Backyard Farming Forum
Bringing food production home

Putting in a drain pipe at 2 heights. The high 1 is about 400mm from the top and the low 1 is a further 300mm below it. The low drain is for when want to try potatoes in the bed or other things they may not like wet feet.

This is the drain pipe on the inside.

Blue metal covering the ag pipe drain on the bottom and then tree mulch on top of it for about 400mm.

Filled with tree mulch.

shade cloth and then compost

Finished job - well practically finished. Still need to put an edge on the top and cut the plastic. Run the retic in and then plumb the drain to the fruit trees.

That is one serious wicking bed Well done, interested to see how the mulch goes over time, I put hay in the bottom of mine and it has all rotted down and the soil level has sunk so I now need to add more soil to the top. Still works well but it means that the soil goes all the way to the bottom of the bed and the only space at the bottom for water distribution is the pipes I put in. I would imagine the course tree mulch will fair much better.

My only concern is that it looks like both you drainage outlets are below the soil layer (i.e they are in the tree mulch) if so won't the water drain out before it has a chance to be wicked up by the soil? I make this assumption imagining that the tree mulch will be fairly free draining and not so good at wicking the water up to the soil level??? I could be wrong???

_________________
___________________________________________________________________
Why did the chicken cross the road? ... To have her motives questioned.

Nice beds, machinery and space I especially like your corner posts, I think I have seen them before somewhere

With your two outlets, you already have an elbow on the bottom one so why not just put a 300mm extension on it and tilt it up or down dependant on the season and what you are growing to change your water level? That is what I did with mine, gives infinite adjustment and it saves on additional fittings.

I use the same method of filling, dumping straw in the bottom (but don't do bluemetal or anything first) and have found on my first bed that it has rotted down and the level has dropped. All I did was top up with more soil and pestraw and lightly forked it over. Bed is still going great.

good points fellas. Not sure of whether the tree mulch will work as good wick or not but that is why I am starting with just 1 bed before doing all 6 in 1 hit. Will let it settle for a few weeks and then plant something into it and see how it performs. Probably will be biased with rainfall wetting the surface but should give an indicator.

Burnsy - good idea with just rotating the drain etc. I had planned on connecting up both drains so that any excess water would be piped directly into the fruit trees so may have to think about that again.

I do just that, have the extension of hose run down onto a nearby fruit tree. I just sit the hose on a brick or whatever to keep it at the height I want and have a hole in the line at the high point so it does not siphon.

Wicking beds do not need the wicking media in the bottom just cover the bottom pipe with shadecloth and scoria just over the pipe then dirt right to the bottom over 1/2 my beds are like that

To easy with the loader Fizzy.... You should have got a photo of you with a shovel in hand, would have looked far more impressive..

_________________
www.backyardfarming.com.au
Bringing Food Production Home

Awesome garden bed Fizzy

_________________
I shall wait for the Meek......Then take it from them


http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/vie ... =18&t=8219

Number 1 wicking bed finished - now lets see it grow!

Very very nice work Fizzy.
Cant wait to see how it grows.