Wicking Bed Blog Articles

A garden bed should still be standing — and still producing — long after the students who planted it have graduated. Here is why a growing number of NSW schools are building theirs once and building them properly. Most school veggie gardens start with the best intentions and end the same way: a few seasons in, the cheap pine sleepers have gone soft and black, the corners have blown out, and the bed that was meant to teach a generation about growing food has quietly become a

If you're a teacher or P&C lead trying to fund a school veggie garden in NSW, the Stephanie Alexander Kickstart Grant isn't your only option. In fact, depending on which council your school sits in, it might not even be the most accessible one. Over the past three years, UrbanVeg has installed wicking beds at several schools through the City of Ryde Edible Gardens in Schools project — including wheelchair-accessible bed. That program is the most active council-led example we

If you've ever tried to grow vegetables with a class of Year 3s, you already know the two enemies: school holidays, and a garden budget that never quite stretches. The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation's Kickstart Grant exists to solve the second one for under-resourced schools — and for the schools that win it, it turns a wishful idea into a working program. The 2026 round closed on 3 April, with twelve schools selected nationally. If your school missed it, good

This article details the main reasons wicking beds make perfect sense for a learning environment.