We did a design for Ken and Jenny in Rosanna a few years back now (view larger version of design here):

As you can see a core theme of this design is serious fruit, vegetable and egg production.  Here is a photo shortly after we finished installing the VEG Beds. As an aside, underneath these vegie beds is a large swimming pool that forms part of the hydronic heating system for the house. Interesting stuff and a great way to make use of a swimming pool ;-).

And another of the VEG Chook house, strawyard, chook run and pond:

Anyways, getting to the point of this article, of the seven raised beds we put in (all about 4m long by 1.4m wide by 40cm high), one was wicking.  A few weeks back Ken and Jenny got in touch letting us know that the production and the reduced work of the wicking bed was so substantial that they wanted to not only have us convert the six non-wicking beds to wicking, but they wanted a further five wicking beds installed.  They said that the wicking bed has effectively not required any watering except in the hottest weather when it needed a weekly top-up.  Healthy veggies with weekly water during the extremes of a Melbourne summer is a not bad gig!

There is a lot of interest in wicking beds lately, and so we thought we'd talk through the technical details of what we did in this case.  Think of this as more as a guide to some of the things you need to think about as opposed to a rigid template to copy.  We actually usually do wicking beds slightly differently, but in this case we decided this was the best solution.

Here we are getting started on retrofitting the existing six non-wicking beds to be wicking...

And getting into it...

From left Matt, Michael and Will

Here is the plumbing assembly we used in this case.

Moving in closer let's go through what's happening here.  So the pipe sticking up in the air is both the water inlet pipe you use to top up the bed when the reservoir of water beneath the soil runs low, and you can use to visually inspect the water level.  Now let's go through what happens when you stick a hose into the end of the pipe sticking up and turn it on.  The water flows straight down the (55mm diameter) pipe, around the 90 degree bend and straight into 50mm diameter slotted aggy pipe. Slotted as in full of holes, designed to leak like a sieve.  This aggy pipe will sit above the rubber pond liner we put in next.  The pond liner in turn will sit above the white pipe running along the base of the bed.  

This pipe is an overflow, designed to take excess water from this, and two other beds, to the fruit trees in the adjoining orchard (with water our philosophy is waste not want not!). We can do this with gravity, as the beds are slightly higher than the orchard. As the water continues to flow, however, the pond liner, and the basalt fines (little rocks) about to be within it, will start to fill up (as per the next photo).

When the water level reaches the height of the tee-piece you can see, the reservoir is full, and any further water (including surplus rain) then exits via the tee-piece overflow pipe, and on to the fruit trees. This means it is impossible to overfill the bed (and drown any veggies in it)...

Here you can see the rubber liner, the basalt fines, and the water level just before it starts overflowing. Ideally you want to be between this point...

And this point, when the water starts overflowing....

In this next photo, with the wicking reservoir installed, we've simply rolled out a layer of geotextile landscaping fabric and then started refilling the bed with soil.

Within 24 hours the water (and the minerals in the basalt dust amongst the fines) had started wicking up into the soil and the beds were lovely and moist, ready for planting.  In this case we had a water/basalt layer of about 15cm and a soil layer of about 35cm.

In case any of that wasn't clear, for your interest here are some old plans of a slightly different past method we have used, with a drainage option which is a bonus if you can swing it (over time the water can get a little over-nutrified so good to be able to dump it then start again):

And a link to some older blog posts on fixing a damaged wicking bed, a community wicking bed install we did (see part two here), a permablitz where two VEG wicking beds were installed, and one of our first-ever wicking beds back in 2010...

Also if you want some guidance or a hand to build wicking beds, then you need only ask.  We have seen many cases of people putting a lot of effort into wicking beds only to find they turn out to be leaking beds, so we really recommend getting your head around the critical considerations first, and if you are making more than one, try it out for a bit before making the others.  That said, have fun and good luck on your wicking adventures!

Yesterday we made an excuse to pop in and visit one of our favorite backyards and most exciting design and implementation projects in Melbourne.  Aside from generally enjoying the productive lushness, Dan poked into the soil in the middle of the fully-enclosed orchard and the amount of amazing rich moist, compost & life filled soil being produced thanks to the power of duck and chook totally blew his mind.  Here's a short clip...

And some photos...

..and big thanks to Ange for sharing a beautiful batch of duck eggs with us! How cool is that, set up someone else's garden then take home food from it whenever you visit!

We have been finding ourselves suggesting and installing several pergolas lately.  Here in Melbourne the shade thrown by a grape-covered pergola above the vegetable garden path makes a huge difference to human and plant happiness during summer.  Just putting it out there but we have rather enjoyed these pergola projects, so if you are interested get in touch and let's talk!

Recent Northcote Pergola

Recent Thornbury Pergola

Pergola install from last year now with grapes coming up (Eaglemont)

Great to catch up with Josh and his backyard project yesterday. We documented the start of the project here, and here are a few clips from the visit yesterday.

A closer look at the garden beds, which for little work are producing a heck of a lot of eggplant and much else:

The mini-orchard just after planting and pruning (sorry about the wind sound but it does pass):

During the christmas break VEG's Dan & family paid a social call to customers-become-friends Julian & Linda in Eaglemont.  We documented the large-scale design and implementation project we completed for Julian & Linda last year (see the design and during photos here and some shots of where it was all at about 10 months ago here).

The place is maturing beautifully and we took a few happy snaps of the back and front yards.  The topshelf VEG bed with flowers and grapes growing up over the trellised pergola is looking particularly lovely...

...and the main VEG beds are coming into some serious summer production...

... Amanda & Julian contemplating the enclosed fox & bird proof orchard (note the comfrey patch bottom left).  They have silver appleyard ducks (including four gorgeous ducklings) and several chooks...

...with Dan taking a look at the fruit trees in this clip (including a lot of multiplanting with up to four trees in one hole)...

...four-way peach & nectarine planting being serviced by a duck...

...we usually refuse to put in lawns, but Julian and Linda earned a little one with all their food gardens...

...the pond is looking lovely with clean water full of diverse insect life...

...and the front yard which is a food forest with some extra ornamentals is apparently creating a lot of interest on the street...

...Ciela enjoying another strawberry before we hit the road...

In about August 2012 we completed a permaculture design for Adrienne who live with her family in Dingley Village, Melbourne.  Adrienne was keen to get seriously edible and wanted muchos veggie production, fruit trees, a rain-water harvesting & distribution system, a grey water system, and quite a bit else.  Here's the design we came up with for her decidedly un-rectangular block (the dotted lines are the neighbour's houses):

Adrienne loved the design and was keen to make to more than a pretty picture, so in December 2012 we got to work! Step one was some arborist work (thanks Will!) to open things up and create more sunlight for the fruit trees.  Step two was a 9,860 litre steel water tank installed on a concrete slab and hooked up to supply the house toilet and the gardens.

We then formed up the five 40-cm high rough-sawn VEG Beds (four standard rectangles, one custom shape to fit the interesting property shape)...

...before removing as much couch grass as possible, then bringing in seven cubic metres of rich woody compost to give the very sandy soil a big push in the right direction...

...coated with woodchips grown on site and left for us by the arborists....

We then mulched the VEG beds...

And planted them out...

Then popped in the fruit trees and their laundry-powered greywater irrigation system.

and here's a youtube clip of the project as we left it in 2012, and we are much looking forward to returning and helping Adrienne along on her edible journey in 2013!

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December 19 & 20 we completed our last implementation job for 2012 and morale was most high as we walked away after a wonderful year and a huge final week.  Here's a clip about the job...

...and here's the Northcote clay we had to deal with!

...and here's us closing the roller door on the last job for 2012!

Dan popped into Mel's edible garden in Seddon on Thursday to complete a little irrigation job before christmas.  Over the years we've helped Mel out with her mini-food forest design, roughsawn VEG beds, and an irrigation system.  If you watch the clip below you'll see why Dan was blown away by all the growth and production.  Serious amounts of fruit in particular, including grapes, apricots, nectarines, peaches, apples, strawberry guavas, chilean guavas, feijoas, and much more.  I mean check out these grapes!

 Mel is an inspiration doing so much with a small space and with a busy family life to manage too, not to mention all her community work with Permaculture out West amongst lots of other good stuff.  Good on you Mel - you rock! (Note that the rabbit was supposed to show us around but got stage fright - thanks for stepping in Mel...)

We shared some vids and photos of Sue's small inner-city courtyard makeover we've been working in in Richmond here about 6 weeks back. From bare concrete we've helped Sue with a vegetable and fruit garden that we visited again a few days back.  The growth is amazing as you can see in these photos. Sue is a novice gardener and was so proud to say that "nothing has died," under her close mothering. Chekc out the corn in this raised bed!

Here's a double-planted peach & nectarine in a custom pot we had made then put on on wheels...

The mini-food forest establishing itself...

And Sue now has an automatic irrigation system that will keep her new babies thriving through her summer holidays even when she's away...

And some other shots taken around the garden...

On that really, really hot day recently Dan and Will pushed forward and got this standard VEG Chook System (small house, standard strawyard) in - great to be developing our workflow and systems to make things happen faster without compromising quality.  Luckily we were in the shade of a large ornamental pear (so yes I guess they do have their place) and we drank water non-stop otherwise we'd have been frizzled.