Mandala Gardening

You may ask what is a mandala garden? The mandala garden is an aesthetic approach to gardening using a non-linear design. Supposedly you are able to get greater yield in planting compared to a linear garden.

How we got started

Our friend Jaynna spent the past year traveling, and towards the latter part of her journeys she spent several weeks in Ghana. She assisted locals in building mandala gardens to spread the gospel of permaculture. After getting back to the states we discussed the garden and the current state. I had been disappointed in participation in the garden, and two people maintaining a garden with very little support, not to mention our other obligations, kid, home, and work; I had started getting garden burn out. Jaynna's suggestion to our problem was to build a mandala garden (aka keyhole garden) in a smaller portion of the garden. I was sold on the idea, and I wanted to try something new.

What we started with

This past summer in Central Texas had been hot. I don't think hot quantifies the 60+ days of triple degree weather that we had. The weather was hard on us to be outside, and it was especially hard on the garden. The yield was low. in the garden. The few items that survived were the okra (not seen here, due to premature aborting), basil, and peppers. It seems the plants spent all of their energy in trying to survive and not producing vegetables. Then there was the issue of two people trying to maintain the garden throughout the summer.

Where we began

We started with laying out the size of the garden. I tend to be detail oriented. I need the proportions to be almost exact and everything in its right place. After laying out the perimeter of the garden, I found the center and then determined my initial design wouldn't work. The initial design was a key hole in the center and six surrounding key holes in a overall size of 21' x 27'. After some adjustments and going back and forth with Jaynna on my vision and how to make this work, we ended up with this. Typically you start building the center keyhole and from there work your way out to the surrounding keyholes. For me this wasn't going to work. I pulled out the 100' tape measure and lots of string and started with the center keyhole. The center keyhole sits on the same horizontal axis as the two smaller keyholes to the left and right. Then by pulling my diagonal lines from the axis of the center keyhole I can get the upper right and upper left keyholes. The keyhole directly above the center keyhole was the difference between the edge of the my perimeter and the edge of the center keyhole. The beds are 36" wide with 24" centers and 18" paths. The process took a couple weekends and a whole lot of one man power. Jaynna gave up after the first day and Amber was no where to be found. It was just was just Bennett and me.

Here we are at the first of October. Amber watering after an initial planting and Bennett patrolling the garden as a Clone or Storm Trooper...Starwars character.

Waterline for Onsite Irrigation is Installed

It's been 16 months since the Community Garden has been official and we finally have irrigation running off an onsite water meter. The amazing part of this is that the funding for the whole project was donated. We need to thank many people for donating time and resources to help us get the water meter installed.
The project started with funding being secured from Sustainable Food Center. SFC has been a tremendous resource through the whole process, from the conception of the garden to installing the water meter and water line. They also had provided the initial funding for Homewood Heights to start the community garden. SFC also worked with the City of Austin getting the contract and agreement for the Community Garden to be established on City owned property.

The process of getting a water meter installed started with a site survey and utility plans being drawn. Todd Blenden of Commercial-Engineering was generous enough to provide his time and resources for the survey and plans.

Once the fees were paid to the city, Christianson Plumbing installed the meter and waterline. Though their services weren't donated, out of 7 other plumbers contacted they were the first and only plumbing company to come out and give me an estaimate. So the plug to Christianson for doing a great job.

Lastly thank you to our neighbor Greg. He graciously ran the irrigation off of his house for the past year, note worthy, through one of the hotest and driest summers in Austin's history. Of course this cost wasn't donated, we all paid.

Next post I'll tell you about the Mandala Garden.

Ice Cream Party

Come on out for an Ice Cream Party. Thanks to Amber for applying and winning, and thanks to Dryers for providing the ice cream.


We'll be dishing out Dryer's Slow Churned ice cream around 7 p.m. on Saturday, July 25th.

Be sure to bring your little ones, and we'll See you at 7!

June Garden Work Day

Saturday some of the gardeners of HoHi and a couple of volunteers braved the heat to plant our first shipments of plants from Nature Hills Nursery. These plants will add to our wildlife habitat and beautify the community space. We planted Double Knock Out Roses, Rudbeckia (Black-eyed Susans), Sunrise Coneflowers (Echinacea) and Little Bunny Fountain Grass.