Your cart
There are no more items in your cart
How we created a KEYHOLE GARDEN at Vers La Terre Farm
It's been a while since we wanted to tell you about the Keyhole Garden concept, a very clever permaculture garden principle that's free, (almost) self-sufficient and within everyone's reach. Now's the perfect time, as we've just completed one on the grounds of our worm farm in Pézenas. It took a few hours of teamwork (and a lot of elbow grease...) for our "keyhole garden" to see the light of day!
And it's to share our experience with you that we've concocted a photo report of our own (if we can put it that way, of course...).
But first, a quick reminder of the what / how / what of the Keyhole garden!
What's a keyhole garden?
In French, it means keyhole garden. Sometimes also called a solar garden, it takes its name from its shape.
The keyhole garden is a vegetable-growing technique launched in Africa 20 years ago to provide villagers with a self-sufficient, productive food system requiring very little water.
It consists of a circular vegetable garden at ground level, with a composting column at its center, accessible via a small path. This column provides a continuous supply of nutrients, both for the soil in the garden and for the soil on which it is placed.
And yes! The keyhole garden has the advantage of producing plants, fruit or vegetables in small areas, and is not dependent on the nature of the soil on which it is built. Its inputs are autonomous, and generated via the central compost!
That's what we liked about the concept of this ultra-productive mini kitchen garden!
So, how does it work?
In the center of your garden structure, create a column about 50cm in diameter and 1m30 high. This is where you put your bio-waste (peelings, plate scraps, paper, cardboard, shells, etc.) so that it can be composted. Located in the center of the garden, and therefore of the plantings, the column will slowly diffuse, by percolation, the nutrients and moisture necessary for plant growth. (That's why it doesn't need much water!)
All around the column, you'll need to create a circle of substrate (or lasagne in permaculture) 1.5 m high and around 3 m in diameter, which will house your future plants.
To secure the circle and give your garden its shape, there are a number of ways you can go about it: either a dry stone wall (the most traditional), wooden board strapping, or pallets! That's exactly what we did for ours, and it works pretty well.
Why is a keyhole garden so effective?
Firstly, because it feeds the soil on which it's built: as we wrote earlier, the compost contained in the central column feeds the substrate surrounding the column, as well as the soil on which your garden is laid! And that's magic!
Secondly, because it respects the living cycle: the substrate deposited in your Keyhole garden is what's known as a "permaculture lasagne", i.e. a pile of layers of different organic matter (wood, leaves, branches, etc.) similar to forest humus. It helps the soil to breathe and the whole ecosystem to live. Like our little friends the worms, for example! Their incessant to-ing and fro-ing ensures the quality of the soil, which improves over time.
And finally, because it's maintenance-free: yes! Apart from adding bio-waste to your column to generate compost, the rest of your garden evolves on its own! The water requirement is also very low, because remember, the presence of compost in the center of the keyhole garden is enough to maintain the humidity needed by the plants.
So, in real life, what does a Keyhole garden look like?
1 - We start by marking out the compost column.
Located in the center of the garden, this is where we'll deposit our organic waste (table scraps, peelings, etc.) for composting.
We've used old vine stakes and chicken wire to delimit this space.
2 - On the ground, we mark out the diameter of our garden (about 3m).
We arrange the pallets to give us an overview.
3- Wire the pallets together
At the end of each pallet, place screws (one at the top, one at the bottom). Each of these will be connected by a wire to join the pallets together.
4 - Our structure holds up!
Of course, we leave an entrance that we can use to dispose of our waste in the central column.
5 - Filling the gaps!
To keep air and light levels to a minimum, we added planks to each empty area.
6 - Fill our circle with substrate! This is the principle of permaculture lasagne: a succession of layers of different compostable materials to enrich the soil that will nourish future plants.
So, as the filling progressed, we alternated :
- dead wood to act as a biological activator for the structure, thanks to bacterial activity, and as a reservoir of moisture,
- cardboard (unprinted) to attract our earthworm friends,
- fresh branches to aerate and encourage fungi,
- manure for nitrogen, or other organic matter,
- wood ash for phosphorus
- surface-ripened compost AND vermicompost. And yes, we do work on a vermiculture farm after all!
And here's the result! We're very proud of it! Now all we have to do is plant!
Comments (0)