Since many here garden in raised beds I thought I would alert you to an interesting article in this months (Feb) electric co-op magazine. Written By Deb Tolman on her Keyhole Garden projects. Can probably find it by just googling keyhole gardens. Opinions ???
I like to use my raised beds but have to admit i'm not fond of the square foot gardening methods. I read about the keyhole method and must be missing something because I just don't get the benefit. the only benefit i saw mentioned in the article i read was that a 1mx1m raised bed had less arable ground compared to a keyhole system. However if you make the raised bed larger this arguement doesn't work. I also cant understand how you will get better crop production vs a square system when the plants have to be evenly spaced. The only benefit i can see this system has is if you have a very small garden area and want to grow a small amount of veg. I will be interested to see others opinions. But wont be jumping to dig up my raised SQUARE beds
It was the feeding method I found interesting. Yes I think that this type could hold quite a few plants as well as the center which she did not use. And in useing the straight compost/manure and scrap paper its a little different I thought. Lord knows I have plenty of horse manure and hubby reads two newspapers daily. I may experiment in an old container and see how it produces. I sure will plant heavier than she did.
Found an article on utube where they were using the system in Lesotho. Here is a site with written info http://www.cowfiles.com/african-gardens/keyhole-gardens It looked like a way to make an enriched garden bed that would take advantage of passive solar energy and great for the high desert region it was developed for. Would definitely help with water conservation and water hauling. I really liked how the compost was integrated right into the center of the bed. It definitely has some advantages, but might not work everywhere. If only I had some rocks...
http://www.afrigadget.com/2008/07/05/keyhole-gardens/ I think this is one of the concepts that you have to look at as being beneficial where it is typically used but not necessarily an added benefit or needed in home gardens under different weather and growing conditions. In areas, like Africa where I think the concept was created, where the soil is not the most nutrient rich and water is very scarce this is a valuable solution. They prevent soil erosion and keep the crops from being trampled by free roaming livestock, retain water and make harvesting much easier. But I do like the concept as it gives older people a chance to help with the garden when they can no longer get up and down to do regular in the ground gardening....or even sit/lean over a raised bed.
