How to make a keyhole garden
A keyhole garden allows a family to grow enough food for three meals a day – even in the face of an extreme climate and poor soil. The garden, shaped like a keyhole from above, encompasses a circular raised bed with a central basket where compostable waste is placed along with used water from the kitchen. These gardens give fantastic results quickly and add nutritious vegetables to provide a balanced diet.
You will need:
- Retaining wall material (stones or bricks)
- Draining material (twigs or gravel)
- Wire mesh or flexible sticks that can make a mesh like structure
- Mulching materials
- Topsoil
- Composting material (vegetable peelings from the kitchen)
Get started
1. Clear and level your space
2. Mark out your keyhole garden footprint a circle works best
Create the basket
3. Using wire mesh, create a cylinder and centre it in your bed. It needs to be about a foot higher than your retaining wall.
Build the wall
4. Build your retaining wall. Use whatever material you have to hand to provide a structure for the soil. Popular choices include bricks, stones or wood.
5. Add the notch or ‘keyhole’. Once the perimeter is nearly complete, extend the retaining wall to the centre, creating a pathway to access the central basket.
6. Add drainage - spread a thin layer of drainage material in the bottom of the bed such as gravel or twigs.
Fill with soil
7. Fill the bed with layers of organic matter - use brown and green material to maximise composting such as grass clippings, shredded leaves and straw.
8. Top with garden soil. This layer should be at least 8 inches deep.
Plant your seeds
9. Add compost to the central well and soak with water – this could even be wastewater from the washing up!
10. Plant your seeds, flowers and starter plants and watch your keyhole garden flourish
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