According to the Baker Institute, the following leafy plants do great in keyhole gardens:
- Lettuce
- Swiss Chard
- Spinach
- Rape
- Mustard Spinach
- Herbs
Can you grow fruits and vegetables in a keyhole garden?
Even with less-than-optimal soil, you can grow a bumper crop of healthy fruits and vegetables with this unique garden design. Keyhole gardens, so named because they’re shaped like an old-fashioned skeleton-key lock, were developed to help folks with less-than-super soil grow nutritious produce.
How to build a keyhole garden?
The structure of keyhole gardens makes them poor environments for wide-spreading plants, such as: First, identify a suitable space for the keyhole garden. Keep in mind that keyhole a keyhole garden should measure 2 meters or 6 1/2 feet in diameter. Clear the area of plants, rocks, and roots. Stake out the perimeter and the center.
How many tomato plants fit in a keyhole garden?
You could fit as many as 70 tomato plants in a single 6-foot diameter keyhole garden. A traditional keyhole garden is just a few feet in diameter but it can house dozens of plants. Keyhole gardens provide unlikely abundances to growers with small yards, community garden plots, or rooftop gardens.
What do you put in a keyhole garden?
A keyhole garden is a round raised bed with a pie-slice cutout for access to a composting basket in the center. The bed is filled with rocks, yard waste, decomposable plant material, and a thick layer of soil/compost on the top for planting. The center basket collects kitchen waste and other biodegradables.
How do you layer a keyhole garden?
0:218:04Building a Keyhole Garden - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipMatter here. And then we have our central compost pile in the middle. Now. As this all breaks downMoreMatter here. And then we have our central compost pile in the middle. Now. As this all breaks down it will shrink a little bit but we'll continue to add compost to the center island.
What is the purpose of a keyhole garden?
A keyhole garden is a two-meter-wide circular raised garden with a keyhole-shaped indentation on one side. The indentation allows gardeners to add uncooked vegetable scraps, greywater, and manure into a composting basket that sits in the center of the bed.
Do keyhole gardens smell?
In theory the compost basket in the center of your keyhole garden shouldn't smell, but there's always a chance it gets a little stinky if it's out of balance. (Don't worry, it's easy to fix!) “A foul smell is a sign that your compost pile is out of balance,” explains Dimitrov.
Do keyhole gardens really work?
Keyhole gardens hold moisture and nutrients due to an active compost pile placed in the center of a round bed. Although most helpful in hot and dry locations, a keyhole garden will improve growing conditions in just about any climate.
How do you fill a keyhole?
0:121:04How to build a Keyhole Garden...the Fill - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipWe started our bottom layer however with pieces of wood stems and wood chips that we had leftoverMoreWe started our bottom layer however with pieces of wood stems and wood chips that we had leftover from the yard work and that was about 4 inches deep.
Why is it called a keyhole garden?
The African keyhole garden is named for its unique shape, a cinch within a circle with the inner sphere being a tower to create compost.
What is no dig gardening method?
In a no-dig regime, weeds are controlled by shallow hoeing, hand weeding, contact weedkillers and mulching. Debris is gathered up rather than dug in. Mulches are taken into the soil by soil organisms, and fertilisers are washed in by rain.
What is mandala garden?
A mandala garden is simply a garden space with plants that take on this design principle. Traditional mandalas were actually a square containing a circle which contained these patterns.
How does African keyhole garden work?
The African keyhole garden was designed by CARE in Zimbabwe during the mid 1990s to encourage people to grow their own food. The design relied on materials that were close at hand—such as bricks, stones, branches, hay, ashes, manure and soil—to create an easy-care garden for disabled people.
What can I plant in a raised bed for full sun?
Some annuals you might want to grow in your raised bed garden are petunias, pansies, basil, lemongrass, and vegetables like tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, squash, and onions. Bonus tip: To help reduce the chance of disease and pests, you don't want to grow annual vegetables in the same spot year after year.
What is a Hugel bed?
Put simply, hugelkultur is a centuries-old, traditional way of building a garden bed from rotten logs and plant debris. These mound shapes are created by marking out an area for a raised bed, clearing the land, and then heaping up woody material (that's ideally already partially rotted) topped with compost and soil.
How does African keyhole garden work?
The African keyhole garden was designed by CARE in Zimbabwe during the mid 1990s to encourage people to grow their own food. The design relied on materials that were close at hand—such as bricks, stones, branches, hay, ashes, manure and soil—to create an easy-care garden for disabled people.
How soon can you plant in a lasagna garden?
How soon can you plant in a lasagna garden? You can plant in your lasagna garden as soon as you build it, or you can wait until spring. In order to plant it right away, your top layer should be 4-6 inches of compost.
How do you make a spiral herb garden?
1:443:58DIY Herb Spiral - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipYou want the opening of your spiral to be facing north in the northern hemisphere build your spiralMoreYou want the opening of your spiral to be facing north in the northern hemisphere build your spiral clockwise in the southern hemisphere counterclockwise that's the direction the water will drain.
What is mandala garden?
A mandala garden is simply a garden space with plants that take on this design principle. Traditional mandalas were actually a square containing a circle which contained these patterns.
How A Keyhole Garden Works
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Introduction to Building A Keyhole Garden
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African Style Raised Keyhole Garden
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How to Build A Keyhole Garden (Parts 1 & 2)
Here in part one, host Casey Hentges shows the finished product and explains the keyhole garden concept. Next, she shows the materials to use—straw...
An Oklahoma Keyhole Garden
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The Best Keyhole Garden and Small Garden Books
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Sloping the soil away from the center well allows better transfer of water and nutrients and adds to surface area. www.sendacow.org.ukA two-page, p...
What to plant in keyholes?
What you choose to plant depends on what your family likes to eat, but good choices for keyhole gardening include lettuce, strawberries, tomatoes, carrots, kale, onions, spinach, herbs, and tomatoes. Add a two-inch layer of dried leaves or shredded bark around the base of the plants.
What is a keyhole garden?
The traditional keyhole garden is a raised circular garden bed with a wedge-shaped cutout along one side that allows easy access to the center of the garden, where a cage serves as a compost pile. The cage is filled with yard and kitchen waste, which decomposes and releases vital nutrients into the rest of the raised garden.
How to keep compost cage from collapsing?
The compost cage in the center (if you’re making it from chicken wire) may require staking to hold it in place, and to keep it from collapsing when you add soil to the surrounding garden.
What is the purpose of watering a keyhole garden?
By watering the keyhole garden at its center, the water drains through the compost and then into the rest of the garden bed, offering a constant source of nutrients.
Why are keyhole gardens important?
Keyhole gardens, so named because they’re shaped like an old-fashioned skeleton-key lock, were developed to help folks with less-than-super soil grow nutritious produce . They were first established in the 1990s for residents of Lesotho, a small nation in southern Africa subject to frequent droughts and soil erosion. Keyhole gardening proved successful in providing a reliable source of food for the people of Lesotho, and the concept has spread across the globe. Read on to understand how these small, smart gardens work—and all it takes to start one of your own.
What is the best material to use for keyhole garden beds?
Stacked stones are traditionally used to create keyhole garden beds, but bricks, concrete blocks, and other materials can be used as long as it’s sturdy enough to support the soil. Keyhole gardens are relatively small—six feet in diameter, or less—in order for the gardener to be able to reach all areas.
How to determine the perimeter of a circular garden?
For a circular garden, hold a three-foot string in the center of the proposed garden and use the other end of the string as a compass to mark the perimeter wall location.
What is a keyhole garden?
A keyhole garden is a round garden bed with a compost pile in the center. The garden has a notch in the front, so gardeners can easily add to or turn over the pile. Featuring a drainage layer, a soil layer, and a planting area, keyhole gardens combine all the necessities that plants need to thrive.
What are keyhole garden borders made of?
The borders of this keyhole garden are made of cement and glass, eliminating the need to worry about compost eroding the garden walls.
Why do keyhole gardens need to be in the center of a round bed?
Keyhole gardens hold moisture and nutrients due to an active compost pile placed in the center of a round bed. Although most helpful in hot and dry locations, a keyhole garden will improve growing conditions in just about any climate. Read on to learn more about how keyhole gardens work as well as some ideas for building your own at home.
What is the handle on a Send a Cow keyhole garden?
The handles are forged aluminum, the blade is hardened steel. The handle even includes small shock absorbers to protect your hands and wrist. Simply the best on the market—and it comes with a lifetime guarantee. keyhole garden from Send a Cow.
How did Jim Long build his keyhole garden?
Jim Long shows how he built his keyhole garden, with wooden fencing as the exterior. He shows the filling he used beneath the soil. The round hole where compost and water goes is made from chicken wire. He places a lid on top of the round hole to help retain some of the moisture. Jim saves the compost to use in other pots and future use in his keyhole garden.
What is a notch in a garden?
A notch is cut into a round garden bed. The notch makes for easy access to the center compost well. Keyhole garden in Uganda by Send a Cow. This sustainable gardening method uses kitchen and garden waste and gray water (or wash water) as food for your garden. Layering is proven to enhance soil health.
Where is Deb Tolman's keyhole garden?
At Keyhole Garden in Central Texas, Deb Tolman uses keyhole gardens as the main source of her own food supply and is working on ways to keep them producing throughout multiple seasons and conditions.
What vegetables can I grow in a garden bed?
They work great for annual herbs and cut flowers too. Vegetables that form a root ball like onions, beets, turnips, and round radishes are also good choices.
What to do if your garden is weedy?
If your chosen site happens to be weedy, mow them down and build right over them. Bill Mollison, one of the founders of the permaculture movement, and a huge advocate for keyhole beds suggests putting them close to your house. This makes it more likely that you’ll visit your garden often to tend and harvest.
How far into the ground do I dig poplar posts?
I dug my poplar posts two feet into the ground, in the corners, as my anchors. They keep my bed from sliding downhill since I decided to build on a sloped site.
What do you need to do with taller posts?
All you need to do is integrate taller posts into your bedsides and wrap or cover those with fencing, netting, or row covers as needed.
Can you vine tomatoes over a trellis?
Or…you can run your trellis outwards like a table and vine your tomatoes over the trellis. You may have to leave your keyhole to harvest, but you keep your tomatoes off the ground and limit fungal risks. Now, that you are in the know, unlock the magic in your garden and build yourself a perfect-for-you keyhole bed!
Can you use junk as a keyhole bed?
I don’t know about you, but I feel guilty about all the stuff I throw away. When you build your keyhole bed, you can use your unwanted junk as the base for your keyhole bed. (I’ll show you how shortly.)
Do you have to drain your garden from the ground?
Since your growing area will be raised above the ground, you don’t have to think about drainage in the way that you would an in-ground garden. You do want to make sure you aren’t standing in mud sludge every time you garden. Also, water should drain from your bed without creating a big mess.
What is important to consider when building a keyhole garden?
It is important to consider the size and shape of the bed you will build . Early in the design process, you will need to decide whether the keyhole shapes will be for access only, or whether your keyhole garden will have a central compost bin.
Why Make a Keyhole Garden?
One of these raised beds can be used to grow a substantial amount of food. It maximises the yield that can be obtained from a given amount of space.
Why do keyhole beds have a composting area?
In keyhole beds that incorporate a composting area at their heart, yield is also increased by the high-fertility provided by the compostable materials added at the centre. Since water is also added through the central composting area, one of these beds can also reduce the water use in a garden.
How does a keyhole garden work?
Any keyhole garden can maximise yield by minimising pathway, and maximising the amount of usable growing space. When making any growing area, it is important to make sure that the gardener can easily reach all areas without standing on the beds.
Why use a keyhole bed?
A keyhole bed can be a great way to maximise space and productivity in an organic garden.
How deep should a circular garden be?
The circular garden 2m in diameter mentioned above is typically made as a raised bed, at a height of around 1m (or a comfortable depth for easy gardening). This depth of bed is ideal if you plan to create a central composting bin at the heart of your keyhole garden.
What is the first step in creating a keyhole garden?
The first stage in creating a keyhole garden is determining details of the design. It is important to consider the size and shape of the bed you will build.
What Is A Keyhole Garden
The term ‘keyhole garden, comes from shape of the garden area itself. This is basically a round structure roughly about 9 foot in diameter with a wedge cut into it – just like slicing a cake!
Building A Keyhole Garden
First of all you create a structure similar to the one in the picture. This can be made from bricks, concrete block, timber, corrugated iron, in fact anything that you may have to hand that is suitable for this structure.
Keyhole Gardening On Amazon
The general idea, is that you have access to the center well at all times as this is the ‘engine room’ of your keyhole garden.
Filling a Keyhole Garden
Once the structure has been formed it is time to fill it in. This can be done exactly the same way as you would fill in a deep raised bed garden. To take up some of the volume you would throw in a variety of old wood or organic detritus such as fallen leaves at the bottom of the bed.
Maintaining A Keyhole Garden
This is a simple matter of watering the well area especially on a regular basis as you do not want in to dry out completely. These worms need a moist area to work in and do their composting magic!
What Can You Plant In A Keyhole Garden?
A keyhole garden is basically just another form of Raised Bed Garden, with a few subtle differences. So you can in fact grow almost anything that you could in a Raised Bed or Square foot garden.
What materials are needed to build a keyhole garden?
Gather free, readily available materials to create the keyhole garden walls. Stones, cement blocks, and used tires are just a few examples of commonly used building materials.
What is a Keyhole Garden?
A keyhole garden is a small circular raised bed with an indentation on one side. The keyhole-like indentation isn’t there for aesthetic purposes. It’s used as an access point for food waste, gray water, and manure.
Why do you need to make amendments to your keyhole garden?
Keyhole gardens are designed to stay moist when little precipitation is available. While you will need to make amendments to your keyhole garden compost pile, this is far easier and less expensive than adding commercial fertilizers. As the compost decomposes, it releases rich, beneficial nutrients into the soil.
Why add a garden floor to a keyhole garden?
Don’t forget to add a garden floor. This essential layer helps trap in moisture and nutrients . Without it, essential plant foods will leech into the soil beneath your keyhole garden.
Why were keyhole gardens important?
Keyhole gardens were part of a vast humanitarian effort. They were intended to empower individuals to feed themselves.
How to make a biodegradable floor?
Create a thick yet biodegradable floor for your garden. Use old newspapers, yard clippings, broken clay pots, and aluminum cans to line the floor and walls. Using these materials, create a slope that extends from the compost cage to the garden walls.
How much space do you need for a keyhole garden?
Don’t stress about the placement of your keyhole garden. Just be sure that there is sufficient space for 6 1/2 feet of garden. These African container gardens have their own built-in drainage system and they are raised off the ground. So the pre-existing soil conditions have no impact on the plants.
