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Keyhole PDF
Keyhole PDF
Debs
Sustainable Living
Deborah Tolman, Ph.D. earned her Doctorate in Environmental Sciences/ Resources and Geography at Portland State University. She currently resides in central Texas where she is working on her third field guide to green living for Bosque County, Texas. She is the owner of Avant Gardens and balances her time between research, education, writing, sustainable project designing and organizing, and spending time in the garden.
Keyhole Gardens
Contrary to popular belief, waste can equal food. A keyhole garden makes great use of wastes in order to become a truly sustainable garden with no to low watering and no fertilizing. So if knowing how and when to dig, fertilize, or water vegetable gardens has been keeping you from growing healthy and nutritious produce for your family, then a keyhole garden will simplify your life. Keyhole gardens are a technique of gardening used to grow vegetables in dry climates and have been successfully used in places around the world that get far less water than even the driest places in Texas, or a North Carolina drought. They are a special form of raised bed gardens, circular, and walled in by stones or closely packed poles with a path to the center. At the center is a smaller circular basket made from chicken wire that holds manure and other organic kitchen waste. This center of manure and kitchen waste is the self-watering and self-fertilizing aspect that makes gardening life easier, reduces grocery bills, reduces the amount of water to the plants, eliminates fertilizing, and positively influences eating habits with fresh fruits and vegetables.
Step 4. Line the inside of the outside wall with cardboard-lots of it, up against the rock. This is to
keep any soil from creeping out over time. Then fill the entire inside of the garden (not the inner basket) with alternating layers of compostable stuff (see sheet mulching). 1st layer on the ground should be more cardboard and 3" thick (considered brown) 2nd layer could be some green leaves also 3" thick (considered green) 3rd layer should be brown again so choose twigs and small branches for air pockets 4th layer could be 3" of soft green prunings or lots of grass clippings 5th layer of sawdust or shredded newspapers
The top layers should be saved for good manure, mushroom compost, sawdust, or tiny green leaves and twigs, also in alternating combinations. This allows you to plant soon in the spring since these items decompose quickly. The final layer of soil should reach the height of the outside wall (3) and the height of the inner basket (4); so it will be sloped downward from the inner basket. green and brown, but this time use kitchen scraps and herbaceous weeds (everything except meat and bones and dairy). As this inner basket decomposes (with the help of bacteria and fungi) it provides water (kitchen waste equals food for the compost) and fertilizer for your plants by turning the wastes into nutrient-rich compost. Water this basket to give it a jump, and the rest of the garden if needed, but discipline your plants by going as long as you can without watering them this will force their roots downward into the layers of compost and the inner basket where the moisture really resides. The concept works better at different times of the year, given the size and quality of your layering in both the garden and the inner basket.
Over time (within a month) the soil level will drop so you will need to be ready with more
soil if you are replanting. You will be amazed at how many plants you can get in this small space. Remember that crowding is good so that the leaves of one plant provide shade for another. Debs keyhole garden shown in the figure supported and produced 2 Jack-O-Lantern pumpkin vines with four pumpkins, 2 Cinderella pumpkin vines with one huge pumpkin, 12 Malabar spinach vines, 4 cucumber vines, 4 cantelope vines, 1 zucchini (who needs more than one), 12 beet plants, lots of carrots, parsley, marjoram, swiss chard, 4 grocery bags of harvested basil.