keyholeless garden

Walk to End Alzheimers

this is the quilt given to me for participating in the
alzheimers disease neuroimaging initiative (adni) study
it was made and donated by a quilter from southern
california

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KEYHOLELESS GARDEN
this is the way a true keyhole garden is suppose to
look like
this one was made by a friend jim
looks like it should be in better home and gardens
or southern living

my wife she had two square foot gardens at her school
one had got overran with bermuda grass
a real curse thats almost impossible to get rid
even with that terrible product roundup
it still comes back

this summer we dismantled both square foot gardens
and piled the soil up and leveled it off
we then covered it with clear plastic and left it
there all summer long
the edges were held down with rocks and crushed
granite to keep the heat it

did it ever get hot this summer
it even over the three months of brutal hot sun
totally destroyed the clear plastic
but the job was done all the grass was killed
without using any poisons

the next thing was to come up with a design that wouldnt
eat up that pie wedge area that could be used for gardening
but yet maintain the central composter which is the main
ingredient of the key hole garden

since i had 3 months to think about it
i came up with the keyholeless square foot garden

since the schools around here are always putting up portable
buildings and there was always the possibility of having to
move this one day
i wanted to make it easy to dismantle and move if we had to

heres the design
we put down a layer of newspapers to help add extra
protection to suppress weed growth
these papers will eventually over time decompose

we then added a one layer wall of concrete blocks that were
8 in x 16 in x 8 in
this made the inside diameter of the square garden 64 inches
on each side
then a central composter made from rabbitt wire and concrete
wire was placed in the true center of the garden
then the old solarized soil was added
then new hill country garden soil-a local organic soil that is
ready to plant was added
besides adding nutrients it also adds good bacteria and fungi
that were probably destroyed by the solarization

we also added a 2 ft sheet of black plastic around the garden
and covered it with 2-3 inches of crushed granite
this will help to deter weeds from growing back into
the garden

in the composter i added layers of composted mulch
country n chicken composted manure and compost

over time my wife she and her students will add plant
material as it becomes available
anything that would normally go in a compost pile
they will also pour water in the composter which will
will eventually diffuse to the edges of the garden
they also add the water from several fish aquariums in
the school

my wife she and her students will now be able to sit on the side
of the garden and have to only reach 2 ft in any direction to
plant and care for the garden

later next month we will add with the help of her students
another layer of concrete blocks and more of the hill country soil
with the plans by next spring to have 3 layers of these bricks

now if the school moves in a portable we can just move the garden
somewhere else

all schools need one of these gardens
the kids love messing with this garden and being outside
and especially eating the products of their efforts

fall plantings will be lettuce spinach swiss chard beets carrots
multiplying onions kale cabbage broccoli bok choy mustard greens
just to name a few

yes
the organicgreen doctor