Mini wicking bed

I confess I'm a serial gardener. I have conventional raised beds, hugel beets, hugelkulture, raised bed filled hugel style, a food forest want-to-be. I enjoy trying new things.  I also have to be creative because gophers make it almost impossible to grow anything unprotected.  Which led me to putting lots of small holes in plastic nursery pots and planting them in the ground.  My newest garden adventure is wicking beds.
I wanted to plant a tomato close to the back door. My husband has chronic pain due to a neck injury. He isn't bedridden, but spends most of his time there.  He LOVES tomatoes. My thoughts are if it's close maybe he will go out a little more to enjoy some tomatoes. Anyway I can get him moving, and a little sun is a good thing.  
Recently I fell down the wicking bed YouTube hole. I decided to give it a try. I was going to use a 5 gallon bucket, but I saw this bin for $13 it's a little taller than the bucket, and more space. It just seemed like it would be a better choice. Used brick on the bottom, put a plastic grate that comes with filters for our air conditioners. Then cut cotton t-shirt into strips to go into the bottom of the bin.  Topped it with a couple layers of cotton t-shirt to help wick and keep soil out of the water chamber.  A PVC pipe cut at a slant so water can fill the bottom reservoir.  A layer of 2 year old wood chips, and soil.  Will it work?  Time will tell.

Jenn, I love your creativity with this! I can't see why it wouldn't work but either way, I applaud you for trying to find a way for your hubby to have easy access to his favourite. I've been trying to figure out the wicking thing, too. I look forward to some updates on how it works for you. Have a wonderful day!

"Gardening with Leon" on you  tube might give you a few ideas.

Stacking functions. I decided to add worms to my bin. I bought a dollar store pitcher. I normally would have used something I already had, but in this case I wanted something with a lid that's easy to put on and take off. I put a bunch of holes in the pitcher. I buried it in the bin. Put soil in the bottom. Filled it with kitchen scraps (I wet them down for good measure). I placed a scoop of red wigglers from my worm bin on top of the scraps and put the lid on.
The only downside I see at this point is somehow I have rolly Polly's ( potato bugs, pill bugs, sow bugs, what ever you call them) in my worm bin.( On of the screens on the air holes must have come off?)
Other than that it seems like a good idea. The worms should be happy, the bottom 1/3 is old wood chips. Soil should always be nice and moist without being wet. I will add scraps when needed.  The worms will make worm castings which is always good. Help keep the soil aerated.. Just help make the system more healthy in general. My only real concern is the bin getting to hot.  My worm bun is always outside, so they endure the scorching heat of the summer. But the bin is in full shade. My hope is the water will help them keep cool enough.  I guess I can always stick an ice pack in the corner to give them a cool spot.  Will be interesting to see what I end up with at the end of the season.

Not much chang, but it hasn't even been 2 weeks.  It's starting to get hot.  So far so good I guess??? The only change I made is to cover the top of the compost top. I know worms don't like the light, so I the system will work better if the scraps are in the dark.  
My main concern is the soil feels quite warm.  I worry it's to hot for the worms, and maybe the reason the tomato does seem to be growing. I may put cardboard around the outside of the bin, leaving an air space. I might paint the cardboard white.  Maybe this will help.  Time will tell.  

Of the 3 different wicking beds I have tried this one seems to be doing the best.  At first it wasn't working very well for me.  Once I started watering from the top instead of just filling it up with the pipe it improved a lot.  Maybe I didn't use the right soil?  I don't know.  I water it once a week until I see water coming out of the drain hole.  As it gets hotter I may have to increase that.  But so far so good.

I'm not sure the worms have survived.  I haven't seen them, and I'm not sure the food scraps are kinda the same???

I tried three different wicking beds this year, and this one is the most stressful.  The water drys up way faster than I thought it would.  I still have to water this about every three or four days.  If I want to grow plants in a place I can't put in the ground, this works.  Even though watering every 3 to 4 days is more than I hoped for, without the wicking chamber I'm sure I would have to water this every day.  So it does save time.  It's the only one I will keep using.  I think it will be great to grow lettuce, and some winter green, like spinach, maybe broccoli, or carrots.  I know tomatoes have deep roots, so I knew it was a stretch trying a tomato, especially a cherry tomato. It didn't get very big, it is producing tomatoes.

Out of the three wicking systems I tried this was the only one that worked. I still had to water often in the heat of summer, but not as much as I would a regular pot.
I will continue to use it. It's a great way to grow in a place I can't grow by other means.