“No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden…But though an old man, I am but a young gardener.” Thomas Jefferson

When I relocated a couple of years ago, I started to garden anew. I was reading a lot about permaculture at the time. Common in permaculture design is the keyhole garden which is basically a large circle with a keyhole in the middle. I thought what a remarkable idea. A myriad of calculations of circumference with variations of radius multiplied by pi ensued.

I’m sure that the keyhole gardens of such a permaculture luminary as Geoff Lawton are a wonder to see and are productive beyond compare with standard garden designs. Mine was not so. While somewhat productive, it was really quite a disaster. It is difficult to apply the planting recommendations in the LSU (Geaux Tigers!) AG Center Vegetable Planting Guide to a round circle. Invariably I would end up with way too many tomato, pepper, cucumber, etc. plants for the area and by sometime in June it would resemble a circular jungle.

My grandfather was an grand gardener and I would bet his production exceeded even that of Geoff Lawton. My brother and I have fond memories of shelling peas for hours on end as children. As I pondered that, it occurred to me that his garden was laid out on straight lines with rows in between the plants which amazing corresponded to the LSU (Geaux Tigers!) Ag Center Guide. As I pondered further, the space between the rows should be the width of the base of the standard wheelbarrow to provide for ease of maintenance and harvest. So that is my winter 2020 gardening project – to convert a circle into a rectangle with 5 rows. I can’t wait for spring.