Glenfield, NSW

Two years after we installed the first eighteen wicking beds on the on-site farm at Hurlstone Agricultural College, the school asked us back to grow the garden further — six additional beds, bringing the total to twenty-four. It's now the biggest single project we've delivered, and the kind of return commission we're proudest of: the original beds had proven themselves, and the college wanted more of the same.

The six new beds extend the existing run, sitting alongside the beds we built in the first stage so the whole facility reads as one large, connected growing area rather than two separate installs. They're built to exactly the same standard as the originals — kiln-dried, vegetable-grade timber with our food-safe iron-oxide finish, no cheap CCA pine anywhere near where the students grow their food — fully lined over an integrated wicking reservoir and filled with our custom-blended organic growing medium. Matching the first stage means consistent results across all twenty-four beds and a garden that ages evenly over the years.

At this scale, the self-watering design isn't a nice-to-have, it's what makes the facility workable. 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 even twenty-four beds only need topping up every few weeks rather than daily. Hand-watering a growing area this size would be a serious undertaking; the wicking system removes that burden almost entirely.
That matters most over the breaks. A teaching farm has to keep producing through term holidays and the hot Western Sydney summers, when no one is on site to water — and that's exactly what a large run of self-watering raised beds delivers. The reservoirs carry the crops through, so the students' work isn't lost between terms and the farm keeps producing year-round.
Across twenty-four beds, that's a remarkable and reliable volume of food.
For a school built around agriculture, the expanded facility means even more room for genuine, hands-on learning. Students get to plant, tend and harvest across a serious working garden — practising crop planning, rotation, nutrition and harvest at a scale that mirrors real horticulture rather than a token demonstration plot. Adding the extra beds simply gives more classes more space to get their hands in the soil.

Being asked back to expand a garden we built is the best feedback we can get. It says the first stage worked — that the beds were productive, durable and easy enough to run that the college wanted to commit to more. Reaching twenty-four beds here, our largest job to date, is a milestone we're genuinely chuffed with.

Built from durable, food-safe timber, these raised garden beds are made to last in a working farm setting through years of daily school use. UrbanVeg builds raised garden beds and self-watering vegetable beds for schools across the Glenfield area and Western Sydney.

If your school or college is planning a productive growing facility — or looking to grow one it already has — we'd love to help you plan it.