Based in the leafy North Eastern suburbs of Melbourne, I created Sprout Up to make urban gardening accessible and easier for everyone. With backyard veggie patches, school and community gardens rising in popularity, I saw the need for an easy, water wise raised garden bed solution that anyone could master. Also, with rising food costs and scarcity of some fruits and vegetables in supermarkets, growing your own food is a great way to be more self reliant. Regardles of your “green thumb”, you can be successful at gardening and growing your own food. Wicking beds are a low maintenance, water saving and productive way to garden and perfect for those people lacking time or expertise. For the more experienced gardeners, a wicking bed will transform the way you garden.
My Story
I have always enjoyed gardening and landscaping, but it wasn’t until about 10 years ago I started my first veggie patch and there my journey to wicking beds began.
I built 3 small unlined raised garden beds and had great success the first year. However, the next 2 years I had very little success despite all my efforts. Each year I prepared the soil, mulched and watered regularly but just couldn’t produce many crops. I realised the surrounding Gum tree roots were invading the vegetable garden bed and taking all the water and nutrients from my plants. To fix this, I decided to line underneath the raised garden beds with plastic pond liner. Fortunately, before I started this lengthy process I was told about wicking beds. I changed all my raised garden beds into wicking beds and haven’t looked back.
Year after year I was producing lots of food and saving time and water. I didn’t need to manually water every morning during summer and probably best of all, I could go away on holidays in summer without worrying about the plants dying.
In 2022, I moved house and left my DIY wicking beds behind. I have the oppportunity to start my veggie patch again from scratch so I’m doing it a bit differently this time. Instead of building my own wicking beds, I’m using Foodcubes. I chose the Foodcube because it only needs soil in the tray, they are relocatable and they are connectable meaning I can keep adding to them as my garden gows. Follow my garden journey here as I rebuild my productive space again.
Growing your own food can be simple, productive and cheap. With the right tools and advice, anyone can do it. I can help create a productive space no matter the size of the project. Whether you are a novice gardener, school or community garden.
What People Say
Delivery and installation was quick and easy.
Adam K.
I can’t believe how easy it is to grow your own food.
R. King
Perfect for your community gardening program.
Mount Coburg