Wicking Bed Liners Explained: Are Plastics Safe for Growing Food?
People often ask what lining materials are safe for wicking beds, especially when plastic films are involved. In this newsletter Colin Austin…
The Vision for Wicking Beds: Origin, Purpose, and Soil Biology
Wicking beds are often described as a water-saving trick, but that misses the bigger point. Modern food systems are excellent at producing…
Wicking Beds: How Underground Water Storage Changed the Way We Grow Food
Wicking beds emerged from practical experiments aimed at growing food under drought conditions, first in Ethiopia and later elsewhere. The core problem…
The Wicking Bed Basket Scheme For Healthy Food
The wicking bed basket scheme was designed to make truly nutritious, fresh food available to almost everyone, including people with limited space,…
Scaling Wicking Beds: Large-Scale Adoption for Food, Water, and Climate Resilience
Wicking beds are usually seen as a backyard method, but they can also be scaled up to deliver major public benefits: more…
BioPack: Rebuilding Living Soil Through Biology, Fungi, and Practical Regeneration
BioPack is a simple, practical way to rebuild tired or degraded soils by reintroducing the biology that creates fertile structure. Each BioPack…
WickiMix: Turning Organic Waste into Living Soil Through Biology
WickiMix is a biologically active soil regeneration system designed to convert waste organic material into living, fertile soil. It works by combining…
Questions and Answers: Practical Wicking Bed Advice
This question and answer article brings together real conversations between growers and Colin Austin, addressing the most common practical issues faced when…
Soil vs Dirt: Why Soil Biology Matters for Wicking Beds
Older soil science focused on sand, silt, clay, and nutrients like NPK. Modern soil science adds the missing piece: biology. Biology is…