For the past three years I had been cultivating a kitchen garden of sorts, having converted a section of back yard dog run (oxymoronic name and use- dogs can't run in there!) into four semi-raised bed garden plots, wrenched from the shallow soils of Central Texas Hill Country via shovel, pick, San Angelo bar and roto-tiller. Amended with a few yards of fill dirt/compost mix, the beds did well for a couple of years... then the DROUGHT struck.
If you've ever imagined life two miles from the sun, you have an idea of the past couple of summers in these parts. As a result, I would have better luck building an adobe hut with the beds' dirt than I would growing healthy tomatoes; despite significant feeding and watering (when allowed by local ordinance) I still had rock-hard soil and stringy, stunted vegetable plants as the summer plodded along in desiccating fashion.
Enter 2012, and %1(=Mrs.) makes it clear that the time had come for a fresh approach to kitchen gardening, having been informed by her mother's Texas Co-op Power magazine that a keyhole garden would take the place of the tired old beds.
If it sounds like a lot of work, you would be correct. The combination of missionary zeal and of determined southern Africans makes it seem like a walk in the park...
... and there's only one of me, a forty-ish computer guy with cranky joints and a tight planting schedule.
Can it be done? Better yet, can it be done at minimum expense with an eye towards re-use and recycling?
If you've ever imagined life two miles from the sun, you have an idea of the past couple of summers in these parts. As a result, I would have better luck building an adobe hut with the beds' dirt than I would growing healthy tomatoes; despite significant feeding and watering (when allowed by local ordinance) I still had rock-hard soil and stringy, stunted vegetable plants as the summer plodded along in desiccating fashion.
Enter 2012, and %1(=Mrs.) makes it clear that the time had come for a fresh approach to kitchen gardening, having been informed by her mother's Texas Co-op Power magazine that a keyhole garden would take the place of the tired old beds.
If it sounds like a lot of work, you would be correct. The combination of missionary zeal and of determined southern Africans makes it seem like a walk in the park...
... and there's only one of me, a forty-ish computer guy with cranky joints and a tight planting schedule.
Can it be done? Better yet, can it be done at minimum expense with an eye towards re-use and recycling?
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