Wicking beds and a constant flow worm farm generated much interest amongst northern gardeners when we met on Sunday 19 April in John and Venie's Newnham garden.
John explained how he used secondhand materials to build his wicking beds and showed us a small version using perlite filled plant pots attached to an old real estate sign. This is placed into a watertight container, covered with geofabric and soil placed on top of that.
Interest was peaked when he mentioned that he only waters his tomatoes for 5 minutes once or twice per week during summer. The tomatoes were still going strong with large fruit in abundance.
Flymesh screen covered frames are used for cabbage moth and butterfly exclusion and a large sheet of plastic was covering the bed with the Asian green to protect them from the cold night air.
Strawberry and raspberry plants were looking very healthy. Strawberry runners hanging over the edge of the wicking bed were potted up as they grew to get established for planting out.
The Butternut pumpkins made a nice display up the sturdy frame.
A second garden patch was growing herbs, rhubarb and more vegetables alongside the worm farm. John explained that it is a constant flow worm farm based on Brian The Worm Man's teachings (see thewormman.com.au).
The bedding matter sits on a series of rods and the castings are harvested by scraping in between the rods accessed via the bottom opening.
We were exposed to a lot of good ideas in this garden and really appreciate and thank John and Venie for hosting this visit.
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