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Silverleaves Food Forest

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Commenced:	01/02/2014
Submitted:	05/04/2014
Last updated:	07/10/2015
Location:	Silverleaves , Phillip Island, Victoria, AU
Climate zone:	Warm Temperate

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Silverleaves Food Forest

Phillip Island, AU

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Project: Silverleaves Food Forest

Posted by Marion Roberts over 10 years ago

Raised Wicking Beds

After finding a couple of old apple crates for raised beds we lined them with plastic and filled with straw bales, then topped up with purchased soil - a mixture of mushroom compost, cow manure and mulch. These should definitley keep the rabbits and wallabies off but will still perhaps need to net to hold back the possums. We originally installed these beds simply to grow a few herbs and vegetables. It was only after we'd put them in that I had a permaculture design consultant visit and he inspired us to do a full full forest on the strength of our wind protected north-facing site. From that point I read up everything I could and now here I am - doing a Permaculture Design Certificate course !!

We decided to make 6 raised beds in total - four of these being wicking beds.

I have included some images of pegging out positions for the four wicking beds and their construction. After triple-lining in heavy black plastic we installed PVC pipe to fill with water, attached to a curve of ag-pipe to evenly spread the water evenly throughout the bed. The crate was then filled half way with volcanic rock (scoria) and covered with a layer of shade cloth. As we don't have any extra soil on our site (as yet) we filled with purchased soil - same as in the two non-wicking raised beds.

While we planted a few 'sacrificial' seedlings into one of the beds - to test the wildlife factor, we have planted all the other beds out with a nitrogen fixing 'green manure' cover crop comprising a mixture of clover, oats, buckwheat etc. to optimise soil quality and aeration over the winter for healthy soil for spring herbs and veggie planting.

All boxes are mulched with seaweed as this is an easy resource for me to gather from the beach at the bottom of the garden.

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