Applegater Fall 2017
9
DIRTY FINGERNAILS AND ALL
Keyhole gardening
BY SIOUX ROGERS
This article is dedicated to Scott
Owbridge, a wonderful new friend
and garden helper. He amazingly and
impressively helps me in my garden despite
his physical challenges. Scott is interested
in keyhole gardens because he says he will
most likely be in a wheelchair sometime in
the future. Keyhole gardening will be his
“ticket” to continue pursuing his passion
for gardening. In fact, Scott and I are
building a “practice” keyhole garden now.
All of us are challenged at times in
our everyday existence, but that is all it
is, a challenge. Survivors figure out how
to overcome a challenge with a positive
outcome. I, at barely five feet tall, am
vertically challenged. I overcame this
inconvenience by having numerous step
stools everywhere and marrying a guy who
is 6’ 4” tall.
Keyhole gardening was actually
developed in southern Africa to address
the challenge of sparse resources and
unforgiving heat. When a keyhole garden
is built to the height of three feet or a
little taller and three feet across, it will
accommodate a wheelchair or an aching
back. The three-foot reach is very easy
from inside the notch or from around
the outside. Three keyhole gardens are
“more than enough to supply” a family
of ten “with all the vegetables they need,”
reported BBC (news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/
world/africa/7432972.stm).
A demonstration of a keyhole garden
in the US was built at, of all places, a
hardware store in Texas. The wall structure
for the planter was built with native Texas
rock and clay. The “soil” was started using
129 shredded phone books, a large load of
cardboard from the store’s dumpster, and
some manure. Can you believe that in four
weeks they had good useable soil?
To visualize keyhole gardening, picture
a donut. Okay, a really big donut. Now
take a big bite out of that donut, but not
all the way to the center hole. The “donut
bite” is the keyhole.
After looking at many pictures of
keyhole gardens, I realized that not all
of them are in the shape of a partially
eaten donut. Some are actually square or
another shape, but whatever the shape, the
principle is the same: a notch in the middle
of the structure provides easy access. And
get this: in the middle is a vertical compost
tower. This compost tower is so clever and
saves an extraordinary amount of time by
not having to be turned and tossed, as
required by a traditional compost bin.
The compost basket in the center
of the keyhole notch functions best, it
seems, when it is wire. This is the clever
part: Everything you use for composting
goes in the long wire basket. Layer it just
as you would your regular compost pile.
Compostable material, including grey
water, is added to the tower throughout
the growing season. When the bed gets
watered, the compost tower will also get
watered. Remember, compost needs water
to break down to the prized organic matter
that gardeners sometimes refer to as “black
gold,” which makes plants so very happy.
In a matter of weeks, the compost will start
to break down and leak out the wire frame,
gently infusing lovely liquid composted
fertilizer. Sounds interesting, right?
The keyhole garden actually uses some
of the principles of biodynamic gardening:
don’t step on the soil so as not to compact
it, plant close together, and never rototill.
Eventually the closely spaced plants will
form a canopy over the
soil, thus reducing water
evaporation.
Traditionally keyhole
gardens are constructed
with stone. The stone
wall not only gives the
garden its form, but
helps trap moisture
within the bed. But
Keyhole gardens in various stages of completion. (Right photo: irenegrimes.
files.wordpress.com. Bottom right photo: ihptz.org/?q=gallery&page=1.
Bottom left photo: txmg.org/williamson/2015/06/15/
week-ending-6142015/.)
keyhole gardens
Sioux Rogers
can be made from
other materials too. (Google “keyhole
gardening,” click on “Images,” and activate
your creative brain.)
Keyhole gardening is not just for us
country folks. City slickers can benefit
as much or more due to frequent lack of
garden space in urban areas. The structure
can be placed anywhere: the rooftop, the
driveway, or in the middle of the sidewalk.
Just kidding, but you get the idea.
Dirty fingernails and all,
Sioux Rogers • 541-890-9876
dirtyfingernails@fastmail.fm