Community Gardens

Improving sustainability and yield with WaterUps

WaterUps Raised Garden Beds used in Community Gardens across Australia

WaterUps Wicking solutions are being used in raised garden beds for community gardens across Australia because of the multiple benefits they provide.

Cut watering time by over 90% — save hours each week!

A Sydney Community Garden cut their watering time by over 90% — from 11 hours to 1 hour — through installing WaterUps solutions. Read the case study here.

Top of the list is that WaterUps wicking cells when used in raised community garden beds need only 20% of the water of top-down irrigation systems. For a drought-prone country like Australia, this saves gardening communities water costs, water wastage and their time in ensuring adequate watering of their beds. For the average community garden, WaterUps can reduce the weekly time spent watering from 15 to 2 hours.

With our wicking solutions in place, plants are stronger, grow faster and provide a longer fruiting or crop season, meaning a community garden can feed more people.

 

WaterUps Solutions for Community Gardens

Our wicking cells can be retrofitted into existing raised garden beds, as the individual cell unit (comprising four feet or wicks) can be further cut down to one half or one quarter size to maximise the wick-ability of each garden bed. For this solution, the cells would sit in a reservoir made from a pond liner

Additionally, community gardens could opt to install our sub-irrigation channel in long-running raised garden beds. These units come pre-enclosed in their own tank system which can be joined easily to consecutive units through a pipe set-up.

For those community gardens that have in-ground garden beds, WaterUps can also be used and our wicking solution (either cells or Sub-Irrigation Channel (SIC)) will still save time and money over drip or drizzle options. WaterUps in an in-ground bed will use around 34% of the water of above ground watering systems, while watering a 60% larger area due to horizontal wicking benefits.

For any location or group wanting to create their own community garden we also offer ready-to-go raised garden bed packages. This includes the Oasis 1680, which can come pre-installed with WaterUps wicking technology, or you can opt for one of our Food Garden Kits that has everything you need including garden frames and netting, worm farms and composting solutions.

Emergency Support for Community Gardens

In January 2020, Kangaroo Island was impacted by a bush fire, which burned nearly 50% of the island that measures 155 km long by 55 km wide

After the bush fires ravaged many parts of Kangaroo Island, ABC Gardening Australia presenter, Sophie Thomson worked with the Kangaroo Island Garden Club on a re-growth recovery project.

As part of this project 270 WaterUps® cells were used in 30 IBC wicking beds with the complete, kangaroo-protected enclosures being completed in 7 days. ‘Regrowth Kangaroo Island Recovery’ . WaterUps is the ideal solution to help communities that have been affected by fire, flood or volcanic ash re-start their edible food gardens.

Community Gardens –  Benefits & Membership

At WaterUps our commitment to Community Gardens is evident in our membership of  

Community Gardens Australia 

Sustainable Gardening Australia 

Permaculture Australia 

where we provide 10% discount to fellow members. 

Community gardens offer many benefits, from providing a place for those who otherwise would not have space or opportunity to grow food to helping city people reconnect with nature.  

Gardening in communities also encourages fitness, sharing of healthy seasonal fresh vegetables and fruit, increased social interaction and sense of community belonging, and increased gardening knowledge and expertise. Community gardens can also contribute to urban improvement by greening otherwise vacant lots, diversifying the use of open space, and increasing plant diversity which can expand the habitat for urban wildlife. 

There are numerous community garden clubs across Australia, many of which receive funding from their local councils, helping to create vibrant edible gardens in our suburbs and inner-cities, including community housing projects.  

The extent of diversity of community gardens across Australia using WaterUps in their raised garden beds has proven the suitability of WaterUps in all climates in Australia.   

You can search online or in Facebook to find a club or garden near you. 

See the Results of WaterUps Raised Garden Beds in Community Gardens across Australia

Community gardeners have produced amazing crops by using the WaterUps wicking system in their raised garden beds throughout Australia.