Keyhole Gardens......WHO KNEW?

So it seems that they have these nifty things called Keyhole Gardens. From what I can tell they started in Africa as a way to grow food even in a drought.

Of course once I found out about them I immediately went to Pinterest to see what I could find and wow did I find a TON of stuff! It seems that you can use just about anything in these gardens as long as the items add to the soil.

Here are some suggestions for items to go into the garden:
grass clippings
wood ash
metal cans
cardboard
vegetable matter
cow manure

The layout is pretty simple. You line up whatever you want to use as a border in the shape of an upside down PacMan. You then put a mesh cylinder in the middle to hold your compost and water. As the water seeps down it leeches the nutrients from the compost and distributes it to your plants. It is an almost perfect system!
The one thing they suggested is to have the soil slope out from the mesh center so you would have adequate drainage.

There are a TON of different plans out there. You just have to find the one that is right for you!

Here is a side view of a garden. I found this one on Inspiration Green dot com.

I found a video that shows how they do it in Africa. Take a look!

I will be posting pictures when I get mine built! : )