New Project: Keyhole Garden

Things are getting a bit untidy around here. It happens every summer. The weeds grow like … weeds! I haven’t been feeling particularly energetic since losing Joe, so instead of tackling the field, I, Natalie, am starting a new project in our original raised bed area. I’m creating a keyhole garden. Before a couple of years ago when Seth kept mentioning making a keyhole garden, I had never heard of it. This shape is the inspiration.

Many of our Millwood Flower Farm customers have told us they would enjoy learning more about gardening. This is a great project to learn how to build the beds, soil preparation, plant selection, garden planning, seed starting, direct sowing, plant spacing, transplanting, irrigation, fertilization, and how and when to harvest. These beds will be planted with fruit, flowers and vegetables and as with all of our farm, will utilize organic/sustainable methods. The plants grown on Millwood Flower Farm benefit birds, bees and butterflies as much as they do the people.

The beds that now sit apart will be connected by an adjoining bed and each pathway between beds will be keyhole-shaped. The “hole” at the end allows a place to sit to weed and turn around. My hope is that this will A) look cool, and B) allow for drip line irrigation to run throughout without a lot of brouhaha. Truthfully, though, I just want something small to work on and would enjoy having someone to work on it with me. This will be an ongoing project and if you are interested in learning gardening while doing gardening, contact me at MillwoodFlowerFarm.com. Just plan to get dirty!