Is your backyard too hot and dry to cultivate the vegetables you have only dreamed of? Keyhole gardens were developed for the sole purpose of maximum crop output in the hottest and driest of conditions. Their low cost, low maintenance, and versatility make them a desirable gardening option for your yard and for gardening across the globe.
Humanitarian foundations spearheaded the development of keyhole gardening to help improve lives around the world. Keyhole gardening is simple enough to be taught to school-age children in third-world countries where the children then use the concept in their homes and villages. A single keyhole garden affords enough abundance to provide a large family with a year round supply of vegetables.
Keyhole gardens are circular raised bed gardens. The larger outer circles are where crops are planted. The center portion of these gardens are active composting baskets. Small aisles are built to access the compost baskets. Keyhole gardens get their name from the bird’s eye view of these features.
The composting basket is center to the success of keyhole gardens. Kitchen scraps and grey water are added to the compost basket daily for continuous replenishment of the soil. The soil for keyhole gardens is specially layered to boost its ability to maintain moisture and nourishment.
Keyhole gardens are currently making their way into backyards everywhere. You can create one in your own space with the following steps:
To begin, clear and level a sunny, circular area about 6 feet in diameter. Centered within that circle will be your composting basket. Create your composting basket using sticks, positioned vertically, and twine or chicken wire. Think in terms of creating a basket. Place rocks on the ground at the bottom of the basket for drainage. Place a layer of topsoil over the rocks, and feed the compost with kitchen and garden scraps.
Construct a protective shade to cover the compost basket during times of intense heat to prevent over drying. The protective cover can be used for rainy periods, too. You don’t want too much moisture to wash the nutrients from the compost into the soil too quickly.
Build the perimeter walls of the garden using what you have on hand. Rocks, bricks, or blocks are preferable, but sticks driven into the ground or even old tires will hold back the soil. The wall can be built as high as you choose depending on the materials you have and what is a comfortable gardening level for you. The compost will increase soil volume, so you may want to continue to build the garden walls up over time.
Next, take special care while layering the soil as you add it to your garden. The lowest layer should consist of broken plant pots, tin cans, and twigs. These allow for drainage. Layer cardboard, straw, topsoil, ashes, compost, and aged manure. Save the best soil for your top layer. Ideally, your soil will slope slightly away from the composting basket so nutrients will reach the outer borders of the garden.
Let the soil set for a week before planting seeds or seedlings. Plant at least four different types of vegetables in your garden to maintain fertility and to promote resistance to pests and disease. Onion and garlic, specifically, provide pest protection. Plant leafy greens next to root vegetables. Tomatoes can be planted near the center of the garden to allow the basket to provide support for the plant. Preferred root plants for keyhole gardens include carrots, beets, and radishes. Spinach, lettuce and herbs are all good choices for leafy vegetables.
Directly water seeds and young plants with clean water until roots are established. Use kitchen and other discard water in the compost basket after plants are beginning to mature. The water from the compost basket is sufficient to sustain the garden.
To see images of keyhole gardens, and for specific instructions for creating your own, visit these links:
http://www.inspirationgreen.com/keyhole-gardens.
http://www.sendacow.org.uk/lessonsfromafrica/re.
http://www.growrealfood.com/gardening/how-to-why-you-should-build-a-keyhole-garden/
See how to build a keyhole garden with regular bricks on YouTube.
Central Texas Gardener TV show covers keyhole gardening in great depth on YouTube.
Creative Commons Flickr photo courtesy of yarnmaven
Great idea, but how do you keep deer, etc. out of these gardens?
put soap shavings around the outside perimeter…or hair cuttings…(see the local beauty shop)….both keep deer away.. blood does too, but well….
cher in Idaho…lots of deer here!
I have lots of deer too. Plus gophers, birds rabbits and bear. an electric fence around the perimeter and carpenter’s cloth (which is stronger than chicken wire) underneath the raised beds are the solutions that work for me and my neighbors.
Most comments about deer were left long before the Covid-19 Virus. We will be running out of food for sure. Planting season is here and there is no planting going on. The migrants are not allowed any more.
We have plenty of deer. We have meat. We have hunters. So let them hunt.
To keep animals out of the garden: make a dome with chicken wire that is tall enough to allow the plants to grow within it.
I’m new at trying to garden. A true City Girl wanting healthy food.
Get in touch with your county extension agent.
Need to know secret to growing asparagus , plant about 16 plants ( 2 year old roots ) and very few come up looks like the roots have rotted when I dig them up after 2-3 years of no asparagus
How deep did you dig your beds? What type of soil do you have? Mine is 2′ deep (I was shooting for 4′ deep but hit heavy clay 1′ down). I layered lots of leaves, peat moss, and manure before topping with topsoil. If you can dig deeper, you might add a layer of gravel to hold moisture without “drowning” the plants.
My understanding through online research is that asparagus matures at or around four years, so it reccomends planting yearly to eventually yield yearly.
Would a keyhole garden be suitable for Miami Beach? The weather here is hot/humid.
One of the many advantages of keyhole gardens is that the raised bed with absorbant materials on the bottom allows them to be built on any type of soil because the soil in the keyhole garden doesn’t get waterlogged, and air can get to the soil without disturbing the plants. We’ve built one with scavenged rock and concrete and it has been more productive and easier to maintain that any garden I’ve had before. Think about trying a rammed earth raised bed to avoid using any wood or concrete.
Check out my blog on Keyhole Gardening in South Texas, a perfect and dry environment for this type of garden.
http://www.memorylanephotospot.com/blog/2014/10/18/Keyhole-Garden.aspx
Arizona is where i lived, and summer is super hot. I like this keyhole garden, i specifically want to see that middle where you put the compost,i want to understand the idea how it feeds the garden? i wonder of the weeds?
just starting to learn and i want to make sure i do it right
http://www.inspirationgreen.com/assets/images/Blog-Building/Keyhole%20Gardens/8%20detail_keyhole.jpg
Here is a diagram that might help you get a feel for it. 🙂
link is gone
Try this one: https://www.niftyhomestead.com/blog/keyhole-garden/
This tiny area within the Keyhole area shown is far too small to grow more than a very few plants. Be realistic, these tiny plants in the photo will eventually grow a whole lot bigger, so please don’t be misleading those who are new at gardening…the depth is fine, but the area is way to small to grow more than a few plants.
In Africa, one keyhole garden can feed a family of 4, and that’s not just supplementary veg, that’s the majority of their food. Take a look at second photo in the link I provided above, and see how many plants are in there, and the owners have clearly harvested a number of plants already. Although that one has more surface area than the one shown in this article, I assume the one above will also be making use of the gaps in the cinder blocks. The key is to keep renewing with new plants each time plants are harvested – the compost basket should provide enough nutrients to replenish the soil.
First time key-hole gardeners here in S.E. Texas, north of Houston, and our first Spring with the garden. How do we know if our compost system is working correctly? We seem to have a lot of maggots and larva down there…
Thanks for the link. Lots of great info on keyhole gardening. I have a very arid and WINDY area where my garden is located in Colorado.
So do you ever empty the composted centre – and if so, how? Mine’s overflowing so haven’t been able to keep topping it up.
No, there’s only two of us and we don’t have many kitchen discards, we don’t have a lawn, so no grass clippings. Not an expert, by ant means, but you may need an additional compost pile somewhere else. Also, water the composter some to help it decompose. Let what’s in there decompose and add more as needed.
hi man, i’m not shure, this bones in the compost, it’s a good idea?
Does anyone have problems with the garden attracting mice or rats? Naturally, it’s going to attract flies, but is it a big problem or small nuisance?
How do you fill the keyhole garden the 2nd year? The dirt I have left over from last summer fills about 1/3 of the box. Do I layer on top of that dirt beginning with cardboard again?
Btw my keyhole gardens are wonderful and bountiful!
Please advise: I need to fill my keyhole garden that still has dirt from last year’s garden. The dirt fills 1/3 of the garden. When I started the garden last summer, I layered beginning with cardboard, and followed the directions, having only 6″ of soil on top. How do I refill the garden this year? Do I need to remove the dirt and begin again, or can I layer on top of the dirt?