Keyhole garden

Marking out of keyhole garden

I had heard of keyhole paths before, thanks to my reading on permaculture, but had never come across keyhole gardens until I saw the idea in a gardening magazine. The article was highlighting the work that the charity 'Send a Cow' does in Africa.

Weaving the basket for compost

In a keyhole garden you create a compost heap in the centre and surround it with a flower bed. This ideally should only be as wide as you can reach but as we used this to fill in a hidden pond our size was dictated by the former ponds size. The compost is never removed, it's nutrients and insects will enable the compost to leach out into the surrounding bed.

Completed keyhole garden waiting to be planted

This garden managed to use up all of the compost that I have made since living here. Luckily there is an enormous compost heap at the bottom of the garden created over many years by a previous owner. Much of it is sludge but it made a good base for the two bags of bought in sterile compost from the garden centre. My boys helped to create this and it is to be their garden. They have big plans!