Keyhole Garden

[8ntruck 7,016]

My wife and I wanted to build a raised bed this year to make gardening a little easier.  We are wanting to grow tomatoes, peppers lettuce, radishes, and a few beans.   After casting about on the internet, we decided to try a keyhole garden.  These things are round, with a wedge indentation to allow easy access to all of the garden.  They also have a built in compost bin in the center for scraps and weeds.

 

Anyhow, I got the basic structure up today for our raised bed.  Still need to make trim to go around the top, build the compost cage for the center, and fill it .

 

 

 

I'll post more as it develops.

[ebinmaine 67,605]

48 minutes ago, 8ntruck said:

keyhole

Interesting. 

I'd heard the term before. Never knew exactly what it meant. 

 

 

[Achto 27,602]

Interesting design. Looking forward to see the finished product.

 

Been thinking on some type of raised garden for veggies. The black walnut trees in and around my property pretty much have the soil wrecked for growing useful plants. 

[Jeff-C175 7,202]

9 hours ago, 8ntruck said:

raised bed

 

That whole thing gets filled with soil?  

[Pullstart 62,911]

44 minutes ago, Jeff-C175 said:

 

That whole thing gets filled with soil?  

Interesting indeed.  Will the soil blow out the sides?

[DennisThornton 4,769]

I've never thought about using metal roofing!  And I've got a lot of it too!

[8ntruck 7,016]

14 hours ago, pullstart said:

Interesting indeed.  Will the soil blow out the sides?

I'm trusting that the hoop strength of the steel will hold the soil.

[8ntruck 7,016]

15 hours ago, Jeff-C175 said:

 

That whole thing gets filled with soil?  

Layer of rocks in the bottom, a layer of sticks, leaves and other slow compostables, then a layer of soil. Deeper in the center than the sides.  I'm planning on using material out of the pile where the neighborhood has piled leaves at the end of the road for several decades.

 

Honestly, I'm kind of improvising as I build, based on a couple of very general articles about the keyhole garden.  A lot of 'that looks about right' going on.

[ebinmaine 67,605]

4 hours ago, 8ntruck said:

A lot of 'that looks about right' going on.

Best way to learn sometimes

[Jeff-C175 7,202]

7 hours ago, 8ntruck said:

Deeper in the center than the sides.

 

The articles and photos that I've looked at say that it should be higher in the center, sloping away from the compost cage so the nutrients will leech out into the soil.

 

7 hours ago, 8ntruck said:

very general articles

 

I noticed that the "how to build one" articles are VERY general indeed!  Almost like they didn't ACTUALLY build one and stole pics from around the web for their own article.

 

[Kligan 2]

Ooh! It is a very cool idea! I'll have to do it next season. It doesn't seem complicated, but it's so genius.

[Crazyredhorse 295]

my wife needs this she has a herb garden surrounded by 2 4x4s it has 4 baby bunny's in it now.cutting grass around it today they were running around in it like crazy.shes giving up on the garden cuz I think she likes the bunny's more😏

[Zeek 2,286]

Fortunately when my wife went down that route and started bugging me about it, I had (6) 8' x 9" railroad ties I wasn't using.  I cut two in half and made (2) 4'x8' beds pretty quick. 

[Kligan 2]

On 7/9/2021 at 11:20 PM, Kligan said:

It doesn't seem complicated, but it's so genius. I've never tried growing vegetables like this before. I'm used to doing it differently. Plowed the ground, made crops and watered until they grew. But your idea would be something new. I tried to distract myself from conventional gardening by growing knockout roses. But they have caused me so much trouble, so much torment with them, that there are not enough words to describe it. There was no way they would grow big and beautiful without good rose fertilizer at all. But when they did, they were really a joy to behold.

Well, that's just my opinion. You can ignore it...

Edited July 11, 2021 by Kligan

[Jeff-C175 7,202]

On 7/10/2021 at 2:16 AM, Crazyredhorse said:

she likes the bunny's more

 

All depends on how they're prepared.  I like a nice stew, but breaded and deep fried like chicken is pretty tasty too!

 

[Crazyredhorse 295]

The herbs pretty much grow themselves once we planted them.cant really grow anything else here every time we try animals eat them soon as it grows.we grow tomatoes on our patio that seemed to help those though.but sweet its gone.