Keyhole Garden Ideas to Make your Own Keyhole Bed

Keyhole gardens are becoming increasingly popular all over the world. Keyhole garden beds are raised beds that are shaped like a keyhole. The shape is usually round or square, with a center area cut into it which makes the center compost well (containing the composting material) extremely accessible without having to actually step into the raised bed. Another main purpose of the keyhole design is it maximizes growing space in a raised bed that’s not actually very large. You can grow a lot in a small keyhole garden because of the design.

Keyhole gardening is ideal for children, people with ambulatory considerations, and in areas where soil is hot, dry and hard to work with. This style of raised garden bed is ideal for growing lots of vegetables in small spaces. They can also be very attractive depending on what materials you use to construct them and how you plant them. There’s lots of ways you can make your own DIY keyhole garden.

1-  Simple Keyhole Idea Using Natural Bricks

This keyhole garden design by morenascorner utilizes the center area as a self-contained composting and feeding apparatus- perfect for someone who likes the idea of fertilizing naturally. The natural rocks used to make the walls of this keyhole garden are lovely too. As this recommends, using recyclable materials that break down into soil to improve the raised vegetable bed’s soil condition and stifle weeds at the same time is a very earth friendly approach.

2-DIY Keyhole Garden

We love this keyhole design filled with dahlias by thehomesteadingboards. The clean look of the manufactured block would work well with most modern home looks. And, in many areas, dahlia tubers need to be planted and lifted each growing season, so the extreme accessibility of a raised keyhole bed is ideal for this. You can take your favorite chair or stool to the center of this keyhole design, sit, and enjoy planting and lifting your dahlia tubers yearly without strain. This design would work well for any sort of plant choice that requires care like dahlias.

3-Veggie Keyhole Garden For Small backyard.

A keyhole like this one by au.lifestyle.yahoo.com that utilizes the idea of a central composting and watering system with the indented pathway for accessibility is a great hybrid of both ideas you see in a lot of raised keyhole garden beds. All you need to do is walk into the middle of this design to weed and water, and add more to the central composting basket. It doesn’t get much easier than that!

4- Valhalla Keyhole Garden Project

The Valhalla Project took inspiration for their first keyhole design right out of Africa where the keyhole garden bed idea is reported to be originated from. Since the Valhalla project centers on helping to reintegrate ex-combat veterans, they’ve included some information about the work that current deployed military members are doing to help educate people in other countries about better farming techniques. They’ve also included a video which shows how a keyhole garden works in Africa. It’s a large example that shows the central basket where water and fertilizer from composted materials are kept in the center of the garden. The very attractive wall is constructed using bricks that are laid on angle and stacked. The Valhalla Project’s example uses this same method and construction technique in their own keyhole example.

5-  Video Guide On Keyhole Gardening In Africa 

Sendacow.org.uk has a wonderful video showing how families in Africa use their own keyhole gardens to grow the food they depend on for every meal. Keyhole gardens in Africa have helped the very poor not only supplement their already meager diets, but they have also saved lives and improved living conditions for so many people. You can use this same information anywhere around the world as a way to further create a raised vegetable garden on your own land that’s self-sustainable and very productive. In theory, you too could grow all of the healthy produce you’d ever need with raised vegetable beds created in the keyhole style.

6- DIY Keyhole Garden by The Green Thumb

This very short and simple video on facebook shows you how to make your own keyhole beds in a day with minimal materials and cost. It’s very good to see someone actually construct a keyhole garden bed right in front of your eyes- it makes the whole idea of the project feel more real. This video does a great job at showing you how simple it is to create a beautiful keyhole garden of your very own.

Conclusion

We hope you find lots of help and inspiration here. Keyhole garden beds are popular because they’re useful, very eco-friendly, easy to build and maintain, affordable, and beautiful. We hope you can enjoy one too!