Hi folks.
Kira & I turned a stock tank into a self watering wicking garden bed/sub irrigated planter.  Have included some ideas on different ways the plumbing can be set up as well as alternate media & reservoir configurations. 

Hopefully there will be a few useful ideas in there that will help you with your own self watering garden build. Have included some helpful links below as well. 


You can Subscribe to our Backyard Farm & Aquaponics channel if you're interested in getting more clips covering what we get up to here on our small block land. It would be great to see you come along & say "G'Day" when we post a clip.  

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Hope you enjoyed the clip & your garden is booming.
Cheers all,
Rob

Tilkey drum reconditioner for SE QLD readers.

Colin Austin's wicking bed site, 

Dave's Veneto Gardens site & Facebook page 

A few clips mentioned in this video.
How to Expand Holes with Hole Saws

How to Build a Wicking Barrel

How to Build a Wicking IBC Bed

Wicking How to Build Build Playlist

Wicking Beds & Barrels for a water wise garden..

As it is getting nearer to spring I thought I would post some Wicking clips for anyone interested in making up some new beds.. There will be more posted in the future as I haven't filmed a complete clip while making a full size bed, only the barrels..

The whole idea behind the wicking system comes from a gentleman by the name of  Colin Austin...
http://waterright.com.au/wicking-bed-history.html
I came across it while we were in the tail end of a drought here in South East Queensland here in Australia & though it was one of the best ways to go to save water in a fairly large back yard veggie patch..
Wicking Barrels MK II..

The above clip is how we now make the Wicking barrels... They are a big improvement on the original design as the water holding capacity of the reservoir has doubled... As the existing barrels finish their crops they are slowly being swapped over to this design...

Wicking Beds...

I have ever only made clips after the fact with the beds so made up a bit of a sideshow clip to show how we made one of the earlier Wicking beds...

Wicking Bathtub...

This was a relative easy build with a free bath we collected from a member of a  local Free Cycle Group..  I must say the plants we had in there were probably a bit too large for the small reservoir in the bath...I think plants like small cropping herbs, leafy greens would probably do better than 5 foot tall lemongrass... Lesson learnt..

Wicking up IBC's (Intermediate bulk containers)...
These guys are a really easy build that could easily be done in a few hours if you were more organised than I...

That's about it for now...
Have a great one all...
: )»

Walk about the back...

Just a quick walk around clip to show where we are up to...

 Will be spending the week planing the start of the spring patch lay out & setting up some new beds...
What Spring plans do you have ??
Have a great one...
: )»

IBC Wicking Beds for renters...

IBC Wicking Beds for renters...
We have some friends who are renting places with no garden space for veggies so it got me thinking how we could help them out... We came up with the idea of using the same food grade IBC containers we are using as Aquaponic beds & tanks as Wicking garden beds... By cutting them in ½ you can get 2 beds that are essentially large pots that you can grow quite a few Veggies & herbs in...

We were lucky enough to get 3 of them for $40 each... The only problem being that they contained "Liquid Boot A" which is a tar like concrete sealing compound that is used to seal concrete drinking water tanks, pipelines & concrete slabs for buildings... We could not remove the compound with a water blaster as it had dried to the tank so had to come up with another way to use them...  We decided on lining them with the 200um plastic to keep the soil from coming in contact with the residue in the IBC's... I think we could find others without the residue for under $100 which makes them cheaper than the colorbond alternatives you can purchase from hardware stores & suitable for renters who are not allowed to dig a garden for a veggie patch...
: )»

Wicking Barrel Modifications....

Wicking Barrel MK II
Have come up with what I think is a better way to set up the reservoir section of the barrels so they will hold more water using the ag pipe...

I am going to trial the new barrel set up by growing 5 different types of heirloom Tomatoes as I have found them to be a very thirst plant once they reach about 4 foot in height...
Have a great one...

 Have a good one...

: )»