Are there any backyard veggie gardeners here?

[judydawn]

How good is that Michele!  There's nothing like a home grown tomato.

[Emme]

Great tomatoes Michele, wish we had some here.  Been too cold for them, they are growing very slowly.  Have been harvesting peas, broad beans, onions, garlic, raspberries, strawberries and mushrooms from one of those kits. 

[astarra]

Ohhhh Michele - can't wait til I can start picking my toms. 
Picked the first of my broccolini tonight, and have been eating lettuce leaves from the garden for a few weeks now. Also picked 1kg+ raspberries from a friend's place on Saturday (the ones that have moved) 

[Jamberie]

Oh wow Michele, how many plants do you have?

[Kimmyh]

Great tomatoes Michele.

[Jamberie]

Our wicking beds are finally finished. And so far so good. After watering almost daily for the first week, we are now watering once a week and the growth is amazing. Thanks to the water soaking up from below and the heavy layer of mulch, the soil is constantly moist (but not soggy) and the plants are thriving. Some of the plants were self-sewn tomatoes that were a bit sad after their transplanting, but even they are going well now. Looks like the effort is worth it and at this rate we will be putting more wicking beds in....depending on our first yield.

The picture below shows the external parts of the piping. The tall pipe is were we fill it from our water tank and the pipes at the bottom are the adjustable water level pipe and overflow pipe.

[judydawn]

They're huge beds Jamberie, it sounds like you are on a winner there.

[Cuilidh]

Jamberie, I think I must have missed the lead up to your fantastic looking beds, the system is obviously successful and, once settled, looks very easy to maintain and keep watered.  Is there a good web site you can recommend that we can check out for more informaton?

Thanks.

[mcmich]

Great looking vegie beds Jamberie 

[obbie]

looks great Jamberie

[Halex]

Picked our first capsicum. The others are too small. Fresh & delicious.

[Jamberie]

Jamberie, I think I must have missed the lead up to your fantastic looking beds, the system is obviously successful and, once settled, looks very easy to maintain and keep watered.  Is there a good web site you can recommend that we can check out for more informaton?

Thanks.

Just reading as many as possible. Each circumstance is slightly different so researching widely is really important so we could adapt to suit our specific requirements. DH also designed an adjustable water level pipe that I'd not seen anywhere. Ill post a few links next time I'm at my pc. Ive got a fee 'progress' photos of ours I can share too


Great capsicum Hally!

[Jamberie]

http://www.veryediblegardens.com/about-us/recent-projects/25-design-and-implementation/348-custom-wicking-beds
This is one of the sites that I found to be very helpful. Also doing a 'google image' search was more useful to us than the regular way to search.

The photo above was taken on 1 Dec...I took a photo today -not even three weeks after and this is the result...it isvery early days but the results are very promising.

If you look at the plumbing, you can see how DH has used a moveable joint in the overflow pipe so that we can adjust the water level and even empty the reservoir every now and again so that it is not too smelly and gross underneath!

[judydawn]

Very complex and a lot of work to get it to where it is today Jamberie, I'm sure your garden bed is going to produce huge supplies for you.

[Jamberie]

Very complex and a lot of work to get it to where it is today Jamberie, I'm sure your garden bed is going to produce huge supplies for you.

Let's hope so Judy!!! I'm hoping to plant some pumpkin seedlings in them this week...hopefully it works