| A wicking box garden is essentially a garden with a water well or reservoir at the bottom. This is filled via a pipe and the wicking action keeps the soil moist. To the right here you can see the basic components of the system. First is an old piece of carpet. We placed the styrofoam box on the carpet to stop weeds and grass from growing around the box. The plastic pipe has small holes drilled in it to allow the water to seep out. The end of the pipe was blocked with an old kitchen scourer to keep the soil out of the pipe. |  |
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| The pipe was then wrapped in an old jeans leg to allow the water to pass through and keep the sand· / gravel which will cover the pipe out. Being cotton long term the material will compost adding nutrients to the garden. |  |
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| The pipe was covered in a layer of sand and gravel, then a layer of chicken droppings and chicken straw partially composted. The pipe on the left has holes drilled in it and will allow small amounts of kitchen refuse to be dropped in. The worms which will be added to the soil can enter the pipe through these holes to eat the material making an inbuilt warm farm. At this stage, a hole was drilled in one end of the box about 100mm from the bottom to allow excess water to escape. |  |
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| The box was filled with soil ready to go. Worms will be added from our worm farm and the box will be planted with broccoli and lettuce. Check back later to see the results. |  |
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| A short time later, our plants are thriving. In fact, lettuce from the same batch as these cos were also planted in our raised garden beds and are only half the size of these. |  |
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Wicking Box Garden
U Farm
We Farm
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