Thank you for sharing this ingenious method. My compost bins start overflowing in the winter so this is a great way to incorporate compost directly into beds. Saves me time in the Spring too. What a great idea! I have a lot of egg shells in mine--they don't always break down completely.
Glad this was helpful Ben. Those egg shells will break down over time, but could I suggest that in future just put your egg shells to one side as you collect them, then crush them up into small pieces before sprinkling into your compost. You’ll still see small pieces of shell but they’ll slowly break down to release calcium and nutrients.
I just add all my vegetable kitchen peelings to the trench. Just bury it and leave it. As it is buried about a foot deep you can simply sow or plant on top. The material will gradually be eaten by worms etc and ‘disappear’ during the year. Don’t dig deeply or you’ll bring it up to the surface, and you want to keep it buried.
I tend to trench compost through winter and then plant over the top in the Spring, but this layer of organic material site below the things I’m planting. When planting a tree I would use well composted soil improver, digging this deeply down into the soil BELOW the rootball and mixing it into the soil used to fill in around the roots. I’d then finish off with a thick mulch of compost over the surrounding soil. Hope this helps. Enjoy your new tree!
Yes absolutely! I usually empty my coffee grounds over the soil round my established shrubs as they sit close to the house but you can also pour them into your compost trench. Thanks for mentioning.
There’s no reason why you shouldn’t, especially if you are starting to plant a new flower bed. However on the veg plot there is usually an opportunity at some point in the year when the whole area is clear and you can do this.
I want to try this definitely thanks for the advice
You should! I find it very useful. Let me know how you get on.
Thank you for sharing this ingenious method. My compost bins start overflowing in the winter so this is a great way to incorporate compost directly into beds. Saves me time in the Spring too. What a great idea! I have a lot of egg shells in mine--they don't always break down completely.
Glad this was helpful Ben. Those egg shells will break down over time, but could I suggest that in future just put your egg shells to one side as you collect them, then crush them up into small pieces before sprinkling into your compost. You’ll still see small pieces of shell but they’ll slowly break down to release calcium and nutrients.
If you wash those shells and remove the membrane you can pop them into your blender to grind them. Bonus...it sharpens your bender blades! 😉
Thank you
You're welcome. Thanks for watching and do check out some of my other videos.
So you don't add brown material? Do you turn the piles or just leave it?
I just add all my vegetable kitchen peelings to the trench. Just bury it and leave it. As it is buried about a foot deep you can simply sow or plant on top.
The material will gradually be eaten by worms etc and ‘disappear’ during the year. Don’t dig deeply or you’ll bring it up to the surface, and you want to keep it buried.
after how many days of trench composting, we can plant tree on that soil??
I tend to trench compost through winter and then plant over the top in the Spring, but this layer of organic material site below the things I’m planting.
When planting a tree I would use well composted soil improver, digging this deeply down into the soil BELOW the rootball and mixing it into the soil used to fill in around the roots.
I’d then finish off with a thick mulch of compost over the surrounding soil.
Hope this helps. Enjoy your new tree!
Coffee grounds too?
Yes absolutely! I usually empty my coffee grounds over the soil round my established shrubs as they sit close to the house but you can also pour them into your compost trench. Thanks for mentioning.
Hi Adam
Thank you for this video.
Do you think it would be ok to do this in a flower bed
There’s no reason why you shouldn’t, especially if you are starting to plant a new flower bed. However on the veg plot there is usually an opportunity at some point in the year when the whole area is clear and you can do this.