The Keyhole Garden: An Introduction

钥匙孔花园是一个圆形的花园床，中间有一个堆肥筐，还有一个钥匙孔形状的路径，可以进入整个花园。堆肥篮在整个季节都可以喂，它会不断地分解并在此期间将营养物质输送到床上，就像你在建造床时添加到床上的大块有机物一样。

Keyhole-style gardens are widely considered an efficient way to produce food because they eliminate the wasted space created by paths found in both traditional row gardening and raised bed gardens. They also create a healthy, rich soil that delivers maximum nutrients to your plants.

The efficiency of the keyhole garden is also supported by their natural resistance to drought, as moisture is delivered alongside nutrients as the organic matter layered into the bed breaks down. All of this also amounts to less time being needed to maintain the garden throughout the growing season. Mix a keyhole garden withvegetables that grow in the shade，这就是城市花园的最佳组合!

Here are your basic considerations for building a keyhole garden, broken down to four fairly simple steps.

1.)Site:Once you have chosen an area large enough to house an 8 - 10 foot diameter circle that has sufficient sun exposure for the plants you intend on growing, you're ready to begin. Given the raised-bed nature of the keyhole garden, the area need not have good soil, or even any soil at all.

2.) Collect:钥匙孔花园和它们的堆肥篮子可以用任何数量的可用材料建造。我见过用砖头、煤渣砖、园林石、波纹金属、甚至雪松原木建造的床体。内部堆肥篮可以由多种材料构成，包括金属丝或塑料网、茅草、麻绳，在许多情况下还可以混合几种材料。

3.)Construct:You can create your circle by staking the middle of the area and using a string the length of the circle radius to mark the outer edges for your build; or you can just eyeball it if you prefer. Either way, somehow create a visual circle on which to begin construction.

Construction of the garden will be a layered affair and should end up with a slight angle sloping out from the center, for drainage and nutrient delivery. Therefore, each layer adds to the mound in the center.

首先，创建堆肥塔。同样，你可以使用任何类型的网格或击剑，你甚至可以用四根木桩创建一个正方形，然后用绳子和芦苇编织一个篮子风格的墙。无论你选择哪种方法，我的建议是保持简单，使用你容易接触到的材料。一旦中心塔建成，用拳头大小的岩石填满底部，以便排水。

This will be the centre of your garden and the highest point from which your bed will slope, so create a generous mound. On top of that you can add medium-sized chunks of organic matter that will provide both nutrients and moisture as they break down. The rest of the compost tower can be filled with anything else you would put into your garden compost, but avoid adding cooked food waste, breads, pastas and oils.

一旦外墙标记好了，中间的堆肥篮也搭好了，你就可以开始用“千层面”的方法来填高畦了。底部的一层硬纸板可以防止杂草或草从下面的土壤中生长出来。第二层需要提供排水，这可以通过分散拳头大小的岩石或其他材料，如破碎的陶罐来完成。

The next layer can include wood chunks, branches, twigs, ash for potassium, soil and grasses. The layer after that should feature lots of soil, and if you so choose, aged manure. Fresh manure should never be used as it will burn the plants. Each layer should slope slightly from the inner tower to the outer circle.

As the layers begin to grow, build the outer wall to contain them until you reach the desired height for your raised bed. Many keyhole gardens stand as much as 3 feet tall, which offers a nice break for your back during maintenance and harvest! No more bending means keyhole gardens are great for anyone with mobility considerations but still want to grow their own food.

4.) Plant!由于明显的原因，低矮的植物最适合这种栽培床。如果这些豆子或西红柿是从三英尺高的栖木上爬上来的，我们怎么能收获它们呢?除了常识之外，在选择在你的钥匙孔花园中种植哪些植物真的没有太多需要考虑的。剩下的就是确保你选择的植物获得它们所需的阳光。Done and done.

5.) Lifespan:After 4 or 5 years, you can assume that most of the organic matter you embedded in your garden has decomposed and delivered all it's going to deliver. At that point it's time to take it down and build it up again.

Have you ever built a keyhole garden? If you have any tips or experience you want to share, please do! And if you like birds in the garden, but dislike squirrels, we've found thisspecial bird seed with a natural squirrel repellantworks great!