estorms
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Location: Greenfield Township, PA

Keyhole gardeen

I am thinking about a keyhole garden, has anyone tried one?

wesleyc
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Location: Phoenix, AZ

I don't have the space for one, but they look awesome! Did you want to do it on your own or hire someone to make it?

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rainbowgardener
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estorms
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Location: Greenfield Township, PA

Yes, I plan to do it myself. We have plenty of rocks! I am trying to figure out where to put it. The only sunny spot I have is far from the house. The ideal spot would be a corner of the garden, but I would like to use a spot that is now too poor for growing things. The whole idea is to be able to use poor, rocky ground. I would like to start now and have it ready for next spring.

SunBakedParadise
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I have had great success with keyhole gardens, they are incredibly easy to build and maintain. This Article popped up last year when I was doing spring planning. Fortunately, right as we were to enter a long stretch of drought here in Southern California, I have one made out of bricks and stones in the method described and I made one out of scrap 2x4 and both were performing very well. However my drystack of bricks were unable to survive a couple curious dogs so rebuilt it with wood.

With the active composting going on in there I've found Nitrogen loving plants have done very well in there using an average 2-3 gallons of water per week between the two beds. I'm very happy with my progress.

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webmaster
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Thanks for sharing that article! :)

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Good article. I also remember that it is not recommended for the keyhole garden to be larger than 6 ft. The central compost basket is also where the recycled water enters and someone figured out that a 6ft diameter is about as far as the compost and water will be able to go.

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Ornery_Pony
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A word of caution. Be very, very careful of using cardboard, paper, and especially printed papers for 'making' soil you will grow food plants on. These are rife with chemicals you do not want in your food. Poisonous inks, glue, bleaches, arsenic, cadmium, to name a few. If you have ever smelled the chemical stink of a paper plant, you already know there are a lot of toxins involved in the manufacture of paper products, which are also frequently plastic coated if they are slick (such as phone book covers). You don't even want to /burn/ these and then use the ashes in a garden that is producing food for your family.

Generally leaves and grasses are a better idea for keyhole gardens. I also avoid using metal or plastic wire when possible as they also bleed off contaminates into your soil. A clay pipe can be made with perforations or you can build the central compost tube using vertical bamboo garden stakes arranged in a circle with tiny gaps.



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