New "Keyhole" Beds

Last week we cleared out the farthest beds where some of the basil and tomatoes were planted.


Upon inspection, we noticed that both of the beds were mostly clay.


So we decided to do a little experimenting.

If the beds were mostly clay and the path in between was clay, then we had a blank canvas with which to try something new on the farm. I had heard about keyhole beds and their advantages. They make better use of the space given by reducing walking area and increasing arable area. Plus, they look nice. We thought that turning the two long rectangles into two big ovals would probably suit our purposes just fine.

Frank measured the beds and the path. He then made a rough sketch of what our new oval keyhole beds would look like.
Frank found that, "with the current beds our arable planting area [was] 154 sq. ft. The “keyhole” beds [would] have a total area of 208.2 sq. ft. The beds [would need to be] slightly ovoid. This seemed the best way to make use of the available space."

We could increase our bed size and make them more appealing! I love how stuff works out some times!

So we got to work.
We removed the rest of the grass from the path and the rest of the weeds from both of the beds. This is a process we're becoming more and more familiar with. It takes a lot of time and a lot of patience. But we're getting better at it and we know that it'll pay off in the end.Frank marked out the border of both ovals with orange flags and Briahn (our wonderful new "intern" from UTK's sociology department) lined the ovals with cardboard and woodchips to keep the future bermuda grass from possibly coming back.



I personally REALLY REALLY HOPE that this method of bermuda-grass-prevention works. Even if we have to do it every three years or so.

The beds were really beginning to take shape.


Once we had the outer edges defined, then we could outline the inner path (with flags again) and get to the soil-preparation.

1. We used shovels to break up the clay as much as possible.
2. Mattocks (picks) worked well to disintegrate the clods of clay even further.
3. Straw, compost and a little hay were brought in and put down on top of the churned clay.
The straw and compost will help with drainage in the future and give the clay some much needed organic material.
4. We used shovels and forks to turn all of these ingredients together.
5. Added some delicious looking horse manure from Clover Creek Stables and turned that in as well.
6. Finally we topped off the whole thing with a little more manure to make it look nice.
7. Filled in the center of the keyhole bed with cardboard and woodchips.
8. And finally piled a little more woodchips around the edge of the bed. (It had begun to get pretty high with all the added material. The woodchips will work as a kind of bowl for everything to rest in.
...
...
And voila!

We have one beautiful keyhole bed.


We'll be working to finish the other one by this Tuesday hopefully.

ben