Faulconbridge, NSW

A forward-thinking public school in Faulconbridge ordered six wicking beds for their kids to learn from, plant in and eat from — a proper growing space at the heart of the school day. Six beds give a school plenty of room for whole classes to get involved, with space to grow a real variety across the year.

Wicking beds are great for schools because watering over the holiday period generally isn't needed, and the vegetables thrive regardless. Each bed stores its water in a sealed reservoir in the base, and the plants draw it up from below as they need it, so the garden keeps itself alive through the breaks and the students return to a thriving patch rather than a dried-out one.

Beyond the harvest, there's a rich science lesson built into every bed. Children can learn about the science of wicking itself — how water moves up through the growing medium — along with plant nutrient exchange, photosynthesis, and everything else that goes into making a vegetable patch thrive. A wicking bed makes those invisible processes tangible: the reservoir, the soil, the roots and the growing plants are all right there to see and talk about.

The Blue Mountains setting suits the beds well. Faulconbridge sits higher and cooler than Sydney, and a raised bed warms faster in spring than the cold mountain ground, giving crops an earlier, longer growing season — while the reservoir looks after the watering through the holidays and the dry spells. It's a combination that turns a tricky mountain climate into a productive one.

Each bed is built from kiln-dried, vegetable-grade timber with our food-safe iron-oxide finish — no cheap CCA pine near where the children grow their food — fully lined over the wicking reservoir and filled with our custom-blended organic growing medium. Together the six beds are a living lesson in how plants grow, and productive enough to put real vegetables on the table.

Built from durable, food-safe timber, these raised garden beds are made to last through mountain winters and years of school use. UrbanVeg builds raised garden beds and self-watering vegetable beds for schools across Faulconbridge and the Blue Mountains. If your school would like a productive garden to learn and grow from, we'd love to help you plan it.