RISING DAMP

SELF-WATERING GARDEN BEDS, AKA WICKING BEDS, EMPLOY SUBIRRIGATION, DRAWING UP MOISTURE AND REDUCING THE NEED FOR FREQUENT WATERING

Angelo Eliades

For as long as our ancestors have been cultivating plants they’ve had to figure out ways of watering them and, over time, devised many clever methods of doing so. One of the more unusual approaches is subirrigation, which involves watering plants from beneath the soil, relying on the capillary action of the soil to wick the moisture up to the plants’ root zones. The principle of subirrigation is ancient, dating back thousands of years. One of the earliest examples from ancient China, the Middle East and South America is the use of ollas — porous clay pots buried in the ground that gradually diffuse moisture into the soil. AS PLANTS TAKE UP WATER, MORE MOISTURE WICKS UPWARD, MAINTAINING SOIL DAMPNESS UNTIL THE RESERVOIR IS EMPTY. WHEN THE RESERVOIR IS REFILLED,…

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Good Organic Gardening (Digital) - 1 Issue, 15.6

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