To see what the buttercrunch and romaine looked like last week for perspective, they are noticeably bigger now with thick, tight centers forming. No wilt-y leaves or insect (or mammal) invasions so far (aside from me).
There has been zero supplemental watering (from a hose or by rain), except for the water contained in vegetable waste and dish water throw-out placed directly into the compost center bin. They are apparently getting all they need there.
You can see the dozen or so kale plants are sprouting up in between the heads. We hope to harvest those leaves a little later.
I’ve already made a salad for one with pinched outer leaves of several plants. Mmm mm. Delicious.
Temps are hovering in the low 70’s with no forecast for a deep chill. The chance for flower bolt is better than that of rain…
For more information on the awesome low-water, low-weed, high yield keyhole garden, you can read about it here and here.
Stay tuned for more keyhole fun!
Woo-hoo!
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Good luck! Some day, I will have a keyhole garden. Just have to get daughter off to college so we can find a place more in the country. Won’t be long now!
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I’m posting a photo for tomorrow morning. The heads are so big now they completely shade the soil. And we got a cool front…finally. I see you’re back to gardening again. Going over to have a peek now!
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Lettuce looks fantastic! Do you change varieties from year to year? Or stick with the same?
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This will serve as the first successful crop of lettuce here! We normally grow greens like kale, beet, turnip, and chard which are very adaptable to to what nature throws at ’em. Lettuce I have found to be too finicky on water and temperature. The keyhole seemed to fix that for me.
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How do you transport your dish water? Do you siphon it into a bucket or just scoop what you can?
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I keep a plastic tub in my sink for catching tap from hand-washing, pre-rinsing dishes prior to putting into the dishwasher. I just carry the tub at the end of the day out with the kitchen scraps and dump it into the keyhole basket.
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Your lettuce looks great! I love growing that because it grows so quickly. We’ve had rain the past few days, but it was in high 80’s the week before that. Sent everything into bloom and nudged the kale and broccoli to bolt.
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Thanks, Melissa. Hoping for rain in a couple of days here, and our temps have been in the 70’s, so I fully expect them to go to flower before full harvest.
In the past 10 years, I’ve been unable to grow lettuce at all as rabbits make quick work of the heads in one sitting. The keyhole raises everything up high — where the buns can’t find it! Not sure how it will be for deer-proof though.
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