keyhole bed and graphic organizer for veggie guilds

Hey all, I've found a great way to organize the "garden friends and adversaries". I used Smart Notebook software to make everything. Please feel free to save and distribute this graphic organizer... I found it really helpful!

My keyhole bed is also shown, I plan on sowing the leafy greens throughout, and clover in the path. The brown star in the middle is a hugelkultur (mound culture) network. The star follows the Fibonacci sequence/golden ratio and it makes lots of niches for the plants, as well as leaving an opening for the path, etc. There is an herb spiral on the bottom right.

The bed is almost 9 feet wide... I think I may have to cut out some of the veggies to make more room.

I am in the process of pulling out all the river rocks that are right under the 6" of top soil. There are a lot of rocks! Even up to melon sized.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

I'll try to make the attachments visible:

Thank you, Guarren! That's very helpful!!! I've cross-posted it on my blog: http://interdependentweb.com/content/awesome_chart_vegetable_garden_guilds

I don't understand? Are you planting all the things in the circles together? And then more circle beds nearby? Does it just mean this is a suggestion of plants to plant together?

Guarren cito wrote:
I am in the process of pulling out all the river rocks that are right under the 6" of top soil. There are a lot of rocks! Even up to melon sized.

I did that after realizing plants can't grow in 6" of soil during a drought when its 100F. I dug them out to about 2 feet down and replaced with logs. Since then my garden has been the best ever, with much less irrigation.

At first glance, assuming the whole thing is 9' in diameter as you say, it looks like you're not allowing nearly enough room for the sprawl of cucumbers, squash, watermelon, eggplant, and potato. Also, which way is North? It's always best to put taller plants to the north of shorter plants. That way everything gets a share of the midday sun. (Assuming you're in the Northern Hemisphere. If not, then reverse that.)

I also don't understand the hugelkultur pentagram. Clearly you are using some spiritual principles in your design, and I don't intend to knock that aspect, but for a project like this, you would do better to sheet mulch the entire area and save your hugel material for other areas.

As for the Fibonacci numbering system - I just don't get it. Nature tends to follow fractals or Pareto's law. Fibonacci numbers are more of a mental exercise than a spiritual practice for most people. I'm reminded of the followers of Pythagoras, who threw themselves into the sea when they realized that math doesn't explain everything. Don't make thier mistake.

Ben - I checked out your blog and it's really cool! I'm happy to make some small contribution!!

Mary - Yes this is just a guide of what plants to plant next to each other. The second picture is really most helpful, the first picture is just what I wanted to do in my garden.

Tyler - Congrats on the garden, I finally got all those rocks out but it took a lot of work. We'll see how it works out this season.

Chris - Good call with not having enough room in the keyhole bed and thanks for the advice with the pentagram design. It seems like a good way to include the maximum number of micro climates, but I'm definitely not attached to it so let me know if you have another idea that would also be aesthetically pleasing.

Enjoy!

Hey Guarren,

This is a great idea, thank you for sharing! Maybe I'm reading too much into the diagram, but I was wondering if there is a difference in terms of how the circles are outlined? Size of circle is pretty clear, but outline of circle? Or is that just a visual thing?

And what are the lines between circles?
Apologies if it's obvious, I'm just starting out.

Thanks,
Shaz

Hi Guarren, Check this video out at about 17 minutes into it you will see a multi keyhole design that you might like.
https://permies.com/t/41999/artisans/Official-Toby-Hemenway-Thread
It's the first video.