The Wicking Bed

When James, at the time, a strategy team member and maker of extraordinary raised beds, mentioned the video below, we immediately knew we had to make one of these for our Urban Growing Trail.

The Engine Shed seemed like the optimum place to put the bed as it’s as low-tech as it gets whilst being seriously high-tech in the way it uses capillary action to create this amazing bed that only needs watering every three weeks of so!!

In the bed are a variety of crops that are really proving that the capillary action in the bed works! Tomatoes, squashes, fennel, brassicas, and sweet marjoram are all looking well and will soon be cropping, at which point we will replant with crops that will continue to produce food well into the autumn.

You will see, looking at the pictures of our bed, that we took the design stage a step further than the Food For Free project. Shape Studio did a brilliant job of making the bed not only productive but also beautiful.