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A wicking bed is a raised bed with a reservoir in the bottom that holds water and allows it to ‘wick’ naturally up through the soil to the plant roots.
It looks something like this:
The reservoir is filled with pebbles with a perforated black pipe woven through to help water distribution. A layer of landscape fabric forms an interface between the pebbles in the reservoir and the soil.
A wicking bed does not need top watering daily! Instead, the reservoir is filled via the black pipe in the corner approximately once a week or every 10 days. Great if you are going away on vacation! The bottom-up irrigation stimulates healthy plants and deep root growth, conserves water that would evaporate with top watering. It also saves the gardener time and energy!
Note! The surface of the soil in the wicking beds will not appear wet or saturated. To test the moisture of your soil stick your fingers into the soil 2-3cm. The soil should feel damp, but not wet.
When filling your wicking bed: it will take anywhere from 10 mins to 30 mins to fill. You will know it’s full when water seeps out of the overflow (this will be located at ground level), or when you can see or touch the water in the black pipe where you are filling.
When seeding or transplanting: your seeds and seedlings will need a little bit of extra top watering as they get established.
