Make your bed and eat off it too. Jimmy Cocking A queensized wicking garden ‘bed’ A wicking bed is a garden that acts like a giant selfwatering pot. Water is topped up from below and the plants draw the water up through their roots – hence there is no evaporative losses. Although wicking beds are the most waterefficient means of growing food, there are a couple of things to consider. A wicking bed is a closed system. This means that residues are concentrated as water is drawn up by the roots – for this reason – greywater is not recommended for a wicking bed. However, being a closed system means that nutrients and water are not lost to the surroundings and maximises benefits to the plants. So...how did I make my bed? Firstly, I did some internet research to find out what materials I needed and how to make it ‘wicking’ and not simply a raised bed garden. I found some sheets of corrugated iron behind the shed (but there are plenty at the Tipshop too!). I then went to the hardware and bought more than enough concrete liner (builders plastic), screws, and shade cloth. I found some 50mm pipe (a metre more than the diagonal length of the bed) and a roll of 10mm reticulation hosing at the Tipshop. I found a 10mm drillbit at a lawn sale, bought half a metre of river rubble and river sand from landscaping supplies and a trailer of cow manure. I also bought an elbow joint for the 50mm pipe and a plug for it. Constructing the frame involved strengthening the bedframe and sawing the slats in half and screwing them on the bed frame and the iron onto the timber. I thickly lined the garden frame with old newspapers to minimise the threat of puncture. The plastic liner was laid inside the bed. The irrigation system requires an Lshape pipe that lies diagonally along the bed length with drillholes throughout and a plug in the end, with the shorter vertical length to fill up from. The pipe was buried in a gravel sandwich with the shadecloth laying on the plastic and 15cm of river rubble folded into it. This prevents the sand from clogging up the gravel layer. Then 15cm