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…
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…
The Gbiota Philosophy 4: From Subsurface Experiments to Microflood and Wicking Beds
In the mid-1990s, Colin Austin asked a simple question: are there better ways of applying water? Horticulture had become more efficient, but…
The Future of Food Growing: Water-Efficient Food Growing for a Changing Climate
This presentation outlines why the future of agriculture must adapt to climate change and water shortages, and why co-operation is essential. It…
Water for Food: How Wicking Beds Build Climate-Resilient Agriculture With Less Water
Water for food is one of the defining challenges of a warming world. The wicking bed system appears simple, yet it represents…
The Realities of Global Warming: Why Soil Carbon and Water-Smart Farming Matter
Global warming is a risk we cannot afford to “wait and see” about. Even if we reduce emissions, fast-growing economies and a…
Wicking Bed – A New Technology for Adapting to Climate Change
This article explains why global climate negotiations such as Copenhagen struggle to deliver real change, and why agriculture offers a practical path…
Wicking Beds: A Practical Technology for Adapting to Climate Change
Climate change presents two linked challenges: reducing carbon in the atmosphere and protecting food production in a world of increasingly erratic rainfall.…
Resolving Climate Change With Wicking Beds: A Practical Plan for Carbon, Water, and Food Security
This article explains why climate change is so hard to solve politically, and why soil and food security may be the most…
Shade Houses and Wicking Beds: An Easy Way to Grow Organic Vegetables
Growing vegetables through hot, wet Queensland summers is difficult because of heat, insects, weeds, disease, and heavy rain. This article explains a…
Vision for Food Security, Water Shortages, and Climate Change
This vision outlines a practical way to improve food security, reduce water waste, and address climate change by capturing carbon from the…
The Next Great Change: Soil Carbon, Wicking Beds, and the Future of Food
This article looks thirty years ahead and argues that the next major shift in society will be driven by environmental services rather…
Community Action on Water: Why Harvesting Small Rains Matters
Australia does not suffer from a lack of rainfall. What we suffer from is a failure to capture it. Most rain falls…
Harvesting Smaller Rains: Water Storage, Wicking Beds, and Anticipatory Irrigation
Droughts are part of Australia’s natural cycle, but we still waste the water that falls in the smaller rains. The volume is…
Anticipatory Irrigation: Using Timing to Save Water and Reduce Evaporation
Anticipatory irrigation is a practical, common-sense approach to watering crops more efficiently by working with rainfall, soil behaviour, and evaporation rather than…
The Origins of Wicking Beds: Lessons From Drought, Soil, and Water
Wicking beds did not begin as a backyard gardening idea. They emerged from practical work on food security during drought, where the…
Wicking Bed Soil vs Stones: Maximise Water, Nutrients, and Plant Growth
This article explains why using stones (or coarse sand) and cloth at the base of wicking beds — a common practice —…
Tips for Preventing Stinky Wicking Beds
This article explains why some wicking beds can smell bad and, more importantly, how to prevent or fix that problem. Stinky wicking…
The Development of Wicking Beds through Soil and Water Systems
The Development of Wicking Beds through Soil and Water Systems This blog explains how wicking beds were developed and why they work…
Soils for Wicking Beds
Many people think wicking beds are just to save water; the most important feature however is creating a mini ecology with a…
Soil for Wicking Beds: Biology, Minerals and Health
Healthy Plants vs Plants That Make Us Healthy The most common question I am asked is about soils for wicking beds. That’s…
Soil Biology: The Key to Healthy Wicking Soils
Soil biology is the key — my aim with WickiMix is to provide a concentrate and inoculant where people can create their…
Types of Wicking Beds for Healthy Soil & Plants
Wicking systems rely on the attraction between soil and water so water (and nutrients) will rise up from a water storage to…
Energy and Regeneration in Wicking Beds
Food gives us energy and regenerates our bodies. Most commercial foods now contain a lot of energy or calories based on simple…
Open Letter to the Prime Minister: A Climate Strategy Using Soil Carbon and Wicking Beds
This letter outlines a practical way to strengthen Australia’s climate strategy by pairing carbon trading with real, measurable carbon reductions. The core…
The Coach Scheme for Wicking Bed Technology
This article explains the Coach Scheme for wicking bed technology: why it exists, how it works, and what coaches do. It traces…
Healthy Food Association: Registry of Coaches
This registry is a simple public list of coaches connected to the Healthy Food Association. Coaches provide their own details by email,…
De-Boggling China: Food, Farming, and Health in a Rapidly Changing World
Halfway through a trip to China, Colin Austin is “de-boggling” — trying to separate real insights from quackery while looking for Chinese…
Gin Gin State School Wicking Bed Project: Educational Gardening for Schools
This community project at Gin Gin State School in Queensland brought teachers, students, parents and local volunteers together to build outdoor wicking…
The Future of Agriculture: Adapting Farming to Climate Change
This article is based on a talk Colin Austin — inventor of the wicking bed — gave during a China tour in September 2009.…
The Healthy Food Association: Growing Together for Better Health
This article introduces the Healthy Food Association, a non-profit community focused on improving health through nutrient-rich, biologically active soil and home-grown food.…
News from China: Scaling Wicking Beds for Food Security and Climate Action
This update explains the progress of international work to scale wicking bed technology as a practical response to food insecurity and climate…