KBNSC on Nostr: Man oh man that was a lot of shoveling. We managed to get all 10 wicking beds ready ...
Man oh man that was a lot of shoveling. We managed to get all 10 wicking beds ready and filled with soil today. I did a layering method with different soil ingredients. One or two 5 gallon buckets at a time, then used my hands to kind of claw-twist the layers together. Yes, that’s a technical term.
We used a combo of repurposed sifted soil from our previous raised beds, soil from some in-ground beds, one small layer of top soil mixed with a bit of our clay soil, rabbit poop, worm castings, semi-shredded leaves from fall, perlite, one bag of Black Kow per bed, a little DE because there were a few fire ants in the mix, repeat repeat repeat. We left about 3-4 inches at the top for mulch. We mulched with leaves.
We’re still filling them with water now. About half pressure from the hose and it takes 40 minutes per bed to fill.
Next step is to make them pretty. I think we are also going to add a layer of insulation before we clad them with metal.
Hubs is down an arm so he plumbed the overflows while I shoveled. We didn’t end up getting the recommended bulkhead fittings because of cost, but manages to cobble together some less expensive PVC pieces. Hope we don’t regret that, but we left a way to access them.
We used a combo of repurposed sifted soil from our previous raised beds, soil from some in-ground beds, one small layer of top soil mixed with a bit of our clay soil, rabbit poop, worm castings, semi-shredded leaves from fall, perlite, one bag of Black Kow per bed, a little DE because there were a few fire ants in the mix, repeat repeat repeat. We left about 3-4 inches at the top for mulch. We mulched with leaves.
We’re still filling them with water now. About half pressure from the hose and it takes 40 minutes per bed to fill.
Next step is to make them pretty. I think we are also going to add a layer of insulation before we clad them with metal.
Hubs is down an arm so he plumbed the overflows while I shoveled. We didn’t end up getting the recommended bulkhead fittings because of cost, but manages to cobble together some less expensive PVC pieces. Hope we don’t regret that, but we left a way to access them.