Building A Raised Bed Keyhole Garden

15 years ago

Hey guys. I recently got inspired by this cool Send A Cow youtube video: http://www.raw-food-health.net/KeyholeGarden.html

So I decided to build a keyhole garden myself in Connecticut. I built it a couple weeks ago and my first lettuce and bokchoy plats are now starting to emerge from the soil.

I wrote up an article on why you'd want to build a raised bed garden here: http://www.raw-food-health.net/RaisedBedGarden.html

And created a step by step guide here: http://www.raw-food-health.net/RaisedVegetableGarden.html

All free, of course. I hope this helps you guys.

Enjoy,

-Andrew

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Comments (7)

anney
15 years ago
Andrew

That's wonderful video! And who would have thought of building a garden that way! Recycling fills a great need and produces food where there was none or little in poverty-stricken nations.

Do you have a picture of yours?
rosebush
15 years ago
Very cool! Great links and info.
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jonnys
15 years ago
Thanks andrew for posting this. I really enjoyed the video, though I do have a question. I would like to know the idea behind the space in the middle of the gardens from the video. I checked the instructions to make the garden, though in the steps they leave the space in the middle out. Is it a sort of composter thats built into the garden?
shebear
15 years ago
Yes the hole in the middle is allowing access to a compost pile. In Africa, you build the wooden circle that is the compost bin and then build the raised bed around it. They are supposed to put all their waste water, food scraps and animal manures in the bin and it "feeds" the bed.

It's really a neat idea. I also like the grow bags they promote for the kids to use. Check out this site.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bag Gardens
rusticbohemian
Original Author
15 years ago
Anney - Yes. They're all over my instructions page.
rusticbohemian
Original Author
15 years ago
Jonnys - I left it out of my instructions because I didn't include it. If you read the instructions, you'll see I left it out because I have a composter about 10 feet away so I didn't need it.
anney
15 years ago
Andrew, I apologize. I see now that the text indicates clearly that that was your bed. I looked at the pictures but didn't read the text.

Anyway, it's a very attractive setup and a very clever "fertilizer-compost" bin in the middle (in the first clip of the kids building it that you posted).

I'd love to see a site devoted exclusively to various methods of gardening throughout the world, today and down through history. There have been many.

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Building A Raised Bed Keyhole Garden

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