Keyhole Gardening: An Introduction To Growing Vegetables In A Keyhole Garden

By James Paris

Growing vegetables in small spaces or under adverse conditions can be a bit of a challenge at times! This is where niche gardening ideas like the Keyhole Garden come into play, and small spaces can be converted to produce great results.

Growing vegetables for some can be a rewarding pastime, whilst for others it is a question of survival – if you can’t grow it, then you can’t eat it!
Here we have one of the most successful of the Niche Vegetable Gardening ideas, but perhaps one that is the least talked about – Keyhole Gardening. Originally conceived off and promoted by the charity SendACow.org  and now used successfully by many enthusiastic gardeners worldwide.

Keyhole Gardening can now take its place amongst the other niche gardening methods such as Raised Bed, Square Foot, Straw Bale, and container gardening – to name but a few.

If you would like to get the best results out of your vegetable growing efforts in small spaces or with limited resources – perhaps it’s time to give the Keyhole Gardening concept a chance to impress!
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Deanburn Publications
• Release date: Mar 11, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524258160

James Paris

Born in to a family of nine children; Amazon Best Selling Author James Paris, was soon thrown into the deep end of providing 'value for money' for his parents by growing vegetables - along with keeping chickens, geese, turkeys and everything else associated with a small farm. He is a great enthusiast of Raised bed gardening, and growing fruit & vegetables in containers. A builder/joiner to trade, James also studied for the ministry through Bible College in England,and has been involved in "Christian things" for many years. Hobbies include Fly fishing, gardening, playing guitar and D.I.Y. Oh and of course,...writing! Writing has become his main passion these days,and he especially loves to write from his own experiences, that includes anything from gardening to building to Bible studies - The 'Spotlight on the Prophets' series, and The Bible Brief, a Bible Summary / study book, being two examples of the latter books.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to begin this work by extending a huge thanks to the UK charity www.sendacow.org for agreeing to lend me some of their pictures and generally help me out with information regarding ‘Keyhole Gardening’ techniques for growing vegetables.

The phrase ‘Keyhole Gardening’ was first coined by ‘Send a Cow’ when they developed this form of Raised Bed Garden in order to combat difficult growing conditions throughout the African continent – which is their main ‘theatre of operations.’

With their help in providing sustainable survival techniques for not only growing food, but also raising farm animals; they have had – and continue to have - a major impact against poverty throughout Africa.

Thanks to their efforts and the contributions from donors towards the cause, Send A Cow has changed the lives and the life prospects of many thousands of African adults and children.

If you would like to support this charity directly, then you may do so via their own website on the following link:

https://www.sendacow.org/Donate/donate-now

Introduction:

A TYPICAL KEYHOLE GARDEN CONSTRUCTION

What is a Keyhole Garden?

At its heart, a Keyhole Garden is a combination of several of the most popular no-dig gardening techniques already employed very successfully to grow vegetables under otherwise difficult conditions, not only in Africa but indeed world-wide.

Basically another form of Raised Bed Garden, the Keyhole Garden  also incorporates elements from the Container Garden, Square Foot garden, Lasagna Garden and even Straw Bale Garden – as shall be explained in later chapters.

Add to this the ‘Organic’ methods employed for pest control and crop fertilization, as well as Companion Planting methods, then you have an ideal permaculture-type vegetable garden.

Although the Keyhole Garden was first employed in Africa, wherever growing conditions were harsh and financial restraint demanded cheaper and more effective ways to grow; it was quickly taken up by folks in the USA and wherever else difficult growing conditions determined thinking ‘outside the box’ of conventional gardening methods.

The great joy of this concept is that it can be employed very effectively in practically any climate. Whether you live in a region of extreme heat, or drought, or other adverse weather or soil conditions, Keyhole Gardening will ensure you can grow a healthy crop of veggies!

What’s in a name?

The name ‘keyhole Gardening’ is derived from the fact that viewed from above, the whole thing takes on the form of a keyhole – as you may see from the diagram below.

To go a bit further in the analogy. The ‘Keyhole’ is the Key to growing vegetables in difficult conditions – it ‘opens the door’ to a whole new vegetable growing world! – OK I think that’s enough of that – back to business..

This simple yet very effective design ensures that you get the very best crop possible, despite any adverse conditions that may prevent you from growing vegetables using traditional gardening techniques.

7 Advantages of Keyhole Gardening

Similarly to other no-dig gardening methods, Keyhole Gardening shares many advantages over conventional methods, including the following...

1. Overcoming Adversity: As mentioned, this method can be used whatever your ground conditions. Poor soil quality or stones and rocks simply do not matter when using this technique.

Even if you are in an area prone to flooding, or even the opposite – extreme drought, the Keyhole Garden will still ‘produce the goods.’

2. Abundant Crops: Owing to the nutrient-rich soil composition, and the on-going nature of the feeding program; you are assured of  great healthy food crops.

3. Easy Maintenance: The design of this garden means that everything is within arm’s reach, with little bending and no heavy digging involved. This means that more time can be spent tending your plants, rather than laboriously digging out weeds with a heavy spade or garden fork.

This is particularly so if you use the special infill method described, rather than using wee-seed contaminated garden soil (more on this in later chapters).

4. Longer Growing Season: Similar to Raised Bed gardening, a Keyhole Garden bed is raised from the ground, thereby somewhat insulated against the cold. This means that it warms up quicker in the Spring, and takes longer to succumb to the cold later on in the season.

5. Best Use of Space: A huge variety of crops can be grown in a small area – 3 metre