by GardeningOnline
18. November 2009 00:16
A friend of mine is involved with a fantastic charity ACARA. They have already built a school in Lesotho but what is great is that they also helped to build a Keyhole garden for the school. This garden illustrates how much we have to learn from them when we are using our skills and knowledge to help them. ACARA built a keyhole garden in Bloom in the Phoenix Park in summer 2009 and I am delighted to report that that garden is now being transported to Dunsland where we will have it on permanent exhibition so people can see how it works. A KEYHOLE GARDEN A Keyhole Garden (so called because it resembles a keyhole being a broken circle with a wedge out of it) was specially designed by the charity Send a Cow, for use in African countries, especially Lesotho, where drought and flash rainstorms make the growing of vegetables very difficult. It is designed as a raised vegetable garden, built from stone, with layers of soil, manure, wood ash, and dry matter placed inside the stone. The essential element of this garden is the placing of a COMPOST BASKET in the middle of the raised bed. All grey water from washing and washing up can be poured directly into the compost basket, along with all the normal compost materials. The goodness and moisture created by the compost basket seep directly out into the vegetable growing area, making a warm, moist bed for the vegetables to grow in. The keyhole garden is generally covered with a mulch to stop evaporation from the surface soil. Lesotho can have 7 months of drought and then 2 months of flash, very heavy, rain storms – this has created a huge problem of soil erosion, with vast stretches of top soil being washed away, adding to the many other problems associated with vegetable growing. A keyhole garden can supply enough vegetables, throughout the year, for a Lesotho family. Vegetables usually grown consist of spinach, beetroot, carrots, kale and beans. The vegetables are rotated around the circle each growing period and more manure is added to the garden and it is revitalised during the winter months.
keyhole garden2.JPG (39.56 kb)
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