Generated by All in One SEO v4.9.5.1, this is an llms.txt file, used by LLMs to index the site. # Wicking Beds ## Sitemaps - [XML Sitemap](https://wickingbed.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website. ## Posts - [Blog](https://wickingbed.com/blog/) - [Water for Food: How Wicking Beds Build Climate-Resilient Agriculture With Less Water](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/06/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 a profound shift in how food can be grown with less water and more reliability. This article explains why wicking beds matter in a future of climate uncertainty, how they link water use, - [Health starts in the soil](https://wickingbed.com/2023/12/20/health-starts-in-the-soil-4/) - Health starts in the soil - [The Development of Wicking Beds through Soil and Water Systems](https://wickingbed.com/2025/12/04/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 so well for growing healthy plants. It breaks down the science of soil, water movement, and plant roots in simple terms so anyone can understand it. You will learn how good soil helps - [Wicking Bed Soil vs Stones: Maximise Water, Nutrients, and Plant Growth](https://wickingbed.com/2025/12/09/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 — often undermines their effectiveness. It argues that stones are too coarse to wick water properly, can lead to stagnant, smelly reservoirs, and reduce nutrient availability. Instead, the author recommends using biologically active soil - [WickiMix Manual: Practical Guide to Soil and Bed Management](https://wickingbed.com/2025/12/04/wickimix-manual-practical-guide-to-soil-and-bed-management/) - The WickiMix system is a practical soil management method designed for wicking beds, sponge beds, and conventional garden beds. By combining living soil inoculants, organic waste, and mineral amendments, gardeners can create fertile, biologically active soils that retain water and nutrients efficiently. This guide explains the components, preparation, and use of WickiMix-R and WickiMix-M, plus - [Tips for Preventing Stinky Wicking Beds](https://wickingbed.com/2025/12/09/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 beds usually happen when water becomes stagnant and has no air, causing bad bacteria to grow. The solutions are based on understanding how wicking beds work — how water moves, how plant roots - [Wicking Bed Liners Explained: Are Plastics Safe for Growing Food?](https://wickingbed.com/2026/03/23/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 explains a practical, engineering-based answer: black polythene is generally fine, clear polythene can work if protected from sunlight, and flexible PVC films are best avoided unless you are confident they meet strict standards. - [The Vision for Wicking Beds: Origin, Purpose, and Soil Biology](https://wickingbed.com/2026/03/23/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 cheap energy food, yet many diets are short on the minerals, vitamins, and complex plant chemicals that help maintain long-term health. A simple wicking bed, filled with mineral-rich, biologically active soil, can help - [The Origins of Wicking Beds: Lessons From Drought, Soil, and Water](https://wickingbed.com/2025/12/15/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 challenge was not just lack of water, but unreliable rainfall and poor soils. This article explains how wicking beds developed through trial, failure, and observation—from Ethiopia to controlled test boxes—and why soil quality, - [Shade Houses and Wicking Beds: An Easy Way to Grow Organic Vegetables](https://wickingbed.com/2025/12/16/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 practical system that solves most of these problems: wicking beds built inside enclosed 6x4 m shade houses. Watering is from the bottom up, so plants get steady moisture with very little waste, while - [Wicking Beds: How Underground Water Storage Changed the Way We Grow Food](https://wickingbed.com/2026/03/23/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 was not the absolute lack of water, but unreliable rainfall and poor soils. By storing water underground and allowing it to move upward through the soil by capillary action, wicking beds created stable - [The Wicking Bed Basket Scheme For Healthy Food](https://wickingbed.com/2026/03/23/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, time, or gardening experience. It combines soil biology, trace minerals, and controlled moisture to grow plants rich in phytochemicals, vitamins, and essential trace elements. The system supports healthy diets by reconnecting food production - [Wicking Beds: A Practical Technology for Adapting to Climate Change](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/05/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. This article explains why cutting emissions alone is not enough, and why agriculture must become part of the solution. By using wicking bed technology to store carbon in soil and stabilise water use, - [Adapting to Climate Change Through Water, Soil, and Biological Systems](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/22/adapting-to-climate-change-through-water-soil-and-biological-systems/) - Climate change and water scarcity are no longer future risks; they are present realities that demand practical, system-level responses. This article explores how soil regeneration, microbiology, and smarter water management can work together to create resilient food and water systems. Drawing on real-world concepts, it shows how decentralised water use, biological soil processes, and clear - [The Simple Mechanics Behind Climate Change: Why Global Warming Is Not a Mystery](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/22/the-simple-mechanics-behind-climate-change-why-global-warming-is-not-a-mystery/) - Climate change is often presented as complex and mysterious, yet the basic physics behind it has been understood for more than two centuries. Long before computers and satellites, scientists were able to describe how heat moves through the Earth system using simple observations and measurements. This article explains, in clear and practical terms, the core - [A Sustainable World: Why Pragmatic Climate Action Matters More Than Perfect Solutions](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/22/a-sustainable-world-why-pragmatic-climate-action-matters-more-than-perfect-solutions/) - Building a sustainable world is not just about cutting emissions. It is also about feeding a growing and increasingly affluent global population without exhausting soil, water, and resources. This article explains why good intentions can still lead to poor outcomes, why public debate often stalls after climate conferences, and why engineers think differently to scientists - [Queensland Water Restrictions: Why an Arid Climate Needs Arid Solutions](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/22/queensland-water-restrictions-why-an-arid-climate-needs-arid-solutions/) - South East Queensland is often described as being in water crisis, yet the real issue is not a lack of rainfall but a failure to adopt water harvesting technologies suited to an arid climate. By copying systems from wetter regions, governments and communities have locked themselves into restrictive policies that create artificial shortages. With a - [An Independent Water Think Tank: Innovation, Creativity, and the Future of Water](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/22/an-independent-water-think-tank-innovation-creativity-and-the-future-of-water/) - This page introduces an independent water “think tank” focused on innovation rather than politics or commercial interests. It explains why water management will change dramatically over the next century, why large bureaucracies struggle to innovate, and why creativity must be treated as a method, not luck. It outlines key themes on the site—speculative research, watropy, - [Watropy: The Paradigm Shift in Water Thinking](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/22/watropy-the-paradigm-shift-in-water-thinking/) - Watropy is a simple but powerful idea: water has value not only by volume, but by how long it stays useful. In hot, dry climates, most rain is absorbed before any runoff begins, so dams often rely on rare big storms. Watropy reframes the “water crisis” as a harvesting and storage problem, not just a - [The Phantom Water Crisis](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/22/the-phantom-water-crisis/) - “The Phantom Water Crisis” argues that the so-called water crisis is not mainly caused by a lack of rain, but by how we manage and harvest it. In dry climates, dams depend on rare, random storms, while smaller, more reliable coastal rains are often ignored. The paper explains how micro-harvesting—tanks, soil storage, underground ponds, and - [How Agriculture Can Capture Carbon and Help Resolve Climate Change](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/22/how-agriculture-can-capture-carbon-and-help-resolve-climate-change/) - This research summary explains a practical, large-scale way to mitigate climate change by changing agriculture. The core idea is simple: plants already cycle enormous amounts of carbon, but most of it returns to the atmosphere when organic matter decomposes. If we divert a small fraction of that flow and embed it into soils as stable - [About This Site: Soil, Water, and the Search for Sustainable Solutions](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/21/about-this-site-soil-water-and-the-search-for-sustainable-solutions/) - This article explains the origins and purpose of this site. Colin Austin outlines how severe soil loss in Australia led him to decades of research into soil regeneration, water management, and carbon capture. From early experiments on degraded land to the development of wicking beds and large-scale soil carbon strategies, the site exists to share - [Carbon Capture in Soil: Why Humus Matters More Than Total Carbon](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/21/carbon-capture-in-soil-why-humus-matters-more-than-total-carbon/) - Capturing carbon in soil is often described as a simple fix for climate change and poor soils, but it is not that simple. What matters most is not total soil carbon, but how much of that carbon becomes stable humus. Unstable carbon breaks down quickly and returns to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide or methane. - [Irrigation Publications and Technical Guides](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/21/irrigation-publications-and-technical-guides/) - This downloads page provides access to key Waterright resources on water, irrigation efficiency, and practical solutions for growing food with limited water. It includes video material linked to World Vision’s search for long-term hunger solutions, plus a set of manuals and papers designed to help irrigators measure soil water holding capacity, schedule irrigation more accurately, - [How Microflood Improves Flood Irrigation Efficiency and Crop Yield](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/19/how-microflood-improves-flood-irrigation-efficiency-and-crop-yield/) - Microflood is a practical irrigation upgrade that turns traditional flood irrigation into a far more efficient system. It was recognised internationally with an SPE Environmental Stewardship Award, presented to Colin Austin at the SPE Environmental Conference in Detroit in February 2002. Originally developed to help deliver low-cost sustenance irrigation during drought in Ethiopia, Microflood also - [Water Wit and Wisdom: How Innovation Can Solve Australia’s Water Crisis](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/19/water-wit-and-wisdom-how-innovation-can-solve-australias-water-crisis/) - Water Wit and Wisdom steps back from technical debates about water and instead examines how we think about water. It explores why water conflicts persist, how innovation can escape entrenched positions, and how Australia can use its water far more wisely. The book combines history, systems thinking, practical technology, and social adoption to show that - [Solving the Water Crisis Video Series](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/19/solving-the-water-crisis-video-series/) - The “Solving the Water Crisis” video series shares Colin Austin’s search for practical answers to the global water crisis. What began as a hunt for better water technology quickly revealed a deeper challenge: how humans make decisions inside organisations, and why good ideas often fail to be adopted. The series is available online as free - [Droughtproofing in Ethiopia: Low-Cost Irrigation Lessons for a Water-Scarce World](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/06/droughtproofing-in-ethiopia-low-cost-irrigation-lessons-for-a-water-scarce-world/) - This article describes a practical droughtproofing project developed in Ethiopia to address food insecurity during severe drought. Invited by World Vision to find a way to grow sustenance food with very limited water, a simple but innovative irrigation system was created. Using gravity, recycled materials, and careful scheduling, the system aimed to feed over 54,000 - [Micro Flood Irrigation: A Low-Cost Manual For Using Water Better](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/06/micro-flood-irrigation-a-low-cost-manual-for-using-water-better/) - Micro flood irrigation is a simple, low-cost way to deliver water to plants without chronic under-watering or over-watering. It was designed to meet practical horticultural needs, not just to “save water”, by applying water in a way that supports better root function, better soil aeration, and reduced environmental harm such as salinity and nutrient run-off. - [Making the Most of Water: How Irrigation Scheduling Improves Crop Growth and Saves Water](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/06/making-the-most-of-water-how-irrigation-scheduling-improves-crop-growth-and-saves-water/) - Making the most of water is not about applying more or less by guesswork. It is about understanding how plants respond to moisture, oxygen, and stress at different stages of growth. Too much water can slow growth just as badly as too little, while well-managed moisture levels can improve crop quality and water efficiency. This - [Irrigation Scheduling: Measure Water Use, Control Irrigation Depth, Grow Better Crops](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/06/irrigation-scheduling-measure-water-use-control-irrigation-depth-grow-better-crops/) - Irrigation scheduling is one of the cheapest ways to save water and improve plant growth. It is not just about avoiding wilt. It is about managing how a plant grows by controlling how much water is available, and where it is available in the root zone. This guide explains single (deep) cycle and dual cycle - [WaterRight Irrigation Scheduling: Use Irrigation Depth and Evaporation to Save Water](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/06/waterright-irrigation-scheduling-use-irrigation-depth-and-evaporation-to-save-water/) - WaterRight is a practical way to schedule irrigation using two simple measurements: how far water penetrates into the soil (irrigation depth) and how much evaporation has occurred since the last irrigation. With these, you can keep plants productive, avoid wasting water below the root zone, and adjust between shallow and deeper watering as conditions change. - [Anticipatory Irrigation Scheduling: Using Evaporation, Soil Depth, and Rainfall to Save Water](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/06/anticipatory-irrigation-scheduling-using-evaporation-soil-depth-and-rainfall-to-save-water/) - Anticipatory irrigation is a practical and commonsense way to use water better by working with rainfall, evaporation, and soil behaviour rather than fighting them. This article explains how irrigation can be timed and measured so water is driven deep into the soil where it is protected from evaporation. By focusing on irrigation depth, learning from - [Adaptive Irrigation Scheduling: An Easy Way to Stop Wasting Water](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/06/adaptive-irrigation-scheduling-an-easy-way-to-stop-wasting-water/) - Poor irrigation scheduling is one of the biggest drivers of wasted water, and it can also cause environmental harm. Traditional “scientific” methods often fall short in the real world: evaporation scheduling relies on crop factors that don’t match field conditions, while soil moisture scheduling struggles because moisture is uneven and constantly changing through the soil - [Irrigation Scheduling Using Crop Factors and Soil Water Holding Capacity](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/06/irrigation-scheduling-using-crop-factors-and-soil-water-holding-capacity/) - Good irrigation is not guesswork. It is about matching water supply to what your plants actually use, and what your soil can safely hold. Published “average” values help, but every farm differs—slope, wind exposure, row spacing, canopy size, and soil type all change the result. This guide explains a practical, do-it-yourself method to measure crop - [Water Salinity Solutions For Australia: Flushing Salt, Smarter Irrigation, Better Policy](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/06/water-salinity-solutions-for-australia-flushing-salt-smarter-irrigation-better-policy/) - Australia’s water debate is not only about drought. It is also about salt. Each year, millions of tonnes of salt are mobilised and many of those salts end up back in our rivers and then back onto our best irrigated farms. The practical solution is not slogans or quick fixes. It is disciplined flushing, timed - [Micro-Flood Irrigation: A Low-Cost Way to Use Water Better](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/06/micro-flood-irrigation-a-low-cost-way-to-use-water-better/) - Micro Flood looks like old-fashioned flood irrigation, yet it can behave very differently. By splitting a long bay into short “micro blocks” and feeding them in sequence with a simple mechanical valve, it becomes possible to wet the useful root zone more evenly, waste less water, and even irrigate soils as challenging as blown sand. - [Solving the Water Crisis: Why Australia Has Plenty of Rain but Still Runs Out of Water](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/05/solving-the-water-crisis-why-australia-has-plenty-of-rain-but-still-runs-out-of-water/) - This article introduces the Solving the Water Crisis DVD series, a practical and challenging exploration of how we think about water in Australia. Rather than focusing only on dams and restrictions, the series explains why Australia’s real problem is not a lack of rain, but excessive evaporation and poor harvesting of small, local rainfall. Through - [Water, Salinity, and Irrigation Reform in Australia: Technology, Policy, and the Missing Link](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/05/water-salinity-and-irrigation-reform-in-australia-technology-policy-and-the-missing-link/) - This article explains why Australia’s real water crisis is not only drought, but salinity and soil sodification caused by how irrigation water is used and managed. Drawing on lessons from Ethiopia and global irrigation history, it shows why efficiency alone can worsen river flows, why flushing salt is essential, and why governments must lead adoption. - [Innovative Solutions to the Water Crisis](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/05/innovative-solutions-to-the-water-crisis/) - This article explores a practical, innovation-led approach to solving water scarcity. It traces how unconventional research methods led from early engineering work into irrigation, soil regeneration, and water harvesting systems. By focusing on how water actually moves through soil, how long it remains useful, and how simple systems like wicking beds can extend water availability, - [The Doctor And The Water Crisis: Why Dams Fail And Decentralised Water Wins](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/05/the-doctor-and-the-water-crisis-why-dams-fail-and-decentralised-water-wins/) - This story uses humour and a sci-fi lens to make a serious point: Australia does not mainly suffer from a lack of rain, but from high evaporation and outdated ways of capturing water. Big dams depend on rare “bus-32” rains that arrive in clumps, while smaller, regular rains are often wasted. The practical solution is - [Sustainable Irrigation and Salinity: How Water Management Can Secure Our Future](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/05/sustainable-irrigation-and-salinity-how-water-management-can-secure-our-future/) - This summary draws on lessons from the long history of irrigation to explain why many irrigation societies have failed and what can be done differently today. It outlines how salinity quietly undermines irrigation systems, why modern water management often ignores flushing, and how innovation in irrigation depth control can save water without reducing production. The - [Make the Most of Water: Practical Irrigation Methods for Maximum Growth](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/05/make-the-most-of-water-practical-irrigation-methods-for-maximum-growth/) - Water is often the limiting factor in growing food, especially in dry regions and disadvantaged communities. This article explains a simple, practical method for using water far more effectively. By putting water into the soil instead of on the surface, measuring how deep it travels, and matching irrigation to plant root depth, it is possible - [Watropy: A New Way to Think About Water Scarcity in Australia](https://wickingbed.com/2025/12/17/watropy-a-new-way-to-think-about-water-scarcity-in-australia/) - Australia’s water problem is not simply “not enough rain”. It is that much of our rainfall has a very short useful life because it is lost to evaporation before it can do useful work. This article introduces “watropy” — a practical way to think about water in two dimensions: quantity (litres) and usefulness over time. - [Community Action on Water: Why Harvesting Small Rains Matters](https://wickingbed.com/2025/12/15/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 in small, frequent events that wet the soil and then evaporate, never reaching dams or rivers. Climate change is increasing evaporation and raising the rainfall threshold required for runoff. This article explains why - [Lessons for Australia: Rethinking Irrigation, Water Efficiency, and Basin Rehabilitation](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/05/lessons-for-australia-rethinking-irrigation-water-efficiency-and-basin-rehabilitation/) - Australia faces many of the same water challenges seen in parts of Africa, including unreliable rainfall, water scarcity, and recurring drought. This article explores what Australia can learn from irrigation work in Ethiopia and how those lessons apply to the Murray–Darling Basin. It argues that real gains will come not from expensive infrastructure alone, but - [Innovative Water-Saving Technologies: A Practical Path Beyond Dams and Drought](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/05/innovative-water-saving-technologies-a-practical-path-beyond-dams-and-drought/) - This article summarises Colin Austin’s practical, innovation-driven approach to Australia’s water challenge. It explains why “competence research” often produces incremental gains, while real breakthroughs come from risk, trial, and many failed prototypes. It covers irrigation depth control, self-learning scheduling, micro-flood irrigation, and the unexpected invention pathway that led to wicking beds. The central message is - [Alternative Water Resources for Australia: Water-Harvesting for the Future](https://wickingbed.com/2025/12/17/alternative-water-resources-for-australia-water-harvesting-for-the-future/) - Australia receives vast amounts of rainfall each year, far more than our population actually needs. Yet chronic water shortages persist. This article explains why the problem is not a lack of rain but how we harvest and store it. By understanding evaporation, rainfall patterns, and the difference between large and small rain events, we can - [Publications And Topics On Water, Soil, And Irrigation](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/19/publications-and-topics-on-water-soil-and-irrigation/) - This page lists Colin Austin’s publications across water, irrigation scheduling, salinity, soil, climate change, and practical farm innovation. It includes books, manuals, training material, and a DVD series, covering both technical methods (like adaptive scheduling and micro-flood) and wider policy themes. Use the table to scan by year and topic, and to see how the - [Regenerating Soil Using Improved Flood Irrigation](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/19/regenerating-soil-using-improved-flood-irrigation/) - This article explores how improved flood irrigation and wicking-based systems can regenerate soil, reduce water loss, and restore soil biology under increasing environmental pressure. It traces the journey from degraded soils and salinity to practical, low-cost solutions that work with natural processes. By keeping soil moist—not saturated or dry—these systems rebuild carbon, support fungi, and - [Water, Soil, and Irrigation Publications: Two Decades of Innovation and Research](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/05/water-soil-and-irrigation-publications-two-decades-of-innovation-and-research/) - This page brings together a chronological overview of publications that document a long-term exploration of water, soil, irrigation, and sustainability. Spanning more than two decades, these works trace the development of practical ideas, experimental technologies, and policy critiques aimed at solving water scarcity, improving food production, and managing natural resources more intelligently. Together, they show - [The Gbiota Philosophy 2: Irrigation Scheduling That Saves Water](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/06/the-gbiota-philosophy-2-irrigation-scheduling-that-saves-water/) - Poor irrigation scheduling is one of the biggest hidden causes of wasted water and reduced plant growth. Many growers apply too much or too little water, often at the wrong time, leading to stress, shallow roots, and water loss below the root zone. This chapter explains why common scheduling habits fail, how weather and soil - [Solving Australia’s Water Crisis: Why Systems, Not Rainfall, Are Failing Us](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/05/solving-australias-water-crisis-why-systems-not-rainfall-are-failing-us/) - Australia is often described as “the driest inhabited continent”, yet the raw facts point to a different problem: we receive substantial rainfall per person, but we harvest only a tiny fraction of it. This article explains why water shortages persist, not just through technical limits like evaporation and runoff, but through the way our water - [Soil Carbon, Climate Change And Solutions For Australia: A Scalable Path Beyond Kyoto](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/06/soil-carbon-climate-change-and-solutions-for-australia-a-scalable-path-beyond-kyoto/) - Kyoto is now decades old, yet atmospheric carbon continues to rise. This submission argues that the real issue is not talk, taxes, or trading schemes, but physical action that changes carbon flows in the real world. Plants already pull vast amounts of carbon from the air. The practical challenge is keeping more of that carbon - [Resolving Climate Change II — The Eco-Corporation Model](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/21/resolving-climate-change-ii-the-eco-corporation-model/) - This article argues that climate change is not only an environmental issue but an organisational and economic one. Colin Austin proposes that the next generation of major global companies will be “eco corporations” that manage soil, water, waste, carbon, and food systems at scale. By embedding carbon into soil using approaches such as wicking beds, - [Harvesting Smaller Rains: Water Storage, Wicking Beds, and Anticipatory Irrigation](https://wickingbed.com/2025/12/15/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 often enough—what we lack is a way to capture it and stop it evaporating. This article explains three practical approaches: roof tanks for clean water, percolation holes and micro-dams to soak runoff into - [Micro Flood Irrigation: A Practical Way to Grow More With Less Water](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/05/micro-flood-irrigation-a-practical-way-to-grow-more-with-less-water/) - Micro flood irrigation is a low-cost, high-efficiency way to water plants without the usual problems of under-watering, over-watering, salinity build-up, and nutrient run-off. It works by applying water quickly to a small area, then stopping so the water can soak in and the soil can “breathe” as fresh air is drawn down. The approach mimics - [Anticipatory Irrigation: Using Timing to Save Water and Reduce Evaporation](https://wickingbed.com/2025/12/15/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 against them. Instead of reacting too late or overwatering, this method focuses on getting water deep into the soil when conditions are right. The result is better use of small rainfalls, lower evaporation - [Resolving Climate Change I — How Innovation Can Help](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/21/resolving-climate-change-i-how-innovation-can-help/) - We are not winning the climate change war. Emissions continue to rise, targets have been shaped by politics rather than physics, and the real danger is already visible in the form of stronger floods and deeper droughts that damage soils and threaten food production. This chapter explains why resolving climate change requires more than emission - [The Realities of Global Warming: Why Soil Carbon and Water-Smart Farming Matter](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/05/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 growing global appetite for energy make it unlikely we will win by emissions cuts alone. The overlooked lever is carbon absorption—especially storing plant carbon in soil. This article explains why plants are both - [Innovation, Soil Carbon, And A Practical Plan To Tackle Climate Change](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/05/innovation-soil-carbon-and-a-practical-plan-to-tackle-climate-change/) - This article explains why we are not winning the climate change fight, and why “just cutting emissions” is unlikely to be enough in time. It presents a practical alternative: remove carbon dioxide from the air by changing how we manage organic matter and soils, so more carbon stays locked in the ground. It also outlines - [Resolving Climate Change III — How Science Can Fail Us](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/21/resolving-climate-change-iii-how-science-can-fail-us/) - This article explains why climate change is real and urgent, yet so hard to solve. Colin Austin argues that modern “reductionist” science can miss practical answers when problems are complex, multi-variable, and political. He proposes a systems-and-innovation approach: use soil carbon sequestration as a near-term tool to buy time (about fifty years) while energy storage - [Technology and Politics of Soil Carbon](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/21/technology-and-politics-of-soil-carbon/) - This article explains why Kyoto-style carbon rules have struggled, and why soil carbon needs a different approach. Colin Austin argues that soil carbon (especially through wicking beds) can be one of the few practical “now” solutions while energy technology catches up. He outlines why additionality and permanence don’t fit dynamic soils, why aggregators and the - [Global Warming: Are We Missing the Biggest Carbon Opportunity?](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/05/global-warming-are-we-missing-the-biggest-carbon-opportunity/) - Global warming is usually framed as a problem of reducing human emissions, yet this overlooks the far larger natural carbon cycle. Man-made emissions account for only a small fraction of total carbon flows, while plant growth and decay dominate the system. This article explains why slowing the return of plant carbon to the atmosphere is - [Resolving Climate Change: Why Soil Carbon and Innovation Matter Now](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/05/resolving-climate-change-why-soil-carbon-and-innovation-matter-now/) - Climate change can feel distant until extreme weather turns up at your door. After Queensland floods sent water under my house, I realised the real danger is not only rising average temperatures, but more floods and droughts happening now. This article summarises three short books that explore a practical path: use innovation and systems thinking - [The Gbiota Philosophy: Local Water Harvesting in a Dry Land](https://wickingbed.com/2025/12/17/the-gbiota-philosophy-local-water-harvesting-in-a-dry-land/) - Australia is often described as a country facing severe water shortages, yet the total volume of rainfall far exceeds what we actually use. The real problem is not how much rain falls, but how little of it we capture and how much is lost to evaporation. This article explains the myths and realities of water - [The Future of Food Growing: Water-Efficient Food Growing for a Changing Climate](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/19/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 introduces wicking beds as a practical horticultural system designed to deliver water, air, nutrients, and microbes to plant roots with high efficiency. It also explains why water will become the critical resource for - [Colin Austin Part 2: A Life Of Innovation In Water, Soil, And Sustainable Systems](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/06/colin-austin-part-2-a-life-of-innovation-in-water-soil-and-sustainable-systems/) - Colin Austin is an engineer, inventor, and founder of Moldflow, a software company that helped shift plastics mould design from “gut feel” to science-based engineering. After building one of Australia’s most successful technical software exporters, his focus moved to fresh water, irrigation efficiency, and sustainable growing systems. His work includes micro-flood irrigation, scheduling software that - [Colin Austin: A Life of Innovation in Water, Soil, and Sustainable Systems](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/06/colin-austin-a-life-of-innovation-in-water-soil-and-sustainable-systems/) - This article tells the story of Colin Austin, an Australian engineer and innovator whose work spans advanced computer modelling, irrigation reform, soil regeneration, and water sustainability. From founding a world-leading software company to developing practical solutions for drought, irrigation efficiency, and food security, his journey shows how speculative thinking and real-world experience can reshape how - [The Gbiota Philosophy 4: Local Water Harvesting in Australia](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/06/the-gbiota-philosophy-4-local-water-harvesting-in-australia/) - Australia is often described as a dry continent facing inevitable water shortages, yet the reality is far more complex. On a per-person basis, Australia receives vast amounts of rainfall, much of which is lost through evaporation rather than use. This chapter explores the myths surrounding water scarcity, explains why we harvest so little of our - [Global Warming and Soil Carbon: Practical Actions Communities Can Take Today](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/05/global-warming-and-soil-carbon-practical-actions-communities-can-take-today/) - Global warming is no longer an abstract or distant issue. The real challenge is practical: what can individuals, communities, and farmers do that genuinely makes a difference? Beyond reducing emissions, there is a powerful opportunity to slow climate change by capturing carbon in soil. Plants already absorb vast amounts of carbon dioxide, but most of - [Resolving Climate Change With Wicking Beds: A Practical Plan for Carbon, Water, and Food Security](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/05/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 practical “entry point” for action. It outlines how wicking bed agriculture can grow more food with less water, reduce runoff, and lock meaningful carbon into soil by managing decomposition. It also proposes a - [Climate Change: The Real Obstacles to Global Agreement](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/05/climate-change-the-real-obstacles-to-global-agreement/) - International climate agreements repeatedly stall, not because the science is unclear, but because economic structures, social realities, and political systems make coordinated action extremely difficult. This article explains why emissions reduction is so hard to achieve in both developed and developing nations, why hybrid economies complicate global negotiations, and why domestic political processes often block - [An Improved Agricultural System for Climate Change Resilience and Soil Carbon Capture](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/05/an-improved-agricultural-system-for-climate-change-resilience-and-soil-carbon-capture/) - Climate change is already amplifying floods and droughts, placing growing pressure on global food production systems. This article explains a practical agricultural approach that improves resilience to extreme weather while capturing large amounts of atmospheric carbon in the soil. By shifting how organic matter decomposes, managing water more intelligently, and rewarding farmers for carbon capture, - [Vision for Food Security, Water Shortages, and Climate Change](https://wickingbed.com/2025/12/16/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 atmosphere and embedding it into soil. It explains why most plant carbon normally returns to the air through decay, how soil biology can divert that carbon into stable topsoil, and why moisture control - [The Next Great Change: Soil Carbon, Wicking Beds, and the Future of Food](https://wickingbed.com/2025/12/16/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 than manufactured products. It explains why food, soil, carbon, and health problems are linked, why storing carbon in soil is more practical than storing it underground, and why trees alone cannot solve the - [Soil Maker: A Practical System for Rapid Soil Regeneration Using Biology and Water](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/06/soil-maker-a-practical-system-for-rapid-soil-regeneration-using-biology-and-water/) - Healthy soil is the foundation of food, nutrition, and long-term resilience. Yet much of the world’s soil is being degraded faster than it can regenerate naturally. This article describes a practical soil-making system that accelerates natural soil formation by combining pioneer plants, mycorrhizal fungi, beneficial worms, and controlled moisture using wicking principles. It is not - [Wicking Bed – A New Technology for Adapting to Climate Change](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/05/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 forward. It shows how wicking bed technology can both adapt food production to erratic rainfall and actively remove carbon from the atmosphere. By improving water efficiency, soil biology, and carbon capture, wicking beds - [The Gbiota Philosophy 4: From Subsurface Experiments to Microflood and Wicking Beds](https://wickingbed.com/2026/01/21/the-waterright-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 it used only a small fraction of irrigation water. The real opportunity lay in flood irrigation, the largest water user. This chapter follows a series of speculative experiments—subsurface pipes, a “froth machine”, improved - [Scaling Wicking Beds: Large-Scale Adoption for Food, Water, and Climate Resilience](https://wickingbed.com/2026/03/23/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 reliable food production, lower water use, improved soils, and a practical way to store carbon and recycle organic waste. The challenge is not whether the idea works, but how to make it affordable - [BioPack: Rebuilding Living Soil Through Biology, Fungi, and Practical Regeneration](https://wickingbed.com/2026/03/23/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 combines a living host plant inoculated with mycorrhizal fungi, supportive bacteria, selected minerals, and beneficial worms that help spread the fungi and open the soil. Used correctly—kept moist, gently fed, and minimally disturbed—BioPack - [WickiMix: Turning Organic Waste into Living Soil Through Biology](https://wickingbed.com/2026/03/23/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 diverse soil biology with essential minerals to support plant growth, soil structure, and long-term fertility. Used correctly, WickiMix helps recycle food scraps and weeds, improves seed establishment, and supports healthy root development. The - [Questions and Answers: Practical Wicking Bed Advice](https://wickingbed.com/2026/03/23/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 using wicking beds. It covers greywater reuse, organic matrix choices, decomposition, nitrogen balance, pollination in shade houses, weed control, and water management across seasons. The answers are based on long-term hands-on experience and - [Soil vs Dirt: Why Soil Biology Matters for Wicking Beds](https://wickingbed.com/2026/03/23/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 what turns dead dirt into living soil by building pores and channels that hold water, air, and nutrients. In wicking beds, living soil can store far more useful water than sterile stones. The - [Map](https://wickingbed.com/2024/03/12/map/) - This is a map of the site to direct you to the most appropriate posts - [Library](https://wickingbed.com/2024/07/14/library/) - List of all articles - [Tim Spector](https://wickingbed.com/2024/07/15/tim-spector/) - It is well known that our gut biota plays a major roles in our health. Many researchers, such as Tim Spector, Professor at Imperial College, London explains this in his book Food for Life. Microbes breed and die incredibly fast. Within twenty minutes a new microbe will start to breed but will die after maybe seventy hours. The population continues but the individual microbes die. - [Gut Biology Sources](https://wickingbed.com/2021/07/05/gut-biology-sources/) - Technical references on food, health and gut. - [Community growers](https://wickingbed.com/2022/07/16/community-growers/) - If you looking at this web I assume you are interested in your health and understand that you just cannot be really healthy unless you are eating healthy food. You are probably aware you are low in Magnesium because the majority of the population are low in Magnesium. If you are a female you probably also realise that you could be low in iron. If you are male then you may not have caught up with the sniggering that if you are a sexually active male that one night of happy frolicking can deplete your zinc reserves. That is bad as zinc is important to our immune systems. - [Mother bed](https://wickingbed.com/2021/11/11/mother-bed/) - Gbiota beds were developed to grow plants to feed our guts. Technically they have been successful but may be a bit complex for many people, particularly pregnant ladies and mums who determine gut biology for our future life. Everyone should be able to access healthy gut food at an affordable price so we need to develop a new system for distributing gut food. Experienced growers, either amateur or profession will set up full scale Gbiota beds to grow Gbiota soil. - [Gut health](https://wickingbed.com/2022/03/11/gut-health-4/) - We have two brains, one that lives in our head and another we can call Gertrude that lives largely in our gut. They both work in the same way with trillions of cells which can communicate with each other like a super computer so they have intelligence and can learn. - [Prevention better than cure](https://wickingbed.com/2024/11/04/prevention-better-than-cure-2/) - Two-thirds of the population are overweight, the wrong fat in the wrong place is the root cause of all chronic diseases. Diabetes is the fastest-growing disease with half a billion sufferers and eight million people a year suffering a limb amputation. Heart attacks are the most common cause of death while dementia must be one of the most distressing diseases. Health systems are creaking at the joints with not enough doctors and health workers. A shortage of beds leads to Ambulance ramping. - [Society](https://wickingbed.com/2024/11/01/society/) - Two-thirds of the population are overweight, the wrong fat in the wrong place is the root cause of all chronic diseases. Health systems are creaking at the joints with not enough doctors and health workers. A shortage of beds leads to Ambulance ramping. Governments struggle to maintain an overstretched health system. The costs to our health system are measured in billions of dollars - one of the highest costs to Governments worldwide. Welcome as it may be spending more money on health is not the solution so what is the solution? In one word prevention. - [Your choice](https://wickingbed.com/2025/02/03/your-choice/) - We are at a crossroads and have two options. In option one we can live in a society dominated by marketing hype, where we buy health bars full of sugars and fats because they are promoted as healthy, where we spend a thousand dollars a month to take drugs like Ozemic in an attempt to get slim but find that after a year our bodies have acclimatised so they no longer work. It takes little effort but costs a lot of money and we destroy the natural resources of the Earth. In option 2 we live in a circular economy where we respect the Earth. - [Health Challenge](https://wickingbed.com/2025/02/09/health-challenge/) - Ask around “What is the biggest health challenge?” no not dinosaurs, you are likely to get the very short answer “fat” for the simple reason that the wrong fat in the wrong place is the underlying cause of chronic diseases – obesity, diabetes, heart attacks and dementia. This is a problem across the globe affecting billions of people and costing Government trillions of dollars in health care costs. So how are we going to fix this – for a start Governments should stop telling people to eat less, that has never worked and never will, is technically wrong. - [Meet you](https://wickingbed.com/2022/07/13/meet-you/) - If you live in cloud cuckoo land you may believe that there will be a continuous supply of healthy food way into the future. Dream on. But if you live in the real world you will see we are on a high speed train heading straight for a cliff and that cliff is a major food crisis where the supermarkets are full of food loaded with sugars, fats and carbs which will make us fat and sick. But no real food. - [Introduction to Gbiota](https://wickingbed.com/2021/09/07/introduction-to-gbiota/) - This web is a bit different. We are not trying to sell you something - there are not special offers - buy now before prices jump - or any of that high pressure selling you get on most web sites. - [Serious think about food](https://wickingbed.com/2024/08/23/serious-think-about-food/) - Has the world gone mad? We have mega companies spending billions of dollars on advertising so we buy food that makes us fat and sick and die before our time. Then we have other big companies that spend billions of dollars on advertising so we buy pills that are supposed to stop us getting fat and sick and dying before our time. So I wrote a hip-hop E-book called ‘A serious think about food’. This hip-hop E-book is like - [Gut health](https://wickingbed.com/2021/11/13/gut-health-3/) - Our gut is one of the most important organs in our body – made up of trillions of cells that communicate with each other – it has real intelligence – our gut brain – which controls much of our body functions. You simply cannot be healthy without a healthy gut and that means you have to feed it and that is what Gbiota food is all about. - [Time travel](https://wickingbed.com/2022/03/31/time-travel/) - The aim of the Gbiota technology is to replenish our gut with living beneficial biota and the food it needs to thrive. Gut biota has a short life so it is important to eat plants while there are fresh, which means shortly after harvesting. The Gbiota Biota Biobox system allows almost everyone to have the health benefits of genuinely fresh food with the beneficial biota even if they have limited space, growing expertise or time. - [ecobalance](https://wickingbed.com/2021/10/03/ecobalance/) - Why our gut brain is so important Our gut is one of the most important organs in our body. It contains trillions of cells which communicate with each, like in a supercomputer, to form a real brain with intelligence. (see references) It controls our appetite, manufactures the complex chemicals needed to replace our body parts as they wear or age and host much of our immune system. It is not actually part of us but is really important. - [Get started](https://wickingbed.com/2021/09/24/get-started/) - Life, even our modern sophisticated life, is totally dependant on the microscopic biota that are virtually everywhere on earth – but particularly in the soil making inert minerals available and in our gut helping us digest our food. But they do much more than that. - [Fire, water and technology](https://wickingbed.com/2023/12/26/fire-water-and-technology/) - Fire, water and technology There is an old saying that fire and water are good servants but bad masters, we must now add technology. - [Try it](https://wickingbed.com/2023/12/27/try-it-2/) - Just try it - it is neither expensive or difficult I am proposing that you make your own soil from food and organic waste, add mineral and microbes to create a soil teaming with beneficial microbes and nutrients and grow plants and eat them while fresh. This will increase your chances of a long and healthy life. - [Join help](https://wickingbed.com/2023/12/27/join-help/) - Explains the various membership levels and how to join - [Food crisis](https://wickingbed.com/2024/04/17/food-crisis/) - Food is one of the major threats to humanity, not an absolute lack of food - we produce more than enough energy food, carbs, fats and sugars, to feed the entire world now and well into the future. Right now our food is deficient in essential minerals but even more important is food to feed out gut-brain which regulates our appetite and hosts much of our immune system. Across the globe people are getting fat and sick, and it is not simply because we overeat. The real reason is that our gut-brain senses these deficiencies, decides we need to store more fat and sends out signals so we overeat. - [Rethinking food and diabetes](https://wickingbed.com/2024/02/26/rethinking-food-and-diabetes/) - We have known for at least twenty years that Diabetes gets serious when fat levels in the Pancreas increase preventing the Pancreas from making insulin. All the experts say the solution is to go on a diet and reduce food input. This is so instinctively obvious, you are fat so eat less, and is the accepted view of the experts in the field so how could it possibly be wrong? - [Community food](https://wickingbed.com/2021/11/19/community-food/) - Let me tell you a story about food. In our modern society all we seem to want as adults is a catch phrase ‘Make plum pudding tasty again’ or better a photo on their smart phone with a catchy caption. - [Anthropocene](https://wickingbed.com/2021/08/03/anthropocene/) - What should I eat so I am fit and healthy - what can eight billion people eat so they are fit and healthy and what will my great grand kids be able to eat so they are fit and healthy. - [Food, health and wealth for all](https://wickingbed.com/2024/03/25/food-health-and-wealth-for-all/) - I present a plan that will lead to a better life so we and our grandkids can live a happier and healthier life - the plan is about future food which affects us both physically and physiologically. Right now we are facing a health crisis, both physical and psychological, from deficiencies in our food system. In the future we face an even greater crisis from climate change, degradation of our soils, and exploitation of nutrients. - [Local gut food](https://wickingbed.com/2022/01/17/local-gut-food/) - It is about breeding beneficial biology in the soil and in the guts of the creatures that live in the soil. This biology enters the plants which we eat together with a plentiful supply of the food to feed the biology. These may all be packed inside a cabbage but the cabbage is purely the packaging for the biology. It is not about selling cabbages, or selling anything for that matter, it is about showing people how they can grow the beneficial biology by recycling waste. - [Health starts in the soil](https://wickingbed.com/2022/08/22/health-starts-in-the-soil-2/) - Every day we here stories of doom and gloom about food, price hikes from floods and droughts, problems with the supply chain from Covid, lack of nutrients and beneficial biota leading to diabetes, heart attacks and dementia. It all sounds pretty miserable so why not do something about it. Here we are focused on solutions. - [Gbiota box story](https://wickingbed.com/2021/09/22/gbiota-box-story/) - Over hundreds of thousands of years we have evolved a gut brain that automatically looks after us, without us even thinking about it - and it does it much better than weighing micro grams of minerals. - [Friendly bugs](https://wickingbed.com/2024/10/19/friendly-bugs/) - Our bodies have an intelligent control system which regulates our bodies, particularly our appetite and immune system. Our gut is an integral part of this control system. If we have the right blend of species in our gut we can expect a long and healthy life, if we have a poor blend of species we get fat and sick. - [Health - prevention first](https://wickingbed.com/2024/11/04/health-prevention-first/) - Across the globe, we are suffering from an epidemic of chronic or non-infectious diseases. We know that these chronic diseases are caused by the wrong fat in the wrong place and it is widely assumed that this is because we are eating too much sugary fatty foods. While it is true that we do have to consume an excess of sugary fatty foods this is not the cause. How much and where we store fat is decided by our intelligent control system which regulates our bodies. - [Essence](https://wickingbed.com/2024/11/22/essence/) - Chronic diseases, overweight, diabetes, heart attacks and dementia are the major health issue of our time. They are caused by the wrong fat in the wrong place. Conventional thinking is that this is caused by eating more than we use, the calorie balance theory. This theory I almost universally promoted and is the accepted norm. It does explain how we get fat and sick but does not explain why. Why is because we have an intelligent controls system which regulates our bodies. If it senses any deficiencies it will send out hunger signals so we eat more. - [Changing the Health Paradigm](https://wickingbed.com/2024/12/13/changing-the-health-paradigm/) - We are living longer, thanks to major advances in medical science. In the past people died, often when young, from infectious diseases now we die predominantly from chronic or non-infectious diseases with three out of four people dying from a chronic disease. We are in the midst of an epidemic of chronic diseases - overweight, diabetes, heart attacks, strokes and dementia. Medical science may keep us alive for a long time but far worse is that we may live for a long time with poor health. Our life span may be increasing but our health span is not. - [Learning plan](https://wickingbed.com/2024/02/28/learning-plan/) - There are hundreds of posts and videos on this site. This post arranges the key posts into a convenient learning schedule - [Compost - Bin or Bury?](https://wickingbed.com/2024/04/02/compost-bin-or-bury/) - It is just a sad fact of life that our modern food system is not working the way it should, which means reduced health span (the length of time we are fit and healthy – not the same as life span) and is the underlying cause of the modern epidemic of chronic of non-infectious diseases. The underlying cause is the wrong fat in the wrong place which raises the question of why our bodies should store fat in the wrong places – or simply, why do we get fat? The common answer, from both the lay public and experts in the field, would be that we eat too much and that is simply not consistent with the facts. - [Feed your gut brain](https://wickingbed.com/2024/06/05/feed-your-gut-brain-2/) - We need the right sort of microbes in our gut to be healthy. The microbes in our gut communicate with each other to form our intelligent control system which regulates our bodies, particularly how much and what sort of food we want to eat. - [Does it work](https://wickingbed.com/2024/04/30/does-it-work/) - Overweight, diabetes, heart attacks, and dementia all have a common underlying cause - the wrong fat in the wrong place. This is not because we have turned into little piggies and overeat, it is because our modern chemical industrial food system is deficient in phytonutrients and beneficial microbes. - [Riddle](https://wickingbed.com/2024/09/13/riddle/) - Look around the world and back over time and you will see the great riddle of three communities. We see low tech communities with a poor food system, lack of hygiene and medical support where people die before their natural life from infectious diseases. This is clearly bad We see rich high tech communities with a sophisticated food system, good hygiene and medical support and where people die before their natural life from non-infectious or chronic diseases. - [Fake food](https://wickingbed.com/2025/02/10/fake-food/) - An Introduction to the Gbiota Movement for a Healthier Future With eight billion people on Earth, food production has dramatically increased, yet humanity now faces two significant threats: climate change and the degradation of soil due to industrial farming practices. His has led to an epidemic of of chronic diseases linked to poor nutrition. The key to combating both lies in an often-overlooked factor—microbes. This article dives into the intricate world of gut biota and its influence on health, weight, and disease prevention. It highlights Gbiota technology, a sustainable system aimed at breeding beneficial microbes - [Introducing the Gbiota technology](https://wickingbed.com/2024/12/30/introducing-the-gbiota-technology/) - The Gbiota technology breeds beneficial microbes in "Wickimix," a specially enriched soil, for growing nutrient-packed plants that enhance your gut biota that supports natural appetite regulation, combats chronic diseases, and fosters overall well-being. We want to make this as widely available as possible to all people and here is our plan. We train and license skilled growers. They load a mix of organic waste, minerals, and inoculants into raised garden beds together with open mesh Gbiota baskets, like supermarket baskets, and plant with a spectrum of plants. - [Gbiota introduction](https://wickingbed.com/2025/01/25/gbiota-introduction/) - What is Gbiota? Gbiota is a social movement that aims to create a thriving, sustainable society with a food system designed for long, healthy lives. It emphasizes recycling over depleting Earth's resources and prioritizes community well-being over corporate profits. In essence, it envisions a society that is equitable and enjoyable to live in—both now and for future generations. - [Support our gut health movement](https://wickingbed.com/2024/02/19/support-our-gut-health-movement/) - [Soil for Wicking Beds: Biology, Minerals and Health](https://wickingbed.com/2025/09/29/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 as it should be, because soil is the most important factor in ensuring wicking beds work properly. Let me start by saying that I am not interested in growing healthy plants. I am interested - [The Gbiota project](https://wickingbed.com/2024/02/14/the-gbiota-project/) - Overview of the Gbiota strategy - [Join the Revolution: the Fight for Human Health](https://wickingbed.com/2025/12/17/join-the-revolution-the-fight-for-human-health/) - This article introduces what I believe is the next major revolution shaping human health and survival: gut biology. While technology has transformed manufacturing, transport, and communication, it has also created deep social and environmental stress. At the same time, modern food systems have stripped food of minerals, phytonutrients, and living biology. By reconnecting soil, food, - [The Doctor and the Water Crisis: How Local Solutions Can End a Man-Made Shortage](https://wickingbed.com/2019/01/22/the-doctor-and-the-water-crisis-how-local-solutions-can-end-a-man-made-shortage/) - This article explains why the so-called water crisis is largely man-made and how communities can manage water successfully using simple, local technologies. Drawing on real experience from an eco-village near Gin Gin, it shows that rainfall is usually sufficient if it is captured and used wisely. The article introduces a story-based approach, “The Doctor and - [Why Water Tanks Matter: Rethinking the Marsden Report and Short-Term Water Policy](https://wickingbed.com/2019/01/22/why-water-tanks-matter-rethinking-the-marsden-report-and-short-term-water-policy/) - The debate over water security often suffers from short-term economic thinking that ignores long-term risk, climate change, and system resilience. The discussion around the Marsden Report and household water tanks is a clear example. While the report claims tanks are expensive and inefficient, a closer look shows these conclusions rely on flawed assumptions. In an - [“We’re Not Running Out of Water?” — Politics and Queensland’s Drying Future](https://wickingbed.com/2019/01/22/were-not-running-out-of-water-politics-and-queenslands-drying-future/) - This article examines the tension between political reassurance and scientific reality in Queensland’s water debate. While confident public statements may calm concern in the short term, climate science indicates a long-term shift toward greater aridity. The challenge is not spin, but adaptation. Recognising climate change and adopting arid-zone water technologies is essential if Queensland is - [Reversing Type 2 Diabetes the Yangtou Way](https://wickingbed.com/2019/12/17/reversing-type-2-diabetes-the-yangtou-way/) - Many people are told Type 2 diabetes is permanent and will only worsen, but that message is often wrong. This article explains the Yangtou approach: first restore insulin sensitivity by reducing stored excess fuel, then build a lifestyle that prevents relapse. Using continuous glucose monitoring, intermittent fasting, food timing, movement, stress control, and gut-supporting food - [Gin Gin State School Wicking Bed Project: Educational Gardening for Schools](https://wickingbed.com/2019/12/11/gin-gin-state-school-wicking-bed-project-water-wise-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 beds. Supported by Waterright wicking bed technologies, the project created productive garden beds that conserve water and improve soil fertility. It served as a pilot for schools and community groups interested in sustainable - [De-Boggling China: Food, Farming, and Health in a Rapidly Changing World](https://wickingbed.com/2019/12/15/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 herbs, medicinal plants, and vegetables that people could grow in wicking beds to improve health. China is changing at a mind-boggling pace: soaring wealth, massive manufacturing regions, huge migration, and growing diabetes exist - [The Coach Scheme for Wicking Bed Technology](https://wickingbed.com/2019/12/16/wicking-bed-technology-coach-scheme-colin-austin/) - This article explains the Coach Scheme for wicking bed technology: why it exists, how it works, and what coaches do. It traces the development of wicking beds from early soil and irrigation experiments through drought-driven adoption, commercial misuse, and the shift toward food and health outcomes. The scheme keeps the technology open for private use, - [Stay at Our Gbiota Village: Practical Support for Diabetes Recovery](https://wickingbed.com/2019/12/17/stay-at-our-gbiota-village-practical-support-for-diabetes-recovery/) - Spend a few weeks at our Gbiota village and improve your chances of reversing Type 2 diabetes. You will be supported by qualified doctors, a nutritionist, and health trainers, while eating scheduled meals free of artificial toxins. You will be coached in intermittent fasting and exercise, and you will learn practical skills in the gardens - [Diabetes and the Eco-Village: Wicking Beds, Minerals, and Practical Recovery](https://wickingbed.com/2019/12/17/diabetes-and-the-eco-village-wicking-beds-minerals-and-practical-recovery/) - Type 2 diabetes is when insulin struggles to move sugar out of the bloodstream and into the muscles and organs. This article links diabetes to practical causes and solutions: trace minerals (especially chromium and vanadium), gut biology, food quality, and the habits that drive appetite. It also explains why an eco-village can help people change - [What an Ordinary Chinese Town Reveals About Diet, Gut Health, and Aging Well](https://wickingbed.com/2019/12/17/what-an-ordinary-chinese-town-reveals-about-diet-gut-health-and-aging-well/) - This article describes careful observation — “gawking” — in Jiangkou, an unremarkable town in inland China, and what it reveals about health, aging, and diet. By watching everyday life rather than chasing theories, patterns emerge around gut biology, fermented foods, daily movement, social structure, and food culture. The lesson is not a single diet rule, - [Letter From China: Fermented Food, Gut Health, and Why We Age So Differently](https://wickingbed.com/2019/12/17/letter-from-china-fermented-food-gut-health-and-why-we-age-so-differently/) - I came to China to look for better ways to make fermented foods that support gut biology, because gut biology is a key part of the fight against diabetes and similar chronic illness. At first, I thought the trip would be a failure. Then I noticed something I could not ignore: in rural areas there - [China Floods and Droughts: A Wicking Bed Research Proposal for Climate Resilience](https://wickingbed.com/2019/01/05/china-floods-and-droughts-a-wicking-bed-research-proposal-for-climate-resilience/) - China and Australia share a similar challenge: major food regions are being hit by stronger flood and drought cycles, now made worse by climate change and topsoil loss. This proposal outlines a practical farming shift that can reduce water use, lift productivity, cut nutrient pollution, and store more carbon in soil. The idea is simple: - [The Future of Agriculture: Adapting Farming to Climate Change](https://wickingbed.com/2019/12/10/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. Climate change, shifting rainfall, and rising evaporation are reshaping how we grow food. It highlights practical, low-tech, and biological solutions: wicking beds, soil regeneration, micro-hydrology, and local water harvesting. Combining resilient soil biology - [Global Warming and Government Policy](https://wickingbed.com/2019/01/22/global-warming-and-government-policy/) - This article examines the contrast between Australia’s increasingly proactive water policy and the far less convincing response to global warming. While there is growing recognition that water must be managed at a national level, climate change policy remains cautious and reactive. The piece argues that global warming demands a dual response: long-term emissions reduction and - [The Healthy Food Association: Growing Together for Better Health](https://wickingbed.com/2019/12/10/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. It explains how members can share experiences, gain support, and learn about sustainable growing techniques like wicking beds. The Association emphasizes education, collaboration, and voluntary participation, providing guidance on food production without commercial - [Minister’s Reply on Water Reform and Water-Saving Innovation (2006)](https://wickingbed.com/2021/01/05/ministers-reply-on-water-reform-and-water-saving-innovation-2006/) - In May 2006, Malcolm Turnbull MP replied to Colin Austin’s letter about Australia’s water policy and new technologies to harvest more rain. The reply outlines the Australian Government’s commitment to national water reform through the National Water Initiative, alongside funding support via the $2 billion Australian Government Water Fund and the Water Smart Australia program. - [Open Letter to the Prime Minister: A Climate Strategy Using Soil Carbon and Wicking Beds](https://wickingbed.com/2022/01/05/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 idea is to help developing countries—starting with China—adopt wicking bed and “sponge bed” growing systems that save water, grow food reliably, and lock carbon into soils. The proposal asks the Australian Government to - [Secure Water in the Murray–Darling Basin: The Facts and the Hard Choices](https://wickingbed.com/2021/12/17/secure-water-in-the-murray-darling-basin-the-facts-and-the-hard-choices/) - The Murray–Darling system has been over-allocated for years, and there is simply not enough water to satisfy every user and still protect the river environment. This article sets out the core facts: why the numbers matter, why difficult decisions cannot be avoided, and why better technology and balanced policy are essential. Water belongs to Australians, - [Invitation To Join International Research On Soil Carbon, Water, And Climate Resilience](https://wickingbed.com/2019/01/05/invitation-to-join-international-research-on-soil-carbon-water-and-climate-resilience/) - Climate change is driving a tougher flood-and-drought cycle, and the normal tools are not reducing atmospheric carbon fast enough. This invitation outlines a practical research proposal: modify agriculture so it can absorb around 10 billion tonnes of atmospheric carbon each year while also improving food reliability. The approach focuses on controlled decomposition of imported organic - [Response to Green Paper on Climate Change and the Carbon Trading Scheme](https://wickingbed.com/2019/01/05/response-to-green-paper-on-climate-change-and-the-carbon-trading-scheme/) - This submission argues that climate change cannot be solved by emissions cuts alone, especially while rapidly developing countries expand. It proposes a parallel strategy: remove carbon from the atmosphere by capturing it in soil, using water-harvesting growing systems (including wicking beds) that drive microbiology to bond carbon into stable soil. The paper focuses on China - [Dear Malcolm: Proposal to Help Solve Australia’s Water Crisis](https://wickingbed.com/2019/01/05/dear-malcolm-proposal-to-help-solve-australias-water-crisis/) - This short letter sets out a straightforward problem and a practical next step. Australia receives an enormous volume of rainfall overall, yet our conventional dams-and-catchments approach captures only a tiny fraction of what falls. Colin Austin argues that the technical case for harvesting more “missed” rain is widely accepted, but adoption is stalled because no - [Eco-Village Accommodation In Queensland: Heritage Stay At Kookaburra Park](https://wickingbed.com/2019/01/05/eco-village-accommodation-in-queensland-heritage-stay-at-kookaburra-park/) - Looking for a slower, healthier way to live (even if only for a week)? Kookaburra Park Eco Village offers a calm heritage stay in the Queensland bush, just minutes from Gin Gin and under an hour to Bundaberg and the coast. You get your own private accommodation, while still being close to village life—organic food, - [News from China: Scaling Wicking Beds for Food Security and Climate Action](https://wickingbed.com/2019/01/22/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 change. It outlines collaboration with Australian and Chinese research institutions, early trial sites, and efforts to engage governments in funding large-scale solutions. While the work has been demanding, strong support from growers around - [Queensland Floods — What Role Does Climate Change Play?](https://wickingbed.com/2019/01/21/queensland-floods-what-role-does-climate-change-play/) - The Queensland floods of 2010–2011 raised a hard question: was this simply another natural flood, or a sign of a changing climate? From personal experience near Bundaberg, this article explores how extra greenhouse energy can amplify flood and drought cycles even before average temperatures rise much. It also argues that the best near-term response is - [Wanted: Regenerative Farmers to Grow Food for Health, Soil, and Climate](https://wickingbed.com/2019/01/22/wanted-regenerative-farmers-to-grow-food-for-health-soil-and-climate/) - This announcement is a call to regenerative farmers who want to grow food that supports real human health while restoring soil and ecosystems. It explains why modern industrial food systems create poor health outcomes, how traditional biologically rich farming avoided many chronic diseases, and how modern technology can now combine the best of both worlds. - [Queensland’s Water Crisis and the 2006 State Election](https://wickingbed.com/2019/01/22/queenslands-water-crisis-and-the-2006-state-election/) - In the lead-up to the 2006 Queensland State Election, water emerged as one of the biggest public concerns. This short update explains why the “Queensland water crisis” is not only about rainfall, but about how water is captured, managed, and governed. It introduces “The Doctor and the Water Crisis” as a plain-language, story-based way to - [The Howard Turnbull Water Plan](https://wickingbed.com/2019/01/22/the-howard-turnbull-water-plan/) - This article reflects on the Howard Turnbull Water Plan for the Murray–Darling Basin and places it in the wider context of Australia’s long struggle to reform water management. While the plan was welcomed with optimism, history shows that enthusiasm alone does not guarantee meaningful change. True reform requires moving beyond state-based thinking, embracing innovation, and - [Climate Change and Al Gore](https://wickingbed.com/2019/01/22/climate-change-and-al-gore/) - This article reflects on the global impact of Al Gore’s work on climate change, particularly his film An Inconvenient Truth. It argues that while political outcomes may vary, the film played a critical role in shifting public awareness and framing climate change as a serious global risk. The piece highlights how public conviction has grown - [What Traditional Food Systems in Yunnan Teach Us About Health](https://wickingbed.com/2019/01/28/what-traditional-food-systems-in-yunnan-teach-us-about-health/) - This article is a practical travel reflection written from Shenzhen after a trip to Yunnan. The “official” reason for the visit is to look at how traditional farming and soil might relate to human health. The real reason is simpler: Yunnan is stunning. Along the way the author uses a deliberately unscientific method called “gawking” - [Soil Biology: The Key to Healthy Wicking Soils](https://wickingbed.com/2025/09/29/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 own healthy soil from what would otherwise be waste. It is only needed in small quantities to avoid excessive transport costs. The three key elements of soil are the chemistry, the physics and - [Soils for Wicking Beds](https://wickingbed.com/2025/11/30/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 complex soil biology which can release nutrients and trace elements in the soil so the plants are rich in phytochemicals to improve health. This article shows how even poor soil can be regenerated - [Healthy Food Association: Registry of Coaches](https://wickingbed.com/2019/12/16/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, and the registry helps connect members with people who can offer practical guidance. Coaches are responsible for the accuracy of their information, and any paid work is arranged directly between the coach and - [Types of Wicking Beds for Healthy Soil & Plants](https://wickingbed.com/2025/09/28/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 the soil where the plant is growing. Here we review the various systems and conclude that the soil is the most important factor. Wicking Flower Pots A flower pot sitting in a saucer - [Gbiota Tri Box - background](https://wickingbed.com/2023/09/18/gbiota-tri-box-intro/) - Modern food is full of energy but is low in the nutrients which feed our gut brain which acts as our intelligent control system which regulates, among many things, our appetite and how much and where we store fat. Scientist have know this for over seventy years. When people in Holland were starved in the war, this trained their intelligent control system to store every bit of fat it could, so they became fat, when the war was over. - [Good men](https://wickingbed.com/2023/08/21/good-men/) - I full understand that there are many problems with our current food system, lack of critical mineral like magnesium, iron for women, zinc for men, B12 for vegetarians etc. But there is nothing more important than feeding our control system, our gut brain, which regulates our bodies. This dwarfs the other issues however important they may seem. - [The Gut Brain Revolution: Growing to Prevent Modern Disease](https://wickingbed.com/2023/06/19/newsletter-19th-june-23/) - Growing food to feed your gut brain Colin Austin 19th June 23 Technology - benefiting the community The difference between humans and the Dodo is that humans are a bit better at adapting to change. But since James Watt developed a functioning steam engine right up to the latest in artificial intelligence or quantum computing we seemed to have been a bit overwhelmed. It would seem to me axiomatic that all those great advanced in technology should work for the benefit of humans overall rather than make a handful of mega corporations, and those who own or control them excessively rich. - [Energy](https://wickingbed.com/2022/05/05/energy/) - [Health span](https://wickingbed.com/2022/11/14/health-span/) - We are living longer - our life span is increasing, but our health span - how long we stay fit and active is decreasing - why? The answer lies in our gut brain. If our gut brain senses that we are missing crucial nutrients in our food it will send out signals, like the hunger hormone ghrelin, telling us to eat more and if our food is low in those critical hormones and microbes, it will keep on making as hungry so we eat more until we get fat and sick. We get fat and sick simply because our gut brain is telling us too keep on eating because we are lacking critical nutrients - not because we are little piggies. - [Become a Healthy Food Ambassador](https://wickingbed.com/2024/08/31/recycle/) - The global food crisis is not some threat for the future, it is here right now, it is not just about poor people starving in some remote country it is about people in rich countries suffering from chronic diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, heart attacks and dementia. It is man-man made, if you face having a leg amputated it is a direct result of the food crisis – the wrong sort of food from our modern food system. - [Applying Technology](https://wickingbed.com/2024/09/03/disease/) - With all our modern technology and automated production capacity, we should only need to work a couple of days a week to have everything we need and live a healthy life right to the end of our natural life. But we are not so what went wrong? There is nothing wrong with the technology - we just don’t know how to apply it for the benefit of the community. - [The Great Food War](https://wickingbed.com/2024/06/14/the-great-food-war/) - Will the power of mega-corporations that control our food system reign supreme leaving the community fat and sick and destroying civilisation as we know it as the supply of essential minerals is exhausted or will the community rise up and unite so common sense prevails? Let me start with the story of the mouse and the elephant. - [The plan](https://wickingbed.com/2024/09/16/the-plan-2/) - There are two problems. The short-term problem is that our current food system is deficient in the microbes which form our gut biome and essential minerals which have led to an epidemic of chronic or non-infectious diseases, obesity, diabetes, heart attacks and dementia. The longer-term problem is our current food system relies on the exploitation of finite resources, particularly water, which is aggravated by climate change and shortages of key minerals which are being exhausted. Phosphorous is the most urgent. - [Transforming Parent Soils for Healthy Wicking Beds](https://wickingbed.com/2025/09/29/transforming-parent-soils-for-healthy-wicking-beds/) - Parent soils, such as clay, sands and potting mixes can be transformed into soils suitable for wicking beds. Here we start by looking at what characteristics we should aim for. The importance of biology Most people understand that the current system of factory farming and processing food is unhealthy - too much fat, sugars and - [Soil Journey: How Nature Creates Fertile Soil](https://wickingbed.com/2025/09/29/soil-journey-how-nature-creates-fertile-soil/) - Where to start regenerating soil? Well nature has been making soil for a few billion years so let us see what we can learn by taking a trip from the equator to the poles. The equatorial zone Despite the fact that equatorial soil gives the impression of being rich they are really very poor. The - [Food for health](https://wickingbed.com/2020/02/27/food-for-health/) - Gbiotafood was developed to provide the trace minerals and beneficial biology essential to health but missing in our modern food system. - [How to Replenish Your Gut Microbes](https://wickingbed.com/2025/09/30/how-to-replenish-your-gut-microbes/) - The microbes in our gut are critical for our health but in an effort to feed the ever increasing population and avoid infectious diseases we have adopted a food system which no longer breeds the beneficial microbes we need. But we can modify the traditional way we bred microbes by carefully controlling the conditions so - [Growers and gut biota](https://wickingbed.com/2024/02/05/growers-and-gut-biota/) - Microbes breed in the soil, enter plants which act as natural pre and pro biotics which we eat to form our gut biota. This process is the result of millions of years of evolution so we know it works but there are also harmful microbes, pathogens which lead to infectious diseases and can make us sick or kill us. Beneficial microbes form our gut brain which regulates our bodies, specifically ensuring we store the right amount of fat in the right places leading to a long and healthy life span. - [Gbiota boxes - made easy](https://wickingbed.com/2024/03/18/gbiota-boxes-made-easy/) - Developing a simple Gbiota box for people living in apartments has been the focus of my development work - Why? The world is very different to when I was born. Back then infectious diseases were the biggest health issue. We were obsessed with germs, they had to be eliminated at all costs and adopting a chemical approach, swapping manure with chemical fertilisers, toxic sprays and antibiotics we have been successful in killing them. - [Eco-balance](https://wickingbed.com/2024/04/10/eco-balance/) - Humans have evolved to be naturally not fat - it is not good in the survival stakes. Our bodies naturally sense when we are full and our gut manufactures hormones which make us feel full and stop eating. So-called obesity drugs, like Ozempic, are humans attempt to simulate the actions of our natural hormones. But modern food is deficient in both certain trace minerals and more importantly the microbes that form our gut-brain. - [Gbiota overview](https://wickingbed.com/2024/07/01/gbiota-overview/) - Pick and eat plants grown in living soil - that is the way to feed your gut-brain which controls your appetite and how much fat your body stores. The wrong fat in the wrong place is the underlying cause of the modern epidemic of chronic diseases, obesity, diabetes, heart attacks and dementia. This article is an overview of how the Gbiota system works. - [Thrive and survive](https://wickingbed.com/2024/08/13/thrive-and-survive-2/) - At the start, the earth was just a dead inert rock. Then the microbiota appeared, we don’t know from where, but they broke down the rocks making the nutrients in the rocks bio-available creating soil. Plants grew capturing energy from the sun, then animals and life on earth exploded. Humanoid creatures appeared but they were small and puny. They developed a gut, full of trillions of biota which communicated with each other to provide intelligence, just like a modern computer, which regulated what and how much they wanted to eat and also taught their immune system. - [A compassionate society](https://wickingbed.com/2025/03/30/17373/) - Life is good, we are living longer and the supermarkets are full of healthy food. Sounds great but is it true? My daughter, when she was about seven taught me a valuable lesson. She said she believed in Father Christmas because if she stopped believing she may not get any presents. But the other kids around her told her that Father Christmas was not real and it was mum and dad that bought the presents so she stopped believing. There is a very real problem with our food. - [Energy and Regeneration in Wicking Beds](https://wickingbed.com/2025/09/15/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 hydrocarbons but lack the complex chemicals needed to regenerate our bodies are much more complex. Our bodies are in a continuous state of regeneration, we may not realise this is happening as there - [Ecosystems](https://wickingbed.com/2024/11/18/ecosystems/) - We must create an ecosystem, a food ecosystem in which humans can thrive. Charles Darwin taught us that creatures evolve to thrive in their local environment. Humans now have the technology to change our environment, we must use our technology to create an environment where humans can thrive. Sure our immediate focus is combating the current epidemic, but we won’t do that with some-short term fix. We have to create the ecosystem, the food ecosystem in which humans can thrive. Join us in this community benefit movement putting people ahead of profits. - [Chronic disease](https://wickingbed.com/2024/11/12/chronic-disease/) - Gbiota is a community benefit organisation aiming to prevent the current epidemic of chronic diseases, overweight, diabetes, heart attacks and dementia. These are all caused by the wrong fat in the wrong place. We all have a highly sophisticated intelligent control system, our gut-brain, which regulates our appetite so we don’t overeat and get fat. It works incredibly well but we need to feed it gut-brain food – plants eaten while fresh, grown in soil teaming with beneficial microbes.gbiotabox Gbiota shows you how to either grow or buy gut brain-food. - [Health Professionals](https://wickingbed.com/2025/03/10/health-professionals/) - Why is it that some people are fit and healthy, enjoy a long health span with hardly a visit to the doctor while despite the sophistication of modern medical research does the epidemic of chronic diseases continues to increase causing a great deal of personal grief and costing health systems trillions of dollars? Why is it that some people are slim, fit and healthy and others are fat and sick? Maybe it is time to take a moment out of the rush of modern living and have a deep think. - [hormones](https://wickingbed.com/2025/03/14/hormones/) - Hormones that control our appetite - [Understanding your gut-brain](https://wickingbed.com/2025/03/27/understanding-yuor-gut-brain/) - We show the process of - breeding beneficial microbes in organic - growing plants in this soil using the flood and flush system so the soil breathes and soil blood (like our blood) is regularly circulated - the microbes enter the plants which we eat to form our gut biome - the microbes sense if the available food is deficient, when it will send our hormones to make us crave the missing food, and if there is sufficient send out other hormones so we feel satisfied and stop eating. It worked well until we changed our food system to produce hygienic but inert foods. - [The Gbiota Story](https://wickingbed.com/2025/07/16/the-gbiota-story/) - The Gbiota Story - [The Gbiota Mission](https://wickingbed.com/2025/06/22/the-gbiota-mission-2/) - The Essence of Gbiota Breed beneficial microbes in living soil. Grow plants in that soil and eat them fresh so the microbes reach your gut alive. Because microbes have short lifespans, freshness matters—hence growing at home. Create a Social Movement Most people care about community wellbeing. When individuals breed their own microbes and feel better, - [Changing the system](https://wickingbed.com/2025/06/05/changing-the-system/) - We all want to live a long and healthy life, free of disease. That depends very much on the food we eat. We need food for energy. Our modern food system provides us with abundant energy food. We need to build and replace our body parts as they age and wear. This requires many complex chemicals which need a broad spectrum of nutrients and vitamins. Our modern food system barely scrapes a pass. Gut-brain food We need food to feed and replenish the microbes in our gut. Our modern system fails here. - [Innovation is a funny business](https://wickingbed.com/2025/03/27/innovation-is-a-funny-business/) - Let us look at the story of food and health. In the past, and that means going back a million years to the first humanoids there was no epidemic of chronic diseases like obesity, diabetes, heart attack and dementia. These are all caused by the wrong fat in the wrong place and we had evolved a very effective system in which our gut would sense if there were any deficiencies in our diet and send out a hormone complex so we craved the needed food. When satisfied it would send out other hormones saying stop eating you are full. - [Food Change](https://wickingbed.com/2025/03/18/food-change/) - For the first few billion years the earth was just a barren rock. Then microbes appeared, they broke down the rocks and made soil which led to plants flourishing. Next came animals that ate the plants which were full of microbes so some microbes ended up in the guts of these animals These microbes digested the animal’s food, manufacturing the spectrum of complex chemicals the animals needed and regulating appetite, sending out specific hormones to make the animals hungry f when they were low in a particular food and yet other hormones so they would stop eating when full. - [Managing Change](https://wickingbed.com/2025/03/18/managing-change/) - The third mega-change If you think the world is going through a difficult period you are right. We are going through our third mega-change and managing this change is not going to be easy. But we can learn from looking at the two previous mega changes. Mega change no 1 - Fire and cooking The biggest change was the use of fire for cooking over a million years ago. The results were dramatic - more nutrients led to bigger brains and smaller guts. Fire changed us humans creating a new, very different creature. Humans became the dominant creature. - [Superclinics](https://wickingbed.com/2025/03/12/superclinics/) - We are facing an epidemic of chronic diseases, obesity, diabetes, heart attacks and dementia. In the real world people just carry on with their normal life until their health deteriorates to the point where they need to go to a doctor who tries to cure them. This is at great personal burden to the individual and financial cost to our health system. Prevention is better than cure. I am suggesting setting up a network of prevention super clinics. The basic cause of chronic disease is deficiencies in our diet, specifically beneficial gut microbes and trace minerals. - [The Health Myth](https://wickingbed.com/2025/02/12/the-health-myth/) - Across the globe people are getting fat leading to an epidemic of chronic diseases. Here is why and what we can so about it. In our gut, we have trillions of microbes of thousands of different species. We know about swarm or crowd intelligence from studying swarms in nature, in birds, bees, and insects - particularly ants and bees and of course that freak of nature slime moulds. Each insignificant microbes or cell can communicate with its neighbours, our head brain, and an array of sensors throughout our body to form our intelligent control system which regulates our bodies. - [Gut health](https://wickingbed.com/2025/02/16/gut-health-5/) - There are trillions of microbes of thousands of species in your gut. Each cell can communicate with its neighbour to create swarm intelligence which controls our bodies, including our appetite. If we have a healthy gut we can look forward to a long and healthy life. Gut bugs are easy to breed, they breed like crazy So why isn’t everyone breeding their own gut bugs? Because there are bad bugs which also breed easily and make us fat and sick. So how can we breed the good bugs without breeding the bad bugs? - [Taste, hunger and healthspan](https://wickingbed.com/2025/02/20/taste-hunger-and-healthspan/) - Is humanity in danger of extinction? Probably not. Is our modern comfortable lifestyle in danger of extinction? Definitely yes and it is happening right now. Can we do anything to avoid this? Yes - but it takes a bit of effort to understand the problem and do something about it. What is the biggest problem? Food - there is plenty of food - that is not the problem - modern food is making us fat and sick. We need food that will lead to a long and healthy life. Is this a technical problem? No - we know how to by growing food. - [Intelligence](https://wickingbed.com/2025/02/27/intelligence/) - Our gut-brain comprises trillions of cells which communicate with their neighbours to create swarm or group intelligence which regulates our bodies - our intelligent control system. If our gut brain feels satisfied it will send out hormones which make us feel satisfied. GLP-1 is the active ingredient in drugs like Ozempic, Seaglitude and Wegovy. This is a naturally occurring hormone which our body produces automatically to tell us we are full and should stop eating. Our bodies, specifically our gut, normally produce this for free. But our modern diet, dominated by ultra-processed food is deficient in the foods to feed. - [Change for the better](https://wickingbed.com/2025/03/04/change-for-the-better/) - Gbiota, at its core, is still about paradigm shifting but the scale of the battle is just so much bigger. Chronic diseases are the biggest health problem across the globe. Being overweight is everywhere, don’t bother about statistics just go to the local shopping centre. Diabetes is the most rapidly expanding disease with eight million people a year suffering from a limb amputation, heart attacks are the most common cause of death and at eighty-five - [Health span or Epidemic](https://wickingbed.com/2025/03/05/health-span-or-epidemic/) - Why is it that some people are fit and healthy, enjoy a long health span with hardly a visit to the doctor while despite the sophistication of modern medical research does the epidemic of chronic diseases continues to increase causing a great deal of personal grief and costing health systems trillions of dollars? Why is it that some people are slim, fit and healthy and others are fat and sick? Maybe it is time to take a moment out of the rush of modern living and have a deep think. - [Integration trials](https://wickingbed.com/2025/03/11/integration-trials/) - Surely the aim for any community is for its members to live a long and healthy life. Yet we are not doing that well with well over half the population suffering from some form of chronic disease, maybe just a bit podgy, maybe in fear of having a limb amputated from diabetes or worse of all dementia, sitting in a chair, covered with blanket to hide that you have just peed your pants and wondering who those pesky kids are who keep on calling you granddad. - [Ignobels](https://wickingbed.com/2025/03/10/ignobels/) - I have created this section for health professionals. This may seem a little odd as I have no medical qualifications apart from being married to a medical doctor, who became diabetic, her foot turned black and our medical advisers were talking about amputation, but we changed her diet and she still has both feet. But I am not a drongo, I am an engineer I was selected by the Institute of Engineers as one of Australia’s leading innovators for my pioneering work in Computer Aided Engineering. - [Organics save us](https://wickingbed.com/2025/01/19/organics-save-us/) - Modern food is that it may be hygienic, triple wrapped in plastics, but it is inert lacking the microbes which form our gut-brain which regulates our appetite so we overeat and get fat and sick from chronic diseases - overweight, diabetes, heart attacks and dementia caused by the wrong fat in the wrong place stemming from overeating. Why we overeat Why do we overeat​? Because of the lack of beneficial microbes in our gut. That regulate our appetite. Modern food may be hygienic but it is deficient in the essential beneficial microbes. - [Welcome](https://wickingbed.com/2024/12/18/welcome-2/) - Thrive and survive The microbes in our gut form an integral part of the intelligent control system which regulates our bodies and is vital for health. In the past, these came naturally from the soil and the guts of creatures in the soil via the plants we ate. Our modern food system may be hygienic but is inert and does not feed or replace these essential microbes. This deficiency is the underlying cause of all modern diseases – overweight, diabetes, heart attack and dementia – the big killers of our modern era. - [Mind and body](https://wickingbed.com/2024/12/09/mind-and-body/) - We are living longer, thanks to major advances in medical science. In the past people died, often when young, from infectious diseases now we die predominantly from chronic or non-infectious diseases with three out of four people dying from a chronic disease. We are in the midst of an epidemic of chronic diseases overweight, diabetes, heart attacks, strokes and dementia. Medical science may keep us alive for a long time but far worse is that we may live for a long time with poor health. Our life span may be increasing but our health span is not. - [Game changer](https://wickingbed.com/2024/11/30/game-changer/) - As a celebrated engineer recognized for his groundbreaking work in Computer Aided Engineering, Colin’s expertise in adaptive systems sparked a revolutionary idea: What if chronic diseases like diabetes, obesity, and dementia stem from a malfunctioning intelligent control system within our bodies? Drawing inspiration from swarm intelligence in nature—like the collective behaviour of birds, insects, and even slime moulds – Colin realised the key wasn’t about fully understanding this intricate system. Instead, it was about nurturing it, much like feeding and training a loyal puppy. - [Recycle to survive](https://wickingbed.com/2024/01/31/recycle-to-survive/) - Round and round it goes For some million years humanoid creatures have survived on this planet by eating fresh plants grown in living soil. The way it worked is simple. Plants capture energy from the sun, they die and an army of recyclers worms, ants, beetles, insects, maggots, and creepy crawlies break down this organic matter. Like us they have guts full of microbes that pass into the soil, then the plants we eat, and finally into our gut. This is our control system which regulates our bodies, in particular regulating the amount of fat we store. - [Getting started](https://wickingbed.com/2024/04/25/getting-started-2/) - How to grow gut brain food and live a long and healthy life - [Summary](https://wickingbed.com/2024/11/24/summary/) - Food is the key to health. Junk food is tasty, convenient, inexpensive but not healthy. Genuine organic food may be healthy but is very expensive. But there is a third type of food which is both healthy and inexpensive, cheaper than junk food and healthier than organic food. How can that possibly be? What is the catch? It takes a little effort to understand how food works in our bodies and to grow, or buy, this food takes a little effort, that is the cost of health. This web is in two main sections. - [Not little piggies](https://wickingbed.com/2024/04/12/not-little-piggies/) - We don’t get fat and sick because we are little piggies and stuff ourselves with chicken wings, chips and ultra-processed foods. We get fat because we have deficiencies in our diet, this is sensed by our intelligent control system, our gut-brain, which regulates our bodies. Sensing problems it hits that big red alarm bell sending out messages - hormones and electrical signals - saying we have an emergency, eat more food and store it wherever possible. - [Why we get fat](https://wickingbed.com/2024/04/13/why-we-get-fat/) - We get fat because our gut-brain says so - [Your turn](https://wickingbed.com/2024/04/15/newsletter-15-april-24/) - How to reduce 8 million amputation - [Save 100,000 legs from diabetic amputation](https://wickingbed.com/2024/04/22/save-100000-legs-from-diabetic-amputation/) - I have set myself the target of saving 100,000 people from a diabetic leg amputation before the end of 2025. I know how to do this, I am an engineer and engineers take the best available science and turn this into a practical solution. But that is not enough, I am also an entrepreneur and entrepreneurs ensure that this practical solution is adopted. I have a track record I was a pioneer of computer-aided engineering and built up a multi-million dollar company from my back bedroom which ensured that my pioneering technology was adopted globally. - [Food not pills](https://wickingbed.com/2024/07/14/food-not-pills/) - A million years ago the first humanoids appeared, they had a food Eco-system based on eating plants from living soils. These microbes bred in the soil, protected them and they thrived and became us. Then we changed our food Eco-system, started eating sterile food, we felt unsatisfied, overfed but undernourished, stressed and angry. - [Technology](https://wickingbed.com/2024/08/31/technology-2/) - I do hold this belief that technology should work for the benefit of the community and it is not. It may be making a handful of people rich beyond imagination but are the benefits of this technology flowing through to the community – I think not. Is it good that we develop technology so military people can sit in armchair comfort to kill women and children with remote-controlled drones? - [Applying technology](https://wickingbed.com/2024/09/03/applying-technology/) - With all our modern technology and automated production capacity, we should only need to work a couple of days a week to have everything we need and live a healthy life right to the end of our natural life. But we are not so what went wrong? There is nothing wrong with the technology – we just don’t know how to apply it for the benefit of the community. - [Jenny](https://wickingbed.com/2024/09/29/jenny/) - Jenny, one of our Gbiota members asked a simple question. I am told that my answer is one of the most important articles on how to sustainably grow healthy food and combat the epidemic of chronic disease so I have made this available for public viewing under the creative Commons system - it can be copied and reproduced without further permission, just acknowledgement of source www.gbiota.com - [Community Health](https://wickingbed.com/2024/10/07/community-health/) - We are in the midst of an epidemic of chronic diseases, overweight, diabetes, heart attacks and dementia. They say eat less exercise more but that does not work. Our gut-brain is part of our intelligent control system which regulates our appetite. Our modern food system no longer feeds our gut-brain so we have to switch from the calorie balance paradigm to the intelligent control paradigm. Changing paradigms is always a bloody affair with vested interest this will be particularly bloody. The article ‘Community Health’ tells the story of this particularly bloody battle. - [Prevention](https://wickingbed.com/2024/10/25/prevention/) - Across the globe we are suffering from an epidemic of chronic or non infectious diseases. Three out of four people die prematurely from a chronic disease. The social and economic costs are massive stretching our medical resources to the limit and at high cost. We know that these chronic diseases are caused but the wrong fat in the wrong place and it is widely assumed that this is because we are eating too much sugary fatty foods – the calorie balance theory. While it is true that we do have to consume an excess of sugary fatty foods this is not the cause. How much and where we store fat is decided by our intelligent control system which regulates our bodies. The microbes in our gut are an integral part of out intelligent control system regulating our appetite and immune system. - [Community benefit](https://wickingbed.com/2024/05/07/community-benefit/) - My wife Xiulan, a medical doctor and surgeon became diabetic, the professional medical given to us was that diabetes is an irreversible chronic disease, that will steadily get worse, we will put you on progressively stronger medicines but eventually, you are likely to end up with insulin injections and you will probably die young from some complications from diabetes. - [My teddy](https://wickingbed.com/2024/06/24/my-teddy/) - The heartless massacre of ordinary people by powerful militia and the possibility of World War 3 cannot go unnoticed. Neither can the waves of hungry refugees moving across the globe looking for a safe place to live. We could say that is just ‘The News’ but look at one of the wealthiest countries in the world, good old Australia. Homeless people sleeping under bridges because there are not enough houses while we have plenty of land while the builders who could build more houses are going bankrupt. - [The essence](https://wickingbed.com/2024/06/26/the-essence-2/) - Describes the underlying principles of the Gbiota movement - [Real food](https://wickingbed.com/2024/07/13/real-food/) - Ever think about what food is doing to your body? There are foods for energy, replace parts as they age and wear and to feed our gut. There is more than enough energy food in our modern diet, replacement food is marginal but gut food is seriously lacking yet is the most important. Let me tell you a story.Ever think about what food is doing to your body? There are foods for energy, replace parts as they age and wear and to feed our gut. - [Enhancing gut health](https://wickingbed.com/2024/07/15/enhancing-gut-health/) - This was made as a page by a professional graphics designer, I am republishing as a post as I like the graphics - [Smart young girl](https://wickingbed.com/2024/08/01/smart-young-girl/) - There is a nice story about a smart young lady who stalled her ageing car on a busy road. Try as she might she could not get the car started and soon there was a monster traffic jam. The man in the car behind started to blow his horn in a furious rage, she did not know what to do so she went to the car behind and said very politely “Excuse me, sir, would you like to try and start my car while I sit in your car and blow the horn”. - [Think smarter](https://wickingbed.com/2024/08/21/think-smarter/) - I want to sell you a concept. It is free you don’t have to pay me anything but you do have to think seriously about it for five minutes and getting anyone to devote five minutes to thinking is a challenge in these modern times. There are a number of steps to this thinking, the first one is the difference between conscious and subconscious thinking. - [Community Benefit](https://wickingbed.com/2024/11/20/community-benefit-2/) - My wife Xiulan, a medical doctor and surgeon became diabetic, the professional medical advice given to us was that diabetes is an irreversible chronic disease, it will steadily get worse, we will put you on progressively stronger medicines but eventually, you are likely to end up with insulin injections and you will probably die young from some complications arising from diabetes. We accepted that advice as an honest attempt to make us aware of the harsh reality. But when her foot started to turn black we were advised that she would probably need to have her foot amputated. - [Healthy food - intro](https://wickingbed.com/2024/11/21/healthy-food-intro/) - Junk food is tasty, convenient, inexpensive but not healthy. Genuine organic food may be healthy but is very expensive. But there is a third type of food which is both health and inexpensive, cheaper than junk food and healthier then organic food. How can that possibly be? What is the catch? - [The Trial](https://wickingbed.com/2024/11/21/the-trial/) - We know that the world’s biggest health issue is the epidemic of chronic diseases, obesity, diabetes, heart attacks and dementia and that these are caused by the wrong fat in the wrong place. We think we know how to fix it, eat less and exercise more but we have been trying that for decades and we know for sure that it has not worked, people are getting fatter and diabetes is the fastest-growing disease on the planet. We live in an age of hyper-activity. Everyone is heads down with busy work but maybe it is time to take a break and have a bit of a think. - [Food - we love it](https://wickingbed.com/2024/10/29/food-we-love-it/) - Food - we love it. But it is making us fat and sick and growing it is destroying the soils and planet on which we all depend. What has gone wrong and what do we do about it? Some experts say it is because we eat too much so we should eat less and exercise more. Other experts say it is our modern food with too much fat and sugar. The truth is so simple that no one believes it. Our bodies have evolved to have an intelligent control system which says stop eating when you are full. - [Health paradox](https://wickingbed.com/2024/11/11/health-paradox/) - Chronic diseases, obesity, diabetes, heart attacks and dementia cause a great deal of personal distress and cost Governments billions of dollars. They are very difficult to cure but can be prevented relatively easily and at low cost. But that requires a change in the way our Governments, our health systems, and society operate to one with a focus on prevention rather than cure. The underlying cause of all chronic diseases is the wrong fat in the wrong place. So how does the fat get in the wrong place? The wrong fat in the wrong place is the underlying cause of all chronic diseases. - [Welcome to Gbiota](https://wickingbed.com/2024/10/10/welcome-to-gbiota/) - We teach how to grow plants as pre and pro-biotics. That is the easy bit, understanding and applying the science of breeding beneficial microbes in a special soil, Wickimix largely made from organic and rock dust, and using the principle of Eco balance to create the condition so the beneficial microbes out-breed the harmful microbes. - [Food and our nature](https://wickingbed.com/2023/12/15/food-and-our-nature/) - We know for sure that the food we eat can make us fat and sick, but what if it can affect our very nature, our DNA and make us a less aggressive and more cooperative creature. In this article I put forward the arguments for this idea. Internet marketing experts tell me that my web has too much text and that people just want a few cute sayings and lots of graphics and videos. - [Fat and sick](https://wickingbed.com/2023/12/25/fat-and-sick/) - Across the globe people are getting fat a sick from an epidemic of diseases like diabetes, heart attacks and dementia. Why? Our gut brain has trillions of cells which communicate with each other to create our gut brain which evolved over millions of years to regulate our appetite, emitting hormones to tell us when we need to eat and when to stop eating because we are full. - [Modern Epidemic](https://wickingbed.com/2023/12/27/modern-epidemic/) - Modern epidemic Food is the root cause of the modern epidemics of diabetes, heart attacks, dementia and feeling hangry. Hangry - angry because we feel hungry and not satisfied. - [Hello](https://wickingbed.com/2024/01/06/hello/) - Gbiota Hello Many people know that chemical industrial agriculture and highly processes foods are not good for us. People react in different ways. Some people see this as their mission to change the world for the better for their grand kids. - [Help wanted with digital marketing](https://wickingbed.com/2024/01/21/help-wanted-with-digital-marketing/) - Help wanted with digital marketing Gbiota interest is how to grow gut brain food. Few people are going to Google ‘how to grow gut brain food’ and if they do they will be exposed to a plethora of adverts for pills of dubious benefit. Our gut brain is the control system for our bodies, every machine has some form of control system, even if it is just a simple on/off switch. - [User posts](https://wickingbed.com/2024/04/14/user-posts/) - Enables users to make posts - [Why we need to act](https://wickingbed.com/2024/03/21/why-we-need-to-act/) - People across the globe are suffering an epidemic of chronic diseases, obesity, diabetes, heart attacks, and dementia. It is the biggest health threat facing humanity (See Survival). The underlying reason for this epidemic of chronic diseases is the wrong fat in the wrong place. Everybody has an intelligent control system that regulates our bodies. It is a combination of our head and gut brains. We cannot change our head brain, but we can train it and may change how it is expressed (Epigenetics) essentially we are stuck with it. But we can change our gut brain, simply by what what we eat. - [Newsletter 11 March 2024](https://wickingbed.com/2024/03/11/newsletter-11-march-2024/) - “Colin, we know you are trying to persuade people of the benefits of eating healthy food full of living beneficial microbes, but we already know that, and what we want is more detailed information on how to set up Gbiota beds and boxes. You have a lot of good stuff on your web but there are so many articles that it is almost impossible to find what we are looking for and things keep on changing.” - [Survival](https://wickingbed.com/2024/03/14/survival-2/) - Humans are the great survivors. We are the dominant species on Earth, spreading across the globe to every corner of the Earth that is vaguely habitable. Now we are under threat, what could possibly be a threat to this great survivor species? To answer that we have to ask what makes us so good at surviving. We are not naturally well equipped, we don’t have big teeth or claws like a tiger, we cannot run fast like an antelope and we don’t even have the reaction time of a fly. - [Innovation and managing ignorance](https://wickingbed.com/2024/03/03/innovation-and-managing-ignorance/) - I recently wrote an article rethinking food and diabetes that described a simple and inexpensive technology which could dramatically reduce the eight million amputations that occur every year. You may think that this would be met with great enthusiasm by both diabetics themselves, those professionals responsible for managing diabetes, and the Governments who spend trillions of dollars in their health care budgets on diabetes. - [Become a Gbiota supplier](https://wickingbed.com/2024/01/26/become-a-gbiota-supplier/) - The modern chemical industrial food system is highly productive producing large quantities of standardised energy food at economic prices. But the food is inert lacking the essential microbes to feed our gut brain so our control system, which regulates our bodies, does not work as it should. The Gbiota aim is not to replace the existing food system but to supplement by growing gut brain food to feed out gut brain - our control system. It is just a fact of life that there are beneficial microbes that power our gut brain but there are also harmful microbes that make us sick or even kill us. - [Learning experience](https://wickingbed.com/2024/01/28/learning-experience/) - Homeostasis Many of my readers know that I am a bit OCDish about how our food system is compromising community health. The medical facts are simple, everyone has an inbuilt control system which regulates our bodies (homeostasis). This is our gut brain - a combination of our gut and head brains. A healthy gut brain is the core to living a long and healthy life while a poor gut brain is the underlying cause of the modern epidemic of overweight, diabetes, heart attacks and dementia. Our gut brain really matters. - [Help me help you](https://wickingbed.com/2023/12/27/help-me-help-you/) - Help me help you My wife, Xiulan, is a medical doctor. She became diabetic and her foot started to turn black and our medical advisers told us they may have to amputate her foot. I am not a medical doctor, but I am an engineer recognised as a leading innovator by the Institute of Engineers. I wanted to understand what was the root cause of diabetes so I read everything I could find about diabetes. - [True Brain](https://wickingbed.com/2023/12/27/true-brain/) - Our gut is a true brain with intelligence. All those trillions of cells are communicating with each other like some super computer. Unfortunately we have no idea of the code but we know for sure that it is regulating where and how much fat we store and to do that is has to regulate our appetite. - [Fire and food](https://wickingbed.com/2023/12/27/fire-and-food/) - Homo eructus, our ancient ancestor was a puny little creature that barely survived. But it discovered fire and learned to cook and the extra nutrients led to a bigger brain and the combination of intelligence and cooperation led to humans becoming the dominant creature on earth. We have the technology to produce goods on such a scale that we should all be enjoying a wonderful life - yet we are not. - [Conflict and aggression](https://wickingbed.com/2023/12/27/conflict-and-aggression/) - Conflict and aggression or peaceful coexistence - these are the options facing humanity. Just look at what is happening in the world - people killing other people on every continent. Aggression over peaceful coexistance - why? Have we all gone crazy? Why? People are hangry - food that does not satisfy plays a big part. - [Try it](https://wickingbed.com/2023/12/11/try-it/) - I am proposing that you make your own soil from food and organic waste, add mineral and microbes to create a soil teaming with beneficial microbes and nutrients and grow plants and eat them while fresh. This will increase your chances of a long and healthy life. But why should you believe me? We live in the age of the hype machine. Read more - [Bioboxes](https://wickingbed.com/2022/07/06/bioboxes/) - You can go to the supermarket and buy energy food, loaded with sugars, fats and carbs at a reasonable price. But try and buy fresh vegetables, what they call fresh is days or weeks old by which time most of the goodness has long gone. If you are a keen and skilled gardener you can grow you own and just pick and eat so it is genuinely fresh. But what happens if you don’t have land, skills or time. That is where Gbiota Bioboxes come in to play. Fresh fruit and vegetables growing at home and buying directly from the grower at a lot lower cost and with a reliable supply chain. - [Action plan](https://wickingbed.com/2022/08/16/action-plan/) - Our gut brain is the key to good health. Consumer get fresh veggies which act as gut food which is genuinely healthy at an affordable price, growers get paid for what they like doing while the Gbiota team provide the technology of growing gut food. Growers breed beneficial microbes in organic matter in the soil, also adding rock dust which is broken down by the microbes into accessible minerals forming nutrient rich, biologically active, soil. - [Bit of a mess](https://wickingbed.com/2022/07/19/bit-of-a-mess/) - Unless you are a total hermit you can’t have missed that the world is in a bit of a mess - Covid, bush fires, floods droughts and food shortages. When the price of an iceberg lettuce rises from $2 to $13 then you have to notice. OK the price has now dropped down to $7 so everything is going to be OK - no that is just because they are shipping them in from miles away. Things are bad and are going to get worse. I thought I would Google to see how much carbon dioxide was emitted in the recent bush fires - 700 million tons - compared that with a total emission from Australia of 500 million tons. My going to the shops on my bike rather than driving my car is not going to have much impact on that - however good it may make me feel that I am making a contribution. So what can I do that will have an impact, particularly to the food crisis and the wobbly food chain? - [Feed your gut brain](https://wickingbed.com/2021/04/09/feed-your-gut-brain/) - Feed your gut brain My interest is how to grow plants that improve our gut brain – one of the most vital organs in our bodies and the key to health. - [What food does](https://wickingbed.com/2021/07/02/what-food-does/) - I start with what food does which explains the various jobs that food does in our bodies and how innovation has dramatically increased the overall supply of food - far in excess of what we need but missing the key ingredients to feed the control system which manages out bodies. - [Overview](https://wickingbed.com/2021/07/10/overview/) - How gut food will enhance our gut biology and immune system - overview - [updateAug21](https://wickingbed.com/2021/08/10/updateaug21/) - This is an update on the practical side of making and managing Gbiota beds. I assume you are familiar with the previous publications and videos available under videos, blogs and growing in the menu. The major developments are the use of the compost tube to give better and faster composting and the conversion of the school bed from Wicking bed to a Gbiota bed and the use of a solar powered pump. - [Principles of Gbiota beds](https://wickingbed.com/2021/07/02/principles-of-gbiota-beds/) - Gbiota beds grow plants to enhance our gut biology - here is the basic principles of how they work - [Gbiota boxes](https://wickingbed.com/2021/09/06/gbiota-boxes/) - The purpose of GBiota beds is to breed beneficial biology in the soil. This biology enters the plants growing in the soil so when we eat the plants they act as natural pre pro biotics as well us providing valuable nutrients but key point of Gbiota beds is to provide us with the beneficial biology. - [Action plan for gut health](https://wickingbed.com/2021/11/08/action-plan-for-gut-health/) - People don’t get fat and sick simply because they just happen to eat too much, they get fat and sick because their gut brain is not working as it should - so then they end up eating too much. - [lettuce](https://wickingbed.com/2022/06/30/lettuce/) - Iceberg lettuce – was $2 now – if you can find one $13. lettuceThe food crisis is here and it is here to stay. Don’t be deluded that after the floods have gone and Putins war is over everything will go back to normal – it won’t. The Gbiota movement focus is how to grow food, in a sustainable way that we, our grand kids and their grand kids can eat food that will make them healthy. We don’t sell food, or anything, we just provide the know how – the growing technology for those people want to buy or grow food that will make them healthy. - [Why Gbiota boxes](https://wickingbed.com/2022/03/28/why-gbiota-boxes/) - Our gut brain consists of trillions of cells which communicate with eat other and send out signals saying we need to eat more of this or that or simply stop eating as we are satisfied. - [I am a person](https://wickingbed.com/2022/03/22/i-am-a-person-2/) - The aim of the Gbiota technology is to replenish our gut with living beneficial biota and the food it needs to thrive. Gut biota has a short life so it is important to eat plants while there are fresh, which means shortly after harvesting rather than they have not yet gone rotten - very different things. - [Bioboxes basics](https://wickingbed.com/2022/03/21/bioboxes-basics/) - The aim of the Gbiota technology is to replenish our gut with living beneficial biota and the food it needs to thrive. Gut biota has a short life so it is important to eat plants while there are fresh, which means shortly after harvesting rather than they have not yet gone rotten - very different things. People with a garden and the skills and the time can set up their own Gbiota beds and have fresh food every day but the Gbiota Biota box system allows almost everyone to have the health benefits of genuinely fresh food with the beneficial biota. - [The paradigm shift](https://wickingbed.com/2022/03/16/the-paradigm-shift/) - In the wonderful world of food the established paradigm, based on chemistry, has been incredibly successful. In my life time, incredibly short on a geological time scale, we have increased food production by a factor of 4.3 – just totally stunning. At the centre of this success is nitrogen – we learned the chemistry of how to capture nitrogen from the air to make fertilisers and whoom! food production just went through the roof. But there is a problem .... - [Gut biology basics](https://wickingbed.com/2022/03/04/home4mar22/) - The purpose of the Gbiota local food movement is to help people set up viable, ethical, and sustainable businesses supplying their local community with gut food. To understand why this is important we need to understand about gut biology or Gbiota. - [Get real](https://wickingbed.com/2021/12/06/get-real/) - Recent heavy rains, and the accompanying crop damage, has shown us the need to modify our growing systems to adapt to extreme weather. A much more serious issue is that in the midst of the saturation bombing of the digital and social media era we seem to think that we can happily live in a world of virtual reality divorces from actual reality. - [Opportunity](https://wickingbed.com/2021/09/13/opportunity/) - We all have to eat and the way we are currently growing our food is slowly but inevitably destroying our planet’s ability to grow the food we need. We are destroying our soils and aquifers on which our lives depend and making ourselves sick in the process. - [Alice](https://wickingbed.com/2021/10/08/alice/) - Our gut is not strictly part of us and we, or rather our mum, has to make it for us from the food she eats and feeds us as a baby and by the close physical contact mums give their babies. It is the one organ we can readily change – particularly when young. - [News flash 30 Oct 20](https://wickingbed.com/2020/10/29/news-flash-30-oct-20/) - News flash for Gbiota club members When the virus has gone, as it surely will, the world will be a very different place. People will understand that the best protection against the next virus, which again will surely come, is to have a population with a healthy immune system. ## Pages - [Home](https://wickingbed.com/) - From the Inventor of Wicking Beds, Colin Austin HEALTH STARTS IN THE SOIL Grow Food, Grow Community, Grow Health 5.0 ★★★★★ Rated 5 out of 5 Join Now As Featured In A few of Colin's Media Mentions Grow Nutrient Dense Food Gbiota technology helps people breed beneficial microbes that generate hormones responsible for feelings of - [GBiota Landing Page](https://wickingbed.com/gbiota-landing-page/) - Colin’s Story Our Mission Blog Join Library Contact Transform your Gut Health Gbiota microbial soil enables you to grow food that improves gut biota. From Colin Austin – inventor of Wicking Beds, Moldflow founder, and award-winning innovator. Join the Gut-Soil Health Movement. Discover how living soil connects to gut health. Get practical tips, guides, and - [Gbiota Healthspan](https://wickingbed.com/gbiota-healthspan/) - Reclaim Your Health Span. Start with Living Soil. Join the Gbiota Movement Today Download Free e-Book Now Thank You, we’ll be in touch soon. Why Modern Food Is Failing Us For most of human history, food was fresh, local, and rich in the minerals and microbes that sustain life. Today, our food system is designed for - [Feed your gut brain](https://wickingbed.com/feed-your-gut-brain/) - [Join Gbiota Social Movement](https://wickingbed.com/join/) - Join the Gbiota Community Newsletter Subscription Free subscription: Access to newsletter Selected member posts Community updates Get Started Monthly Membership 1 Month free → $14.99 / Month Be an informed gut-brain food buyer Guides & checklists Member Q&A Choose Monthly Membership Annual Membership 1 Month free → $120 / Year How to grow gut-brain food - [Start Here - New Subscribers](https://wickingbed.com/start-here-new-subscribers/) - Homeostasis I discussed on my home page about homeostasis and how our bodies have set points that our bodies will always try and reach. Trying to change our bodies without changing these set points is a formula for failure. If we want to change our bodies, we need to change these set points. Here, I - [Gbiota Technology](https://wickingbed.com/gbiota-technology/) - Introduction to GbiotaLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo. The Gbiota ClubLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo. Gbiota BedsLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper - [My story](https://wickingbed.com/my-story/) - Colin Austin — Life & Achievements Engineer, innovator & founder of Gbiota — practical solutions from software to soil. Colin’s Story Failed Bum → Soil, Water & Food Becoming a “Failed Bum” My great claim to fame is I am a failed bum – I was educated as an engineer but I heard Bill Mollison - [About Gbiota](https://wickingbed.com/about-gbiota/) - Rebuilding Human Health With Nutrient-Rich, Microbe-Alive Food Gbiota exists to restore the natural nutrition that modern food systems have lost. Colin Austin—one of Australia’s leading innovators and the original inventor of wicking beds—has spent decades studying alternative growing systems, soil biology, water management, and plant nutrition. His vision for wicking beds was never just about - [Food & Nutrition](https://wickingbed.com/food-nutrition/) - Food & Nutrition Articles How Food WorksLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, Diabetes & FoodLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo. Gbiota Smoothies & FoodLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, - [Contact](https://wickingbed.com/food-for-health/) - contact us Ready to transform your health from the soil up? Contact us with questions, concerns, and technical info. We will be in touch with you shortly. Visit us Click and collect available for orders (by appointment only) 1484 Logan Road, Mount Gravatt East, QLD, 4122, Australia Call us Want to find out more about - [login](https://wickingbed.com/login/) - Welcome back! We're thrilled to see you again! Your presence in our community brightens our day. Thank you for returning and being an integral part of the Gbiota movement. Login to Your Gbiota Account Lost your password? New here? Create a free account - [Grow with Gbiota](https://wickingbed.com/grow-with-gbiota/) - These posts show how to set up and manage Gbiota™ beds. This section is a subscription area for people who really want to be part of the community food movement making Gbiota beds, soils and boxes which do require some technical expertise and agreement to standards. - [Members](https://wickingbed.com/members/) - [Account](https://wickingbed.com/account/) - [Shop](https://wickingbed.com/shop/) - [Colin Austin](https://wickingbed.com/about/colin-austin/) - The Future of Food Our see a world where food is no longer just a commodity but a living system that sustains health. We see communities connected to growers, supported by education, and united in a movement that values microbial life as the foundation of human wellbeing. Through this shift, we aim to Promote a - [Modern Groups](https://wickingbed.com/groups-modern/) - [Modern Courses](https://wickingbed.com/courses-modern/) - [Masonry Layout](https://wickingbed.com/masonry-layout/) - [Grid Layout](https://wickingbed.com/grid-layout/) - Wicking Bed Liners Explained: Are Plastics Safe for Growing Food? Bonnie LewisMarch 23, 2026Wicking Beds People often ask what lining materials are safe for wicking beds, especially when plastic films are involved. In this newsletter Colin Austin… Read More The Vision for Wicking Beds: Origin, Purpose, and Soil Biology Bonnie LewisMarch 23, 2026Wicking Beds Wicking - [Thumbnail Layout](https://wickingbed.com/thumbnail-layout/) - [Newsletter](https://wickingbed.com/newsletter/) - [newsletter] - [Health span](https://wickingbed.com/health-span/) - [Riddle](https://wickingbed.com/riddle/) - [Torch Bearer](https://wickingbed.com/torch-bearer/) - [Food paradigm shift](https://wickingbed.com/food-paradigm-shift/) - [Posts](https://wickingbed.com/posts/) - [Course Group](https://wickingbed.com/course-group/) - [Courses](https://wickingbed.com/courses/) - [About](https://wickingbed.com/about/) - The Gbiota Mission to restore the natural partnership between humans and beneficial microbes. By educating people and communities, we empower them to reintroduce healthy microbes into their daily lives through living soils, nutrient-rich plants, and gut-friendly foods. Our goal is to make this knowledge and practice accessible so that everyone can enjoy longer, healthier lives. - [LD Profile](https://wickingbed.com/ld-profile/) - [Thank You](https://wickingbed.com/thank-you/) - [Password Reset](https://wickingbed.com/password-reset/) - [ultimatemember_password] - [Logout](https://wickingbed.com/logout/) ## My Templates - [Gbiota New Website](https://wickingbed.com/?elementor_library=gbiota-new-website-2) - [Gbiota New Website](https://wickingbed.com/?elementor_library=gbiota-new-website) - [Default Kit](https://wickingbed.com/?elementor_library=default-kit) ## Memberships - [Newsletter](https://wickingbed.com/membership/newsletter/) - Sign up to receive the Gbiota newsletter and free website updates. Find out how you can grow your own gut-brain food and improve your health and wellbeing. - [Month-to-Month Membership](https://wickingbed.com/membership/monthly-membership/) - Join the Gbiota movement and learn how you can grow your own gut-brain food. Improve your gut health, overall health & wellbeing. Be inspired with lessons, videos and our extensive content library. Sign up for a month-to-month plan. Cancel anytime. - [Annual Membership](https://wickingbed.com/membership/annual-membership/) - Join the Gbiota movement and learn how you can grow your own gut-brain food. Improve your gut health, overall health & wellbeing. Be inspired with lessons, videos and our extensive content library. Sign up for an annual membership and save $60 per year. - [Guest](https://wickingbed.com/membership/guest/) - If you are joining for free, just enter your name and email, and we will keep you updated on new posts. Don't forget to click the signup button at the bottom of the form If you are joining as a grower, then please fill on all the details as you will receive technical support, but ## Groups - [gbiota member](https://wickingbed.com/plans/gbiota-member/) ## Courses - [LearnDash 101](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/) - [LearnDash 101](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/) ## Lessons - [Lesson 1: Getting Started with LearnDash](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-1-getting-started-with-learndash-2/) - [Lesson 2: Dashboard Overview: Courses, Lessons, & Topics](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-2-dashboard-overview-courses-lessons-topics-2/) - [Lesson 3: General Settings Overview](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-3-general-settings-overview-2/) - [Lesson 1: How to Build Your First Course](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-1-how-to-build-your-first-course-2/) - [Lesson 2: How to Use the Course Builder to Add Lessons, Topics, and Quizzes](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-use-the-course-builder-to-add-lessons-topics-and-quizzes-2/) - [Lesson 3: How to Use the Course Creation Wizard](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-3-how-to-use-the-course-creation-wizard-2/) - [Lesson 1: How to Setup Registration and Payments](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-1-how-to-setup-registration-and-payments-2/) - [Lesson 2: How to Set Up Course Registration](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-set-up-course-registration-2/) - [Lesson 3: How to Accept Payment for Your Courses](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-3-how-to-accept-payment-for-your-courses-2/) - [Lesson 4: How to Create Coupons](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-4-how-to-create-coupons-2/) - [Lesson 5: How to Create Memberships](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-5-how-to-create-memberships-2/) - [Lesson 1: How to Create Quizzes and Certificates](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-1-how-to-create-quizzes-and-certificates-2/) - [Lesson 2: How to Set Up Quizzes](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-set-up-quizzes-2/) - [Lesson 3: Quiz Access Settings](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-3-quiz-access-settings-2/) - [Lesson 4: Creating a Certificate Using the Certificate Builder](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-4-creating-a-certificate-using-the-certificate-builder-2/) - [Lesson 1: How to Do More with LearnDash](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-1-how-to-do-more-with-learndash-2/) - [Lesson 2: Add-ons](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-2-add-ons-2/) - [Lesson 3: Guides & Tutorials](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-3-guides-tutorials-2/) - [Lesson 4: Support & Community](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-4-support-community-2/) - [Lesson 1: Getting Started with LearnDash](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-1-getting-started-with-learndash/) - [Lesson 2: Dashboard Overview: Courses, Lessons, & Topics](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-2-dashboard-overview-courses-lessons-topics/) - [Lesson 3: General Settings Overview](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-3-general-settings-overview/) - [Lesson 1: How to Build Your First Course](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-1-how-to-build-your-first-course/) - [Lesson 2: How to Use the Course Builder to Add Lessons, Topics, and Quizzes](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-use-the-course-builder-to-add-lessons-topics-and-quizzes/) - [Lesson 3: How to Use the Course Creation Wizard](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-3-how-to-use-the-course-creation-wizard/) - [Lesson 1: How to Setup Registration and Payments](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-1-how-to-setup-registration-and-payments/) - [Lesson 2: How to Set Up Course Registration](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-set-up-course-registration/) - [Lesson 3: How to Accept Payment for Your Courses](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-3-how-to-accept-payment-for-your-courses/) - [Lesson 4: How to Create Coupons](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-4-how-to-create-coupons/) - [Lesson 5: How to Create Memberships](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-5-how-to-create-memberships/) - [Lesson 1: How to Create Quizzes and Certificates](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-1-how-to-create-quizzes-and-certificates/) - [Lesson 2: How to Set Up Quizzes](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-set-up-quizzes/) - [Lesson 3: Quiz Access Settings](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-3-quiz-access-settings/) - [Lesson 4: Creating a Certificate Using the Certificate Builder](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-4-creating-a-certificate-using-the-certificate-builder/) - [Lesson 1: How to Do More with LearnDash](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-1-how-to-do-more-with-learndash/) - [Lesson 2: Add-ons](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-2-add-ons/) - [Lesson 3: Guides & Tutorials](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-3-guides-tutorials/) - [Lesson 4: Support & Community](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-4-support-community/) ## Topics - [Dashboard Overview: Quizzes, Questions, Certificates, & Groups](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-2-dashboard-overview-courses-lessons-topics-2/topics/dashboard-overview-quizzes-questions-certificates-groups-2/) - [Dashboard Overview: Challenge Exams, Coupons, Assignments, Design, Reports, Add-ons, & Settings](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-2-dashboard-overview-courses-lessons-topics-2/topics/dashboard-overview-challenge-exams-coupons-assignments-design-reports-add-ons-settings-2/) - [Course Settings Overview](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-use-the-course-builder-to-add-lessons-topics-and-quizzes-2/topics/course-settings-overview-2/) - [Add Content to Your Lessons & Topics](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-use-the-course-builder-to-add-lessons-topics-and-quizzes-2/topics/add-content-to-your-lessons-topics-2/) - [Lesson Settings Overview](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-use-the-course-builder-to-add-lessons-topics-and-quizzes-2/topics/lesson-settings-overview-2/) - [Pages Needed for Registration](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-set-up-course-registration-2/topics/pages-needed-for-registration-2/) - [Setting Up the Registration Success Page](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-set-up-course-registration-2/topics/setting-up-the-registration-success-page-2/) - [Setting Up the Reset Password Page](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-set-up-course-registration-2/topics/setting-up-the-reset-password-page-2/) - [Customize the Registration Settings](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-set-up-course-registration-2/topics/customize-the-registration-settings-2/) - [Turn on Registration for Your WordPress Site](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-set-up-course-registration-2/topics/turn-on-registration-for-your-wordpress-site-2/) - [Registration Flow for Free Courses](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-set-up-course-registration-2/topics/registration-flow-for-free-courses-2/) - [Registration Flow for Paid Courses](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-set-up-course-registration-2/topics/registration-flow-for-paid-courses-2/) - [PayPal Settings](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-3-how-to-accept-payment-for-your-courses-2/topics/paypal-settings-2/) - [Stripe Connect](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-3-how-to-accept-payment-for-your-courses-2/topics/stripe-connect-2/) - [Other Payment Gateways](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-3-how-to-accept-payment-for-your-courses-2/topics/other-payment-gateways-2/) - [How New Users Redeem Coupons](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-4-how-to-create-coupons-2/topics/how-new-users-redeem-coupons-2/) - [How Existing Users Redeem Coupons](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-4-how-to-create-coupons-2/topics/how-existing-users-redeem-coupons-2/) - [Setting Up the Registration Page](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-set-up-course-registration-2/topics/setting-up-the-registration-page-2/) - [Progression & Restriction Settings](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-3-quiz-access-settings-2/topics/progression-restriction-settings-2/) - [Display & Content Options](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-3-quiz-access-settings-2/topics/display-content-options-2/) - [Results Page Display](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-3-quiz-access-settings-2/topics/results-page-display-2/) - [Assigning Certificates to Quizzes and Courses](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-4-creating-a-certificate-using-the-certificate-builder-2/topics/assigning-certificates-to-quizzes-and-courses-2/) - [Administrative & Data Handling](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101-2/lessons/lesson-3-quiz-access-settings-2/topics/administrative-data-handling-2/) - [Dashboard Overview: Quizzes, Questions, Certificates, & Groups](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-2-dashboard-overview-courses-lessons-topics/topics/dashboard-overview-quizzes-questions-certificates-groups/) - [Dashboard Overview: Challenge Exams, Coupons, Assignments, Design, Reports, Add-ons, & Settings](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-2-dashboard-overview-courses-lessons-topics/topics/dashboard-overview-challenge-exams-coupons-assignments-design-reports-add-ons-settings/) - [Course Settings Overview](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-use-the-course-builder-to-add-lessons-topics-and-quizzes/topics/course-settings-overview/) - [Add Content to Your Lessons & Topics](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-use-the-course-builder-to-add-lessons-topics-and-quizzes/topics/add-content-to-your-lessons-topics/) - [Lesson Settings Overview](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-use-the-course-builder-to-add-lessons-topics-and-quizzes/topics/lesson-settings-overview/) - [Pages Needed for Registration](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-set-up-course-registration/topics/pages-needed-for-registration/) - [Setting Up the Registration Success Page](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-set-up-course-registration/topics/setting-up-the-registration-success-page/) - [Setting Up the Reset Password Page](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-set-up-course-registration/topics/setting-up-the-reset-password-page/) - [Customize the Registration Settings](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-set-up-course-registration/topics/customize-the-registration-settings/) - [Turn on Registration for Your WordPress Site](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-set-up-course-registration/topics/turn-on-registration-for-your-wordpress-site/) - [Registration Flow for Free Courses](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-set-up-course-registration/topics/registration-flow-for-free-courses/) - [Registration Flow for Paid Courses](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-2-how-to-set-up-course-registration/topics/registration-flow-for-paid-courses/) - [PayPal Settings](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-3-how-to-accept-payment-for-your-courses/topics/paypal-settings/) - [Stripe Connect](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-3-how-to-accept-payment-for-your-courses/topics/stripe-connect/) - [Other Payment Gateways](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-3-how-to-accept-payment-for-your-courses/topics/other-payment-gateways/) - [How New Users Redeem Coupons](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-4-how-to-create-coupons/topics/how-new-users-redeem-coupons/) - [How Existing Users Redeem Coupons](https://wickingbed.com/courses/learndash-101/lessons/lesson-4-how-to-create-coupons/topics/how-existing-users-redeem-coupons/) - 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