NORTH Arm Cove residents and visitors can pay their respects to Philippa Coltart, a strong local advocate for the environment, at a memorial now in place at the Community Garden along The Ridgeway.
Philippa was a co-founder of the ‘North Arm Cove Community Garden Network’ in 2012 and assisted with the establishment and operation of the community garden, which has recently been the beneficiary of grants and upgrades via the State Government.
The memorial was constructed by her partner Darrall Thompson using permaculture design concepts, and is a five-sided ‘wicking bed’, the shape of which echoes the design of their home in Cove Boulevard.
“Philippa had the major task of developing a garden almost an acre in area at Cove Boulevard, and she managed to achieve this, including a rock wall, by building wicking beds using permaculture principles,” Darrall told NOTA.
“Over 400 Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOF) and Workaway travellers… stayed at the home sharing stories, culture and food in exchange for help in the garden over a 15-year period.”
The memorial’s ‘wicking bed’ has a 100mm gravel-and-water reservoir beneath 300mm of soil, separated by geotextile fabric, so water rises to roots by capillary action, like a candle wick.
The driving force behind it all is Mother Nature’s own eternal sense of equilibrium – water will always tend to move from an area where its concentration is high to an area where it is low, i.e. from wet areas to dry areas.
In an open environment like the atmosphere, equilibrium is never really achieved, hence the evaporative drying process continues until all the available water has moved into the air.
Capillary action facilitated by both the botanical structure of the plants and the geotextile fabric also encourages the water to ‘defy’ gravity, moving upwards from below on the back of water adhesion and cohesion.
The memorial garden bed’s water is refilled via the inlet pipe, but the wicking physics mean that it is much more efficient and does not lose surface moisture immediately to the atmosphere, as the water must first pass through the soil and plants, and drains through the side overflow.
As a result, when mulched, these beds use very little water and act to reduce water runoff from rain events.
Philippa Helen Coltart (1948-2025) is now resting in peace at Karuah Cemetery, row 9B.
By Thomas O’KEEFE
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