Wicking Bed
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Growing your own food can be very exciting and it allows you to control the process from beginning to finish. Many people are concerned about the pesticides and chemicals used in the food we eat and rowing your own food can be one way of reducing this.
You can use a wicking bed to grow your plants as this is a low maintenance option.
You will not need to water this frequently which can be a big relief. But to ensure the success of your wicking bed, you need to choose the right location with the right amount of sunlight depending on the plants you are growing. And it is best to clear out the site so that you can easily access the garden. You can build a wicking bed or there are plastic modular wicking beds that are designed to create edible gardens. The latter option is more convenient as you don’t need to look for materials to build the bed with and you will be able to start right away. A wicking bed has a water reservoir at the bottom and soil at the top. These two layers are separated by a waterproof barrier. Once you have levelled the ground and cleared it of weeds and rocks, you can assemble the wicking bed. You can also place a geotextile fabric on the ground to further prevent weeds from growing.
The water reservoir should be at least 10% of the total bed depth.
The waterproof barrier can be landscape fabric or a pond liner. Once you create the water reservoir using washed gravel or coarse sand, you can lay the fabric on top of this so that the water doesn’t escape into the fall and the soil doesn’t fall into the reservoir. You will then need to fill the bed with well-draining soil mix. If you are planning to plant vegetables and herbs, you can mix compost, perlite and vermiculite. Make sure that you don’t fill the soil to the top of the planter as this can cause water to overflow during rain. You need to monitor the moisture level in the water reservoir and top up when required. Some of the things you can do to converse water is removing weeds and mulching the surface of the soil.
Once you have chosen
The vegetables you want to plant, you can look up the planting depths that are recommended for them. And there has to be sufficient spacing between the plants. The water reservoir can be filled using the inlet pipe. But you have to be careful not to overwater the reservoir as this can lead to rotting of plant roots. You can also mulch the top of soil so that weeds are suppressed. This can help conserve water as well. While this is a low maintenance plant bed option, you still have to monitor it now and then so that you can remove any pests or catch signs of plant diseases.