Below is a summery of wicking bed advantages and disadvantages to help you decide whether a wicking bed will meet your gardening needs.

• Use between 40 and 50% less water than a conventional garden bed.
  
  
• Harder for weeds to establish as the soil on the surface is drier.
  
  
• Watering is semiautomatic, so it is possible to go away for two or three
  weeks at a time without your wicking bed drying out.
  
  
• Can be entirely watered by a low pressure water system, meaning it can be
  directly connected to a water tank without the use of a pressure pump.
  
  
• Ideal for gardens that have trees with invasive roots or are infested with Couch grass as it is very difficult for tree roots and Couch runners to penetrate into a wicking bed.

• Much more expensive to build, approximately three to four times the cost of a conventional raised garden bed.
  
  
• As the design is more complicated  they take longer to build and require a higher level of building skills.
  
  
• When the reservoir has water in it the underlying soil remains much damper, which can be a problem  for vegetables that prefer dryer conditions.
  
  
• Use a lot more  materials to build than a conventional garden bed