A POPULAR television gardening programme last week featured an article on wicking, a method of gardening that assists both amateurs and experts to successfully use a water saving method to grow vegetables and flowers.
Child Side School in Boyanup has been using wicking garden beds for over five years now, in an effort to educate young people on the varied planting choices that coincide with the seasons.
Wicking is a method of using a capillary action to draw water from built-in reservoirs that supply water from the bottom up.
Senior Educator Lisa Seewraj at Child Side said they frequently experimented with plantings and this year saw one of the beds flourish with a green manure crop which would ensure many nutrients were put into the soil before the spring planting.
She said another bed contained quick growing crops in an effort to produce a harvest prior to the spring planting.
“The children popped in herbs, lettuce, Asian greens and rocket and already it is making a big difference for us to have the vegetable tanks right on the school doorstep," she said.
It’s amazing how self-motivated the children become about checking on the growth and condition of the vegetables when they pass them several times a day."
She said the children are shown insect control, with one of the favourite methods being to spray with neem oil, which not only kills off the insects but also conditions the soil and plants.
The school promotes the use of wicking garden beds because of the advantages in minimising waste, the reduction of water loss through evaporation and nutrients not leaching out into the underlying soil.
Mrs Seewraj said the wicking garden beds provide a wealth of opportunities to integrate real life processes into the daily learning, making it more relevant and interesting for the children.
“This is a continual educational process at Child Side as our organic kitchen garden is a daily focal point for meal times and we think it is important that every day the children get involved in preparing and sharing meals together,” she said.
“It sounds so simple, yet it is such an important aspect of life that is so often ignored.”
The educators and children at Child Side have been so impressed with wicking garden beds that with the help of parent volunteers, two more garden beds have been installed.
This has allowed the children an additional educational opportunity by researching the vegetable growing season in an effort to identify the best ones to plant to maximise the harvest from these new wicking garden beds during the winter months.
