Growing Your Own Food is Like Printing Your Own Money

[iOWNme]

This Youtube channel has a lot of cool vids on gardening, prepping, survival, etc....



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzguEmz7_vY


"In 2010 the Wranglerstar family decided to turn our backs on a comfortable city life and become modern day homesteaders. Our adventure starts in the rugged mountains of the Pacific Northwest. Have you dreamed of stepping off the treadmill of life? Join the Wranglerstar family as we blaze a trail for all those who dream of becoming truly independent from the mythological American dream."

[Glass]

cool.

Fruit! I say to people, look at this little miracle. It grows for basically free. Some water and TLC. It comes in a bright and attractive package. It's colour coded so you know what it is. The packaging protects the fruit, at least a little bit. It tastes delicious. You can do many things with it.

And...... best of all, each and everyone comes with a free refill, no extra cost - the seeds in side.

I started a potato tower this winter - still winter here in Oz. Only just starting to show green shoots but it should be an interesting exercise. Got some radishes growing. Not much else just at the moment. Need more room and sun. The potato tower is a big tub which I can move about to get good sun.

[Serpo]

Been building a sun room (best room in the house during winter) and have added a wick garden bed too waist height which is fantastic so far.

Have large out door garden also built up to the height of your thighs.

Makes it easier to do everything.

Wick gardens are good because of the water saving and ease of use.

They water from underneath.

If I add another garden bed outside Ill use the wick system as water is a lot easier as you just fill up a pipe until another pipe overflows about once a week and no worries.

There is a web site where they used them in Alice Springs to good effect as wateing from the top evaporated too fast and the wicking beds killed it.

[Glass]

Been building a sun room (best room in the house during winter) and have added a wick garden bed too waist height which is fantastic so far.

Thanks for that. That is the answer to what I need. I need a bed that I can have in sun which only falls on paved areas in winter.

Gardening show Video of one being prepared: http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s4010599.htm

[Twisted Titan]

This is great channel!

Thanks for suggesting!

[Serpo]

Thanks for that. That is the answer to what I need. I need a bed that I can have in sun which only falls on paved areas in winter.

Gardening show Video of one being prepared: http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s4010599.htm


I used HDPE plastic liner for base and not black plastic. Guy sells it on ebay from melbourne.

[7th trump]

65346535653665376538

Just took these of the garden system I'm developing. Hasn't been real hot yet and it was only 68 for a high today so I've been putting off installing my sensor circuit board that controls the water valve...been manually watering to get an idea on coding the microcontroller to get proper water saturation in the tubes.

[7th trump]

6539
Water valve installed in the green bean tubes and they work great with a 12v battery.

6540
This is a test bed to see if the potato box concept actually works. Yesterday I went and pulled one of the lower 1x6's off to see if I had any potatoes'...well they were growing, counted three spuds about the size of a golf ball right up against the side of the box. They are about as tall as me now...I could have added more 1x6's in hopes of getting more spuds but I quit after seeing blooms.

A month ago and I planted them late in the season do to constant rain.
6541

Here's everything from the deck.
6542
I have potatoes, grapes, rhubarb, strawberries, green beans, 4 types of onions, leaf lettuce, bell peppers (three kinds), 4 types of cucumbers, asparagus, black raspberries, red raspberries, tomatoes, and zucchini all in this one picture....spinach is almost ready to transplant in the last tube.

[Serpo]

what is a wicking bed?
http://www.urbanfoodgarden.org/main/vegetable-patch-design/vegetable-patch-design-images/vegetable-patch-design--wicking-bed-cut-away-eye-.gif (http://www.urbanfoodgarden.org/main/wicking-beds/wicking-beds--workings-cut-away-large-.htm)
Cut away illustration of how a typical wicking bed is constructed.
A wicking bed is a garden bed with a waterproof lining that holds a reservoir of water at the bottom from which water is draw upwards like a wick to the surface of the bed via natural soil osmosis or through the roots of plants in the bed. Basically it works like large  Decor self-watering pot (http://www.decor.com.au/products/decorgarden/default.aspx).


Wicking beds are usually made with timber sides and a pond liner at the bottom to act as a water reservoir, but they can also be made out of plastic tubs or any other container that holds water and does not corrode when in contact with soil.

There are many different wicking bed designs involving a variety of construction materials however this website only looks at ones that I have made and tested myself.

http://www.urbanfoodgarden.org/main/wicking-beds/wicking-beds.htm
From the Bottom Up – A DIY Guide to Wicking Beds


Posted June 20, 2011 by Rob Avis (http://permaculturenews.org/author/rob%20avis/) & filed under Food Plants - Annual (http://permaculturenews.org/category/plants/food-plants-annual/), Food Plants - Perennial (http://permaculturenews.org/category/plants/food-plants-perennial/), Irrigation (http://permaculturenews.org/category/water/irrigation/), Land (http://permaculturenews.org/category/design/land/), Urban Projects (http://permaculturenews.org/category/permaculture-projects/urban-projects/), Water Conservation (http://permaculturenews.org/category/water/conservation/).
http://www.permaculturenews.org/images/wickingbed_carrots.jpgby Rob Avis (http://www.vergepermaculture.ca/)
Wicking beds are a unique and increasingly popular way to grow vegetables. They are self-contained raised beds with built-in reservoirs that supply water from the bottom up – changing how, and how much, you water your beds. In this article, we’ll talk about how wicking beds work and why we love them. We’ll also show you some great examples and leave you with ideas and instructions for creating your own.
How Wicking Beds Work
http://www.permaculturenews.org/images/wickbed1.jpgA wick works through capillary action – the same force you observe when you dip a piece of tissue paper partially into a glass of water and watch the water climb the paper. Wicking occurs in many materials; cotton, wool, geo-textile, soil, gravel and even wood to some degree. Every material has different wicking properties which you can test by placing that material into a glass of water and watching the water “climb” up. When one end of the wick is saturated and the other end is dry, it creates a moisture gradient, which drives the wick until the gradient no longer exists or you run out of water. With the earth box, one of the more popular examples in North America, the soil is suspended above the reservoir with wicks dangling into the reservoir http://www.permaculturenews.org/images/earth-box-gsc.jpgpulling up moisture. As the plants use the moisture in the soil, it creates a moisture gradient (the soil is drier than the reservoir) which drives moister through the wick into the soil.
Advantages of Wicking Beds
Wicking beds have a lot of advantages over standard raised beds and in-grown swale-based gardens:


They are water-efficient! Watering from the bottom up prevents evaporation of surface water (which occurs when you water beds from the top).
They are self-watering! Wicking beds are an especially great system to use in community gardens because they save people from driving every day during hot weeks to water their beds. A full wicking bed should irrigate itself for about a week.
They can be placed close to the house without risk of flooding your basement, since the water is contained in the bed. This makes wicking beds a great alternative to swales on properties with sump pumps or basement water issues.
http://www.permaculturenews.org/images/wickbed5.jpgNo evaporation means no salting of soil. If you are watering your soils from the top with hard water, you risk accumulating salts, because the water evaporates and leaves the minerals behind. Eventually your soil will struggle to support plant life.
They provide a lot of drainage in the event of a large downpour.
Since they’re raised, they will warm up quicker in the spring.
You can easily attach cold frames to them.
They are great for people with less mobility and strength as you don’t have to haul heavy water containers.
By using an intermediary tank, you can automate the watering process… but more on that in a future blog.

Disadvantages of Wicking Beds
Wicking beds do have some disadvantages as well:


They cost more to install than in-ground swales and standard raised beds.
They will freeze sooner in the fall than non-raised beds.
There are additional freeze/thaw considerations that need to be taken into account, which is not required for conventional gardens.

Types of Wicking Beds
Reservoirs with Media
http://www.permaculturenews.org/images/wicking_beds_cartoon.jpgMost of the DIY sites for wicking beds focus on building beds that use media, a layer in between the soil and the water reservoir, as their wick. This is an easy and cheap way of supporting the soil on top of the reservoir. Gravel is the most common medium, but there are a number of materials that do the trick. Here’s a good DIY blog (http://www.theruralindependent.com/garden-projects/wicking-beds) on media wicking beds.
Media-less beds
http://www.permaculturenews.org/images/wickbed4.jpgBeds without media require a false bottom that will allow the soil to be suspended above the water reservoir. Again, this wick system can be made from a variety of materials. Here are some examples of media-less wicking beds:


Global Buckets (http://www.globalbuckets.org/)
Earth Box (http://www.earthbox.com/)
Phytopod (http://www.biovertical.com/)

And a video example….

Design Considerations for Media-filled Reservoirs
http://www.permaculturenews.org/images/wick-beds_9.jpgWhen designing your wicking bed, it is important to keep the depth of the media-filled water reservoir at or below 300mm as the capillary action struggles to lift the water higher than that. The soil above the reservoir acts as a wick as well, so it is important that the soil layer stay between 300 – 320mm. The soil could technically be deeper than this, however, the soil at the top will likely be much drier than the lower soil, so you’d want to make sure to that the plants you use can access this deeper soil moisture, like tomatoes, which can buried deep into the bed.
http://www.permaculturenews.org/images/wickbed10.jpgOnce you have determined how deep your soil and media is going to be, you need to create a containment device. There are many ways of doing this, for example, in our last blitz we experimented with four different techniques: the global bucket, a food-grade plastic tote, above-grade planter boxes, and an in-ground wicking bed.
A key element of the containment device is the overflow pipe. This pipe allows water to escape once it reaches the top of the media, ensuring you don’t drown your plants with too much water.

[Serpo]

Above-Ground Planter Box
http://www.permaculturenews.org/images/wickbed11.jpgBecause saturated soil is so heavy, we designed the beds the same way that concrete forms are designed. A carpenter friend of mine recommended that we use “whalers”, which are 2x4s with the thick end perpendicular to the plywood, and bound together using a lap joint. See the photo below. These whalers were spaced around the box to resist bending and bowing of the heavy soil. Pressure treated plywood was used to prevent rotting on the inside of the whalers and increase longevity, and then the whole box was clad with cedar fence boards. Ordinarily I don’t like to use pressure-treated wood in gardens, but since this bed was to be lined with plastic, the wood will not come in contact with the growing medium. Originally I was going to use pond liner, but it was cost-prohibitive at $0.90/sqft, so I decided to use 6 mil builder’s poly instead.
Layers in The Bed


http://www.permaculturenews.org/images/wickbeds12.jpg Landscape fabric stapled to the wood which protects the poly from sharp edges.
Poly liner.
Landscape fabric on bottom of bed to protect poly from punctures from the gravel.
Weeping tile to increase rate of water communication in bed as well as reservoir capacity. If you have a long enough weeping tile you can bend it up the side of the bed and use it as a water fill pipe.
Drainage pipe the length of the bed to encourage even drainage from the bed. This pipe is connected to the bulk head fitting and has holes drilled in one side facing down.
http://www.permaculturenews.org/images/wickingbox.jpg 300 mm or less of gravel. Note you want to make sure that you have enough gravel to cover the weeping tile as you want to make sure that the gravel is in contact with the soil, not the weeping tile.
Landscape fabric to segregate the soil from the gravel and preserve the pore space in the bed.
High carbon soil

Other considerations:
To account for the freeze/thaw issue in this climate, I set my drainage hole to the bottom of the beds so that I can drain the bed before winter. The amount of water held in the bed is determined by an elbow and stand pipe which can rotate on the outside of the bed. I like this method of water control as it allows me to infinitely control how much water the bed can store.
ICU Totes
When it comes to raised wicking beds, cheaper alternatives to the raised wood boxes are food grade 1000 L totes cut in half. We decided to use this method for our passive solar greenhouse as these tanks were inexpensive (they cost me roughly $100 each, and one tank cut in half can make 2 wicking beds). This is far more affordable than the wood variety, which are roughly $600 each, not including the time they take to build.
http://www.permaculturenews.org/images/wickbeds13.jpgLayers in the ICU


Weeping tile to increase the rate of water communication in the bed as well as reservoir capacity. If you have a long enough weeping tile you can bend it up the side of the bed and use it as a water-fill pipe.
300 mm or less of gravel. You want to make sure that you have enough gravel to cover the weeping tile so that the gravel is in contact with the soil and not the weeping tile.
Landscape fabric to segregate the soil from the gravel and preserve the pore space in the bed.
High carbon soil

In-Ground Wicking Beds
http://www.permaculturenews.org/images/wickbeds14.jpgFor our blitz we built one in-ground bed. The in-ground bed is cheaper than the other two because you use the earth as the support for the water reservoir. This means you only need a containment device for the soil above grade. For our bed we chose to use cedar planks to build the above-ground bed and we made a small dugout to contain the gravel. To allow the excess water to spill out, you need to make sure that the water can leave the bed either with a designated spillway as we did, or just raise the bed up on shims so the water can leave the periphery.
Layers For The In-Ground Bed


http://www.permaculturenews.org/images/wickbeds15.jpg Landscape fabric on the soil to protect the poly from holes.
Poly liner.
Landscape fabric on the bottom of bed to protect poly from punctures from the gravel.
Weeping tile to increase both the rate of water communication in the bed, as well as the reservoir capacity. If you have a long enough weeping tile you can bend it up the side of the bed and use it as a water fill pipe.
300 mm or less of gravel. You want to make sure that you have enough gravel to cover the weeping tile so that the gravel is in contact with the soil and not the weeping tile.
Landscape fabric to segregate the soil from the gravel and preserve the pore space in the bed.
High carbon soil.

A Neat Blog on In-Ground Beds
Milkwood Permaculture has pioneered an in-ground wicking bed using builder’s plastic and a round galvanized culvert ring (http://milkwood.net/2010/05/11/how_to_make_a_wicking_bed/). We have also seen people use stock watering tanks.
Materials
Soil
We chose to use a garden mix from Western Canadian Compost (http://www.westerncanadacompost.com/first.htm) which is combination of loam, compost and peat. I was really impressed with the quality of the soil and I will give updates on the results over the course of the summer.
http://www.permaculturenews.org/images/wickbeds16.jpgWe selected gravel as our resevoir/wicking material. Generally speaking, gravel has about a 33% pore space which means that 1 cubic meter of gravel in a container will only have enough room between the gravel to hold 333 litres of water.
We also used 4-inch weeping tile in the bottom, which increases the amount of water that the bed can hold (because it is hollow) and increases the rate at which the gravel bed disperses water. The dispersement action of the weeping tiles ensures that one side of the bed does not get initially over-saturated. The weeping tile also doubles as the watering pipe.
Other Adjustments
There are all sorts of design elements that can be added or modified to change how the beds work. One popular tweak is to insert a worm composting tube into the soil portion of the bed. Food scraps can be added to the tube for the worms to process, and the resulting vermipost and worm juice will be distributed throughout the bed keeping the nutrient levels high in your soil. The worms also help to keep the system aerated and therefore prevent the system from going anaerobic. I do not think that the red wriggler can survive our cold winters, so I would recommend having an indoor worm system ready when it starts getting colder out, so that you can keep them alive until the next growing season.
http://www.permaculturenews.org/images/wickbeds17.jpgAs my students know, I am a big fan of cover crop systems. Typically I recommend nitrogen fixing legumes that build carbon and nitrogen into the soil through their root systems. Since these wicking beds are segregated from the subsoil, strategies are needed to keep up soil fertility. This could include cover cropping or the addition of compost, blood and bone, and rock dust. Cover cropping also reduces weeds, shades the soil, and provides a built-in mulch system.
As you can see, the sky (or the soil) is the limit when it comes to wicking beds. They are an effective and water-efficient DIY gardening implement that can be created and adjusted according to your budget, materials, space, and garden plan.
Even though we’ve built our fair share of wicking beds now and have gained a great deal of knowledge from other people’s designs and experiences, we are still learning as we go. Stay tuned throughout the summer for updates on our wicking beds, and hopefully you can learn with us!
http://dsms0mj1bbhn4.cloudfront.net/assets/pub/share-buttons/share-headers-new/share-knowledge.pnghttp://permaculturenews.org/2011/06/20/from-the-bottom-up-a-diy-guide-to-wicking-beds/

[expat4ever]

Wait till the fed heres about this one. Growing your own money? Probably going to be taxed considerably on this. All you gardeners are financial terrorists. Destroying the economy you are. Now get out there and buy some non organic gmo crop food. You know you want to. ;D

[Serpo]

Wait till the fed heres about this one. Growing your own money? Probably going to be taxed considerably on this. All you gardeners are financial terrorists. Destroying the economy you are. Now get out there and buy some non organic gmo crop food. You know you want to. ;D

yes they hate competition ,except food is real and their stuff is counterfeit.

[7th trump]

Did a wick type on the large tomato pots where I installed a 4in long 3/4 pipe up through the center hole and sealed it so when I water the excess water is collected at the bottom of the pot and drawn up as the plant needs it....we'll see how it works.
I think the best wick system is the gutter system...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEeCgGAbvwk

[Glass]

I have had a few of those pots with water reservoirs in them before and some types worked ok. Other didn't but it was probably down to the soil mix I had in them.... maybe

Can some one please explain what a wicking tile is? Is this something you purchase or can it be made?

I liked that style of garden you built 7thTrump. If I had dirt that got sun I would build one up. I will remember it for when I do get some dirt because it will be one of the first things I build.

[Serpo]

I have had a few of those pots with water reservoirs in them before and some types worked ok. Other didn't but it was probably down to the soil mix I had in them.... maybe

Can some one please explain what a wicking tile is? Is this something you purchase or can it be made?

I liked that style of garden you built 7thTrump. If I had dirt that got sun I would build one up. I will remember it for when I do get some dirt because it will be one of the first things I build.

had the same problem a few weeks ago .........means pipe ie storm water


i cut slots in bottom of mine so harder for roots to penetrate

[7th trump]

I have had a few of those pots with water reservoirs in them before and some types worked ok. Other didn't but it was probably down to the soil mix I had in them.... maybe

Can some one please explain what a wicking tile is? Is this something you purchase or can it be made?

I liked that style of garden you built 7thTrump. If I had dirt that got sun I would build one up. I will remember it for when I do get some dirt because it will be one of the first things I build.

Glass...last year when I started this the tubes were filled with dirt from the garden and didn't do so well. This past winter I did some research and found to use potting mix from a bag instead.
The potting mix allows oxygen to get to the roots which is essential for plant health and holds more water than dirt. I'm actually watering less than last year with 4 inch tubes than this year with 6 inch tubes.
Everything you see in the tubes, pots and boxes is 100% potting mix. And yes, it made a world of a difference over dirt. The only thing that is not 100% potting mix is the onion tubes they are filled with sand first and potting mix on top. I did this to get a different sweeter taste out of the onion. I read a lot on the Vidalia onion over the winter months and was trying to mimic the soil contend of that region of Georgia to replicate a Vidalia onion's flavor. So far what I have found is the purple onion is sweeter, but not sure if that's caused by the potting mix. I found out Georgia has a mineral content different, so onions are sweeter....and don't use sulfur based plant food as sulfur is what makes onion tear you up and stronger in flavor.
If you are going to do this learn by my mistakes....plant the seeds in small containers (or buy the plant seedlings) and allow them to grow about 3 to 4 inches before planting them in the tubes. If you just put the seeds in the tubes and water....the seeds will just root in the moist soil...the water just sits in there until a plant draws it out. About the only thing that worked ok from seed were the green beans......had about 7 seeds germinate and then just rot on the tube.
Don't fill the tubes all the way and pack in the potting soil...leave about an inch from the top as watering is more consistent through out the tube and equals out in moisture content.
If you use the 1/2 inch tube for watering like I used make for sure the water holes 1/16th drill bit are pointed down away from the plant...I drilled one 1/16th of an inch hole for every plant about 3 inches from the plant (offset the watering holes).

[Cebu_4_2]

We got tomatoes and cucumbers sticking out of our ass, I couldn't imagine propagating this.

[7th trump]

Forgot this pic. This is about 1 foot long (English variety cucumber). I already picked one last week that was 15 7/8 inches long 2 inches wide and could have went a little longer if I left it be.
6544
It was starting to swell up so I picked it as I like them crunchy and not soft and full of seeds. Thinking of adding sugar water to the daily watering to see if it will get a bit sweeter.
Tomatoes are sweeter if you add a little sugar to the water. Sugar in the water attracts insect to help in pollinating..seen my first bee in three years yesterday...very sad!

Add epsons salts to the water (not a lot)...it helps in the plant in defending against diseases. Also keep your egg shells. Dry them and put them in a blender to powderize them...calcium is another mineral the plants need to help against diseases.
Been watching video's of grounding your plants that are in containers as test show the plant grow healthier, stronger and stay greener. Cut flowers in a grounded vise last longer than ungrounded flower cuttings.

[Glass]

6540
This is a test bed to see if the potato box concept actually works. Yesterday I went and pulled one of the lower 1x6's off to see if I had any potatoes'...well they were growing, counted three spuds about the size of a golf ball right up against the side of the box. They are about as tall as me now...I could have added more 1x6's in hopes of getting more spuds but I quit after seeing blooms.


How about packing straw/hay around the plants? Fill up the space between the soil and plant leaves. This is supposed to encourage more potato growth in amongst the straw and forces the plant to grow up. I don't recall if you do alternate layers of soil and straw or all straw. I think it's all straw but was going to read up. I have some fairly open fencing wire, maybe 4" grid. Maybe too much gap so I might get some chicken wire. Make a column/tower on top of pot and keep infilling with straw. Potato tower.

I checked mine today. Moved it to better sun spot last weekend and its really got going.

[7th trump]

How about packing straw/hay around the plants? Fill up the space between the soil and plant leaves. This is supposed to encourage more potato growth in amongst the straw and forces the plant to grow up. I don't recall if you do alternate layers of soil and straw or all straw. I think it's all straw but was going to read up. I have some fairly open fencing wire, maybe 4" grid. Maybe too much gap so I might get some chicken wire. Make a column/tower on top of pot and keep infilling with straw. Potato tower.

I checked mine today. Moved it to better sun spot last weekend and its really got going.

Good to hear its growing.
I've seen straw in the boxes and it works. My uncle on his farm just puts the seed spuds on the ground in a row and covers with straw...this works just fine and they are huge potatoes and plenty of them.
Heres some more pics from the other day using the girlfriends sons phone camera...nice camera!
6554
6555
6556
6557
6558

[Glass]

thats a serious garden