Keyhole gardens

Make a Keyhole Garden and bring a little bit of Africa to your school or garden at home.

A Keyhole Garden is a type of kitchen garden that recycles as it grows. The design - which looks like a keyhole from above - incorporates a central 'basket' where compostable waste is placed and water is poured. They are especially useful in areas where good soil is scarce, often adding nutritious vegetables to diets. Send a Cow uses them as part of our training, and they get fantastic results; families start to grow enough to eat and sell.

'Around 45 million pre-school children in Africa are malnourished due to poor nutrition.'

International Food Policy Research Institute

Keyhole Gardens are also a great way of introducing children (and adults), to sustainable principles such as composting and using 'grey water'. They are an excellent project for schools and groups to get involved in – perhaps as part of a bigger African gardening area?

Order a Starter Kit

Our kit contains everything you need to get you going, including seven types of seeds grown in Uganda and the UK (see below), diagrams on how to build one, Ugandan info on how the crops are used, a sign and seed markers.

Buy a Keyhole Garden Starter Kit using our order form ... then why not buy the gift of a Keyhole Garden in Africa

You can also call us on (01225) 87422 to order. Starter Kit seeds are: sweetcorn, gourds (mixed shapes), perpetual spinach, tithonia (Mexican sunflower), edible amaranth, courgette (round type) and marigolds.

Keyhole Garden Video Competition!

When you buy one of our kits, you'll also receive an entry form for our competition to see who can make the best garden. And after seeing so many fantastic photo entries, this year we want to see your garden project on video - so we have a new video category. Send a short video (2-3 mins) in with your form by July 9th and our panel of judges will decide which video will win an African Gardens trophy!

Learning resources

As well as what you receive in your kit, we have introductory advice to help you to make a Keyhole Garden, and stories and PowerPoints to introduce how they help children in African countries. All of these resources can be found in the Keyhole Garden area on our resources website, Cowfiles.com.

*Please note that we can only send our African Gardens kits to addresses in the UK.

If you don’t have access to Vimeo.com to watch videos at school, register for an account on their website at home and then you can download all our videos using the link on the bottom right of each video page.