After perving at blind freddie and DecalsbyJT wicking beds i have decided that this will be my next big expansion.
I fortunately have the space but there are a few things to consider.
1) The area is approximately 14m X 10m and was cleaned and slopped to approximately 1 in 8 fall . I decided not to fully level the area as further digging (or backfilling) would be quite expensive.
2) i want to build the individual beds from treated pine sleepers, the plan is to have individual beds 3m X 1.2m
3) i am still debating how deep i should build the beds. The two easy options is either 400mm or 600mm because that aligns with the dimensions of the timber
4) I plan to mainly grow root crops - onion, carrot, potato and sweet potato.
5) The area is approximately 150 meters away from my house so i want to make the system so that i don't have to visit it daily - particularly given that i work long hours so don't have much time during the week for trekking to the beds.
6) I plan do built ~ 16 grow beds eventually but because of the potential cost only want to built one grow bed every second month (so this is a 2 year project!)
Here is a picture of the area and the preparation of the base for the first growbed. Next weekend will be construction time!
Any advice would be appreciate. My main uncertainty is the height of the growbeds. Would 400mm (assuming 100 mm water and 300mm grow medium) be sufficient for root vegetables? Or should i go deeper?
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The Space (the bricks will have to go).jpg [ 299.85 KiB | Viewed 25956 times ]
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Digging foundation.jpg [ 306.21 KiB | Viewed 25956 times ]
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Compacting the base.jpg [ 302.37 KiB | Viewed 25956 times ]
) about a person using coir as wicking material - so i hope that bark does a similar trick. If it all goes sour (pun intended) then i'll redo the bed.