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Wicking beds have nothing to do with sleeping and night sweats – wicking beds are garden beds that have their own reservoir, kind of like the dish under a potted plant, but bigger.
In arid regions, this is a boon when it’s set up properly: water only wicks a maximum of 300mm (about a foot), so too deep and you’re not doing anyone any favors. There’s also the problem of torrential downpours that can flood a system without overflow taken into account. For some great information on this subject, See
- http://www.irrigation.org.au/assets/pages/75D132F4-1708-51EB-A6BCF9E277043C3E/22%20-%20Austin%20Paper.pdf
- http://www.instructables.com/id/Wicking-Beds/
- http://waterright.com.au/wicking-bed-history.html
- http://earthtainer.tomatofest.com/pdfs/EarthTainer-Construction-Guide.pdf
Most of the systems use an impervious plastic sheet or container, but what if you wanted to go “au natural”? I’m going to float an idea here and on some of the other blogs: what about “engineered hardpan”? By utilizing hardpan rows between deeply cultivated or non-hardpan rows, the same effect could be achieved without plastic. Possible? Plausible? Laughable?
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