keyhole garden

KEYHOLE GARDEN
yesterday a reader wanted me to tell her how to do
the keyhole garden ive written about several times before

whats a keyhole garden
its basically a circular garden thats 8-12 ft in diameter
thats about 3 ft high
with a pie wedge that allows you to step into it to work
the garden
in the center is a 12 in circular composter that goes from
the bottom of the garden to about a foot or so above the
soil level

each keyhole garden looks different
but they all  have that look
of a pie with a piece of pie cut out

the materials for the sides are different based on whats
available
the soil is commonly made by the builder
by greens and browns that are available to the builder

these keyhole gardens were designed for arid conditions
like in third world countries using whatever is available
to grow food

here at the country n i have two of these
one is a large 10 ft water trough that had rusted out the
bottom
i simply placed newspapers and cardboard in the bottom
then filled in with ladybug hill country soil from the
natural gardener
they had already done all the work on the soil

on my other keyhole garden i used a 6 ft water trough
with the bottom cut out
i made my own soil for this one
using first cardboard on the bottom and the sides
then newspapers
then sticks and logs to rot and hold moisture
then leaves those that some of you have given me
then dirt i dug out of the hole where i put the water trough
then my compost i make in my chicken run which is
made of leaves and chicken poop
then more newspapers then more leaves then more dirt
then more compost
then on top i placed my best compost

in the center i put a central composter thats 12 in in diameter
thats  made of chicken wire
i pour water and liquid compost in there
i keep it full of compost and any recycle stuff i have
this feeds the keyhole garden
and waters it

i do supplemental watering with a dripper hose if its needed

i also add a good organic fertilizer when i add the good compost
on top

i then plant it and let nature run its course

this last year i had the best crop of peppers basil and egg plant
that i planted in this keyhole garden ive ever had
the root mat of the plants were the thickest ive ever seen

the other keyhole garden the large one ive turned into my winter garden
this year was the best winter garden crop ive had

to maintain these
you just add composting materials in the composter
keep it moist
supplement water as needed
lightly fertilize it with organic fertilizer at planting
its easy to maintain

here is one a friend named jim
built after reading my blog on keyhole gardening

here is the link to an article on keyhole gardens that is a good one
to read and use as a guide

here is a link to dr deb tolmans field guide ton how to build a
keyhole garden

here is a link to hgtvs blog on the keyhole garden method
it has several pictures of different ones

dr deb tolman lives in clifton texas and actually does seminars
where the group will build one in a day and plant it that day
within a month all the stuff placed in layers has composted
heres the link to her website

go to the right upper part of my blog
use your computer as your smartphone may not show this
type in keyhole garden in the   search this blog   block
you will find multiple blogs on
keyhole gardens

build you own keyhole garden
and
you will find the key to gardening success

the organicgreen doctor

trashy garden

TRASHY GARDEN

this is a square foot garden that is made from concrete blocks
its is 31/2 blocks wide and 8 blocks long

when i was in practice i was always talking to patients about
gardening never politics or religion since my patient population
was such a diverse one from all over the world
but
one common interest was gardening

then when i retired many of my former patients began reading
this blog to keep up with what i was doing
of course
besides alzheimers disease i blog about gardening a lot

one of my patients reads my blog and was especially intrigued
by the keyhole gardens square foot gardens and my gardening
here at the country n

she and other parents wanted to put in a garden at their kids school
near here
she wanted it to be organic and to use some of the principles of
keyhole gardening and square foot gardening and of course
organic gardening

of course
as a reader of my blog she contacted me via facebook and email
about ideas on the garden

sorry
but when it comes to gardening its like alzheimers disease
ill talk your ear off and tell you a lot more than you want to know
so thats what i did

this mother even went to a
deb tolman presentation on keyhole gardening
that was done recently in this area
and she wanted to incorporate a lot of this into the garden

all of these techniques ive used to redo my garden here at the
country n and in the other school gardens like my wife shes garden
and the habitat gardens ive helped put in and the alzheimers auction
4 ft square foot garden ive done

these parents and school and kids accumulated funds and collected
recyclable stuff to be used in the garden
cardboard lots of it newspapers garbage grass clipping lots of leaves
egg cartons shredded paper etc
then they got a load of lady bug brand hill country soil
to use in the beds
you either have to make your own soil or buy a good quality soil to start
with

first the beds five of them were laid out all parallel to each other
and all level

laying these and getting them level and just right was the hardest
part of the project

the first two or three beds were done in the lasagna method of
gardening which involves layering of materials they obtained as
mentioned above
the features of the lasagna and keyhole and square foot gardening
are all interwoven
the difference with the lasagna method is that all the soil is made
from this recyclable stuff
which is how a pure keyhole garden is made

i use in my gardens a mixture of these
i layer with the cardboard newspapers leaves grass compost soil
and usually on the top part i use just plain hill country soil
the end result is fantastic soil and an unbelievable garden

ta da then they covered the top with the good soil
now all it has to do is cook and in a few weeks all this
will turn into soil
homemade soil which will be rich with nutrition
there are a lot of worms in the ground there so they will come
up and devour all that paper leaves etc and poop everywhere
making the soil better

then the mom got this acrylic plastic glass
removed some of the blocks in the end
so the kids could watch the soil breakdown
and watch the worms moving around eating the stuff
and watch the plants roots grow in the soil
what a great idea

i personally cant wait to see this garden develop
especially through this glass
what a great idea for the kids and the adult kids to see

they will now be planting these beds with plants
of course the lasagna garden part will have to breakdown
some before it can be planted

but the other beds which will be mostly the rich hill country soil
will be planted now

it was fun to see the kids enjoying themselves
especially making the lasagna garden
think playing in a big mud puddle
as they had to soak the cardboard in wheelbarrows of water
standing on the cardboard to hold it down
then as they layered all that stuff in the garden bed
they had to spray it down
and stomp it down like someone stomping grapes

they were soaked and muddy but quite happy
putting in this garden
now
they will get to plant it and watch it grow
and probably will eat plants theyve never eaten before
and
probably never would have

things like swiss chard broccoli kale cilantro spinach lettuce snap peas
carrots beets yes beets onions potatoes radishes etc this winter

they will always remember this experience
and hopefully they will incorporate this into their lives as they get older

i hope that i had some influence in all this
since after all thats one of my missions in life it to promote
organic gardening

thanks to mom mc for allowing me to  participate and be part
of all this

the organicgreen doctor

fall gardens

Walk to End Alzheimers
click here to donate or join 
the organicgreendoctor.com team

click here to find your local walk 

FALL GARDEN
this weekend i watched this segment on the keyhole 
garden that was on pbs klru central texas gardener
with dr deb tolman
watch it and youll want to go put yours in 

yep it was impressive
you can watch it by going online to their website

ive used her principles at my house and also at 
the school where my wife she works

as mentioned before we took all her soil from her two
square foot gardens and solarized it this summer
to get rid of the bermuda grass
we then made a 5 ft square foot garden with a 
central composter 
the bottom of the bed is lined with several layers
of newspapers
we added good organic soil from the natural gardener
in austin 
it has several manures compost green sand and all the 
good bugs you need
its ready to plant when you place it in your beds

we then added another layer of concrete blocks 
her soil depth is now about 2 feet
we may add another layer this spring

she and her students planted kale spinach arugula asian greens
oregano swiss chard multiplying onions cilantro garlic chives 
when it gets cooler she will add lettuce more spinach carrots
beets garlic strawberries and broccoli 
this winter she will add potatoes and green onions 

she and her students and fellow teachers will eat out of 
this keyholeless square foot garden all fall and winter 
and spring

sometimes hands on education is important for kids
some have never planted anything 
many of these kids are at risk

good job guys
more pictures later as it matures

in my garden here i have a circular keyhole garden
that i have 4 tomatoes planted in it
i am going to let them sprawl over the garden like
nature intended them to and see what happens

just under that 6 inch layer of fresh hill country garden soil
is a mixture of shredded newspaper shredded cardboard 
paper leaves chicken manure compost from my chicken
composter and anything else i can find that will safely 
decompose in my garden

it should all heat up and decompose into this rich garden soil

later in january this will be the site where i will plant all of my 
potatoes

in my regular garden with its 4 ft x 12 ft beds i have planted
partially my winter garden 
i will plant the same things my wife she planted in her garden 
and will nurture it over the winter until the spring
it will then be converted to my hot summer garden 

we rarely buy much for our salads during the fall and winter
as we harvest what we need from this winter garden

this is a picture from the natural gardeners square foot garden 
their plants were planted earlier this month
you can see how nicely it has filled in the spaces

this is what my wife she and my garden will look like in 
the next 3-4 weeks

remember
fall and winter is the best time to garden in central texas

the organicgreen doctor

purple day, wtea update, the keyhole garden guru

Walk to End Alzheimers
click here to donate or join 
the organicgreendoctor.com team

click here to find your local walk 

PURPLE DAY 
 
today is purple day 

its alzheimers awareness day
wear purple to work if possible 

ill be wearing purple all day today

my wife she will be wearing purple all day at school
as most of the teachers will be wearing purple 
also at her school

the clinics where i worked will have a purple day also

the downtown austin skyline will have several buildings
that will be lit up purple
raddison hotel downtown
monarch hi rise apartments
long center
if you are downtown tonight look up at the skyline

and think about those of us who are affected by this
terrible disease

WTEA UPDATE
heres the update for my team for the walk to end alzheimers
williamson county at georgetown next saturday september 29
at san gabriel park

we have reached 72.5% of our goal and hope with a week left
to reach 100%
help us if you can

reminder there is no charge for walking
you may walk without having to pay but a donation no matter
how small is appreciated

we have 24 members on our team registered and have had over
59 separate donors so far

join us next weekend

THE KEYHOLE GARDEN GURU
ive written several times about the keyhole garden

basically it is a central 1 ft composter in a 6 ft diameter
circular garden that is raised 3 ft
a keyhole segment is left open so that you can step in
and reach all of the garden
the bottoms and sides are covered with cardboard
and newspaper
soil or soil making ingredients are added
the central composter provides nutrition to the soil
as its watered it

the guru of this method is dr deb tolman
she will be a guest on the pbs show
klru central texas gardener tomorrow
if you are thinking about doing this type of garden
watch this show
as she is the expert on this type of garden

her website is www.debtolman.com

the klru website where you can see this show
online is here

the organicgreen doctor

make my dirt

MAKE MY DIRT
make my dirt
thats what ive decided to do this year
in my keyhole garden that ive made from an old
watering trough

in a recent blog on how to do this
well ive done several blogs about keyhole gardens
see lists to the right of this blog and click on
keyhole garden
heres a link on how to do it

dr deb tolman a guru of the keyhole garden in texas did a
demonstration garden in a small town in central texas
where she took old rocks and clay and made a frame for
her keyhole garden
in the garden she made her own soil
she used lots of old phone books newspapers and manure
and mixed it all up
whala after several months she had soil that was producing
great crops

when i did my keyhole garden with its central composter i
did it the simple way and added the natural gardeners hill
country soil that has composts, minerals, good germs, granite
etc in it
i dumped it in the old water trough up to about 6 inches from
the top
that worked well until we finally started getting rain
the soil gradually settled down another 6 inches

so i decided to try what dr deb did
and make my own soil
heck the country n hens are busy mixing up old newspapers
cardboard leaves kitchen scraps and pooping all over it
every day in my large compost pile
they were basically making her soil for me

first i took leaves (i am a leaf rescuer as ive rescued over
50-100 bags of leaves from friends this year) and layered them
with shredded cardboard and with shredded several weeks of newspapers

then i added a layer of good ole chicken manure compost
which is high in nitrogen
this is straight from the chickens butt and is lightly mixed with leaves
then place in its own compost pile

then i added composted dirt that the country n hens have been working
on for several months

this is all mixed together
all i need to do is add rain
and add handful of worms

by the end of summer i will have the richest soil on my property and
will plant my fall garden there

cost of all this
zero
old trough was here when i moved in
it leaked so i used it for this garden
we get the newspaper every day and usually compost it in my
compost pile or take it to my wifes shes school to recycle
the cardboard was from things we have bought or was given to us
then the leaves were rescued from the curb side

free dirt

now all i need to do is wait and add lettuce spinach swiss chard
carrots kale italian parsley garlic onions etc in october
pictures to follow

the organicgreen doctor