If I lived in a drought area, I would definitely do this. And even though I'm not, I might do it anyway.

https://vimeo.com/114411481

@elranchoneglecto LOL love the username!

Wow, thanks for sharing crittergarden! This looks like one of those fun projects to keep in the back pocket. It could be altered a bit and incorporated into drain area with a series of these wicking beds. Oh the wheels are turning!!!🤓

My thought was that it would last longer if made of cinderblock or anything that wouldn't rot.

critter - there was a discussion on another forum about using cinder block for raised beds due to the fly ash content of a lot of concrete mixes these days. DD made a big box for her deck in a rental and used a mix of beeswax and something else to help preserve the wood.
I do a lot of container gardening and was wondering about adding small sticks to the pots for the increase in microbial activity. Won't make much of a dent in my surplus of oak limbs, etc the way that a hugel bed would but wondering if it would prove beneficial.

I have wondered about that myself.

Designer becomes recliner. In archaeology that's how we use wheelbarrows! But a wheel barrow doesn't wick anything.

>> It could be altered a bit and incorporated into drain area with a series of these wicking beds.

It sounds interesting, though IT at work won't let me go there.

I emailed the link to myself at home.

Imagining what it might be, I came up with a "deep rooted" raised bed that will suck water up and out out of a low spot in a yard and lower the surrounding temporary water table.

Or, in a drought area, maybe scavenge run-off water or a deep water table and bring some water closer to the surface. I read about some kind of tree (maple??) that sends down deep roots to find water, then pulls the water up and redistributes the deep water near the surface roots.

Tonight I'll find out how close my guess is.

Rick - I was waiting for you to chime in on how water moves through soil.

BIG pores and LITTLE pores and medium--size pores!
Water tables! Capillary fringe! http://www.earthdrx.org/poresi...
Grading! Trenching! Raised beds and sunken beds!
Diffusion in air and diffusion in water!
Coarse mixes and slumping, flowing, sticky clay!
Concentration gradients and tortuosity!
Clay plus 10% sand MIGHT be concrete instead of Loamy Sand, but clay plus 40% sand is Sandy Clay!
Blah, blah, blah!!

I was thinking recently that I should bite the bullet and write up an article or three full of opinions. Then I could just post a link instead of consuming electrons and server space. But every few weeks my drainage enthusiasms and focus change.

Rick - not terribly deep rooted, but:

http://www.lowimpactdevelopmen...

I should read that! Have to leave for lunch now, but will.

I would have thought that, around here, "rain garden" kind of means the same thing as "garden".

>> "takes advantage of rainfall and stormwater runoff in its design and plant selection. Usually, it is a small garden which is designed to withstand the extremes of moisture and concentrations of nutrients,"

Right: a garden.

I'll mine it for ideas.

Thank you!

Certainly more important outside of coastal Washington and Oregon......

Have fun.