"What's a keyhole garden?" you may ask. It is a drought tolerant way to grow a lot of food in a small space. They came out of dry areas of Africa, where, I think you'll agree, the climate might be a bit tougher than ours. After reading a lot about it (the PEC Coop magazine had a good article about them not long ago and there are many videos and articles online as well), I decided to build one.
I built ours out of leftover stone from when our home was built, limestone rocks I found on our property, and about 20 more pieces of limestone I bought because I didn't want to spend a week collecting large rocks. While no one will mistake me for a stonemason, our garden came out okay, and it is certainly sturdy!We chose not to add all the cardboard to the bottom that is usually recommended, because I was concerned about the chemicals that might leach into the soil from the cardboard manufacture. Instead, I poured leaves in the bottom- a mixture of bamboo, oak and pecan. Next we filled it with The Natural Gardener's Hill Country garden soil and finally, planted it. We have 14 tomato plants- from cherry tomatoes to Big Boys and all sizes in between- 8 peppers, 2 strawberries, a thyme and then I planted seeds for Malabar spinach, mixed lettuces (under the tomatoes, so they'll shade them a bit),
cukes and zukes, yellow squash, green beans and okra is soon to follow. It sounds like a lot for a 6-ft diameter garden, but one woman who does keyhole gardens all the time said that she planted 72 tomatoes in 1 bed, so I think that 14 should be fine.The reason you can plant so intensively in these gardens is the "feeding tube", which is in the middle. It is filled with brown leaves, and then we add our compostables on top of that. Any watering is also done through that tube. As the compost breaks down, it adds water to the soil, so the gardens don't need so much water.
You can read more about how to make a keyhole garden here.
I'm trying to be a "practical conservative" in that I'm doing everything I can to conserve resources and money, but within reason. We use our "solar dryer" (clothes line) as much as possible- we love the feel of cloths dried on the line, + it saves a lot of propane costs. I read a blog called "The Zero Waste Home" and it is very inspiring, but some of it is just a bit too much for what I think I can get my family to do. They're pretty good about conserving, but not extreme about it.
Send me your practical conservative tips and I'll pass them on. I'm thinking about renaming my blog "The Practical Conservative", but maybe not, as I don't want folks to pass over it or read it just because they think it is a particular political viewpoint. Conservatism, especially about our earth, shouldn't be a Democratic or Republican thing, but, rather, a human thing we do to leave this planet in better shape for those who come after us, but things being what they are......c'est la vie, I guess.
(Not my garden, but I hope mine will look this good someday)
photo from afrigadget.com
