Wicking Bed/Self-watering container

 Here is an easy garden project that once set up doesn’t need much maintenance. We were inspired to do this after seeing the lettuces my sister was growing and were lamenting the fact that we didn’t have any fresh salad greens growing. So using some scavenged materials we put together a wicking bed, a salad garden that waters itself.

Plants do really well in these because of the constant access to moisture they enjoy. This means plants never suffer water stress making their growth vigorous and more pest/disease resistant. Leafy greens do really well and plants that need extra attention are not a problem when grown in wicking beds. As with any plants in containers though, nutrients need to be added over time. To address this problem I thought I would put some “worm towers” (mini worm farms) in the corners and see what happens. I just put a handful of worms from my worm bin in with some scraps and shredded newspaper. I could go on forever about the benefits of wicking beds but let’s just get stuck into it, shall we?

To make one of these you need:

Some kind of container, imagine a plant pot but without the drainage holes- the bigger the better

A drill or other holemaking thing

Some soil

Some seeds or plants

A length of PVC pipe (optional)

A fat length of PVC pipe for worm towers (optional) with 2 lids for the pipes

Some gravel or rocks

Fill your container to about half with the rocks or gravel.

The PVC pipe may be inserted here to use a refill tube. Watering in this fashion may prevent some degree of nutrient leaching from soil.  

Then lay down some sort of permeable barrier, we used old hessian from my pallet garden but I have heard that shade cloth or a thin layer sand works.

This permeable layer allows water to leach into the soil and plant roots and prevents the soil from washing into the rocks.

 Drill a hole in the side of your container for an overflow. This hole will mark the high water level, it needs to be level with the rocks.

Now put soil in and plant.



Drainage holes in wormtowers for worms and their poos and wees to move into the soil.

Mulched and planted with brahmi, chives and seeded with salad greens

Sadly our container buckled and began to sag on the sides because it was old and weak in places. The buckling hasn’t affected the bed much; it just looks ugly. Watering is done very occasionally, using a dipstick in the refill tube can be useful.

Happy Gardening!