Bury Kitchen Scraps in the Garden to Improve the Soil - Trench Composting
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- Опубліковано 9 чер 2024
- Bury Kitchen Scraps in the Garden to Improve the Soil
This week's gardening tip will teach you what will happen if you bury kitchen scraps directly into your garden soil. This method is called Trench composting. Compost can be made directly in your garden soil when you buy waste and scraps. The worms and microbes in your garden soil will compost kitchen scraps and other plant materials right there in your garden soil.
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Late reply, My soil was rock hard and almost lifeless, Have been using trench composting along with some Hügelkulturu, along with a compost bin but mostly when compost bin is full just empty it into trench, when digging a trench or hole remove any large stones and the difference this makes to soil is amazing, Hard work at the start but the results are great with little or zero cost.
I've been doing this method for years and I love it. I cut up the big stuff, add coffee grounds and small pieces of cardboard, keep it in a covered plastic container until it's full. Then I let the container sit outside in the sun for a couple of days to start rotting before dumping it in the trench. I add leaves, but never weed seeds--just those from the foods--tomatoes, etc. I keep the trench fairly moist. By spring when I dig for planting, I find little or no remaining pieces of food.
If you include seeds from plants (e.g. tomatoes, melons etc) , don't you find that they germinate too?
It’s not necessary to to sun the container for a few days. I would just bury it in the ground. This saves time & efforts.
I’d be careful about burying coffee though because it takes longer to break down & it’ll rob your your plants of nitrogen, unless you’re doing it in an empty soil. I’d just broadcast the coffee on the surface & let the mold take over.
1. Collect kitchen waste (no meat/oil/cooked food) in 55 gal garbage can. I keep a small container in pantry and when I dump it into can, I cover with leaves or mulch or soil. No odors. May hold garbage for 4 months. No cardboard.
2. Garden is ready for trench--I rotate areas. They are 12' x 2' and I have 2 of them. Dig 8" deep by 10" wide trench. Spread waste in trench. I also use small twigs from bush trimmings--1/4" or less. Leaves, weeds, almost anything. Don't worry about weed seeds. Don't worry about leaving waste in the sun--my container is in shade year round.
3. Cover waste with excavated soil. Do not compact waste or soil--earthworms will do that.
4. If dry, add water for earthworms. Wait 6-8 weeks and plant. I can dig soil with my hands.
I bury all my kitchen scraps all around my garden & they do miracles for the plants, making them super healthy and disease-free. Bury a little at a time when in close proximity to the roots.
yeahhh so true, my potato plants grew like giants
btw i planted them in really bad soil, and added kitchen scraps and it grew huge right away
i was wondering if this could be done. how do you avoid hurting the roots of your plants? thank you!
I just did this about 10 days ago, and it had some cantaloupe skins and seeds, well to my surprise, I now have a bunch of cantaloupe seedlings growing my bed.
did you plant them or pull them out?
@@BonahPerson I left them in there, but it was coming up to winter and the cold weather killed them off, not enough time or them to grow any fruits. But if you start early enough you could have them grow with plenty of time to reap some fruits! Good luck!
PJ D hahhaha, I got some potato seedlings from potato skins that I’d thrown into the compost. Unbelievable.
My old fashioned German parents were doing this in the 50s.
Thanks for the video, I think mulching will greatly improve the moisture of your soil.
Thank you, that was awesome
It made me smile to run across this video. A few months ago I purchased a bushel of peas. After shelling them I dug a hole in my garden and buried the hulls. Around the same time, I did the same with a container of grape tomatoes. Since then I have harvested and preserved 13 pints of peas and I have dozens of grape tomato plants. Luckily I'm in Florida and we have long growing seasons. I may end up with a truck load of tomatoes!
Awesome!
I’m sick and tired of paying too much for fertilizer but I don’t have enough space for compost bin. So I’ve decided to do trench compost during winter and use it for spring crop. Let’s see how it works
அவானி உயர்ந்தது how did it work?
Boen Hang it worked well other than attacking rats(thankfully we got rid of them, not before they’d damaged some seedlings though)It doesn’t decomposed well (maybe needs longer time) but I used it anyway. Butternut squash plants seem loving it . I’m not sure if I would try it again next year.
அவானி உயர்ந்தது ohhhh thank you so much for telling me! Very interesting
Pee in a jug Add Water best fertilizer you ever you
Started gardening a few years now,so great 👍 tip!
So nice of you
I've done this for years
Works great doesn't it!!
I’m so glad I came across this method (as well as the dig and drop). I decided that I will use both methods on my lawn this year. I’ve had a very hard time getting grass or groundcover to to grow on the patches of brown or empty spots. I know it will be an eyesore for a while with the dug up patches of dirt, but it’s not that great to look at now anyways. Hopefully by doing this, next spring I’ll be able to successfully start a new lawn on healthy soil.
Do you have any experience with trench composting on different areas of a lawn? I’m open to any tips from you (or other viewers) who have used this method on grass.
Thank you! I’m very excited to try it! Hated the turning and other work involved with the standard hot method, so learning these direct methods is a dream come true!
Hey Gang! I hope you enjoy this weeks gardening tip. Learn what happens when you Bury Kitchen Scraps in the garden! Here's a hint . . . It is super good for your soil!!
Happy Gardening!
I have had the same experience with composting. It just gets neglected. The direct garden composting has worked for me in the past. Will plan to revisit this method. I am enjoying your videos here in Ohio.
Thanks Jamie, I start out with good intentions every year and then I never remember to turn the pile or water it and it just sits. :(
I wondered if you have ever used a blender to blend up kitchen scraps. I have just been pouring it on the ground , under trees, in my garden , Etc and then watering it in. Do you have any recommendations for this method?
@@judychancey5781 sorry, that's not a technique I have ever tried.
Blendering kitchen scraps to feed worm bin for faster decomposition is a common practice. It would have the same effect burying in the ground. I wouldn’t recommend pouring on the ground because it’ll attract vermin & pests.
I do the same.I always save my vegetables and fruit scraps.
It has really made a difference in our soil quality.
In Arizona I learned to do a method called DOUBLE DIG! Trench composting combined with skipping a "row" was the key to building soil from cliche (baked clay). Good for a desert yard, with a slope. Chicken-run just a little uphill and wetting the roof of the chicken pen, let the fertilized water run into the trench. Highly productive small garden.
Awesome!
Great video, when burying vegetable peelings in the garden is it necessary to water them often because here in southern Ca. it doesn't rain much?
If you add composted chicken manure it will heat up and it breaks down way faster.
The smaller you cut things up the faster they break down.
I cut up melons & banana way smaller, planting greens, browns and chicken or steer manure on top ants it's all done by spring planting time.
You're right, cutting up smaller does help, but most vegetable scraps break down pretty quick anyway. I've never had anything left by spring, just toss it in and go! Works great! Unfortunately we don't have a close source for manure so we have to go without.
I’m too lazy to cut things very small, but find the pill bugs and worms break it down within a few weeks anyway.
I usually use chicken manure from under the roost, tp and other paper scraps to my trench.
Thanks for a great video. I have raised beds. 4x4 and 8x4. Per your recommendation I can do trench composting in fall. My question: can I make a trench when growing season is over along all 4 inside edges of each bed? Or additionally down the middle? Or is that overkill. So what to do IN growing season w kitchen waste? Another website recommended laying aside that waste in a compost bin where it can start decomposing till fall? Your thots?
Thanks!
Trench composting is great.You put a mesh or wooden bin out and put in autumn leaves,kitchen scraps and manures that you aren't burying right away.If you have already buried everything that you are going to by late autumn/early winter,that doesn't mean that you shouldn't keep collecting more stuff.If your a lazy composter,that stuff rots away slowly,without heating up.You can add it to your garden as a mulch or bury it as trench compost in the spring/summer.Plants like beans and peas create there own nitrogen so if you bury browns and plant them on top of them,the lack of nitrogen won't affect them and the browns will rot away from the nitrogen in the soil and when you finish,cut the plants down but don't pull the roots out.They have a lot of nitrogen and will help rot away those browns.You can also use a mix of browns and greens.Although it wasn't mentioned you can also use fish scrap as fertilizer if you bury it deeply.Its good to dig 12-16" deep and put a dash of limestone down and water it in.Than add about 4"of browns and put the fish scrap on top of it.Cover it almost to the top and water it.Then cover it so it makes a mound and add some more limestone.water it gently and leave it alone except for watering it on top every other day and deeper e every 5 days.In 2 weeks I plant something, typically something demanding like a lot of squash or melons or anything that would benefit from all the nutrients in the fish.
Don't try to bury those scraps less than 12"deep.Cats,dogs,rats,
raccoons and more will dig them up if you do.
I just started to bury my kitchen scraps it’s works great
I feel like it makes a huge difference in the quality of my soil.
@@StoneyAcresGardening yeah it does, i didnt have any good fertilized soil i only had clay so i buried kitchen scraps and the plants grew HUGE, biggest plants ive ever planted
I have clay soil. how l ik ng did you have to wait?
So how is it going? I started a burying kitchen scraps a couple weeks ago. I am digging a hole the size of a large dinner plate, about a beer can deep. Then I put in my kitchen scraps and dig the next hole to cover the kitchen scraps.
I don't think you're supposed to bury scraps in a pot. There are more microbes and worms like you said in the ground. That helps break stuff down. But you could have a fungus or other problem in a pot.@SicSemperEvelloMortemTyrannis TyrannyEnder
This works well in my experience... I save my scraps in bags in the freezer and every fall I dig a trench and bury it and then mulch it well to prep it for the winter... lots and LOTS of happy worms in our garden... for mulch I love to use mowed up straw... that mixed with grass clippings make a great mulch for the top, even leaves work well to feed the soil!
I would just bury daily as you go for continuous feeding of your plants with black gold as the scraps decompose all year round, because it takes time for scraps to break down, especially in winter.
I have been composting in place "in-situ" for several years in my raised beds but more so now than I did in the past. The way I have been composting in place is I dig a hole, put in kitchen scraps, top with soil and mark with a flag, the next batch of scraps, I move down the line 12-18" and repeat.
I only do this with kitchen scraps, yard waste that isn't "chopped and dropped" is burnt or tossed in the compost bin. I'll also mulch with certain kitchen scraps.
I start "composting in place" in late fall and stop once I plant out in spring, in the spring when plants are in, I cut back on "composting in place" and start up the compost bin, I end up with a lot of materials to be composted at the end of the season. The diseased plants are burnt in the fire pit where I'll make bio-char and utilize some ashes. Larger stuff like okra stems and sunflower stalks are set aside to dry to use as kindling or shoved in holes "voids" in my raised beds. Most of my beds are Hugelkultur.
I chop and drop during the entire growing season, weeds and trimmings, then at the end of the season a lot of the plants are chopped and dropped in place and a cover crop is planted with maybe a few fall veggies like Bok Choy or Kohlrabi. I'll push to the side or dig up the cover crop gently, dig in the kitchen scraps and recover.
I don't worry about ratios whenever bin composting or "In-situ" composting, I have enough stuff to worry about, so I just let mother nature sort things out!
I have composted chicken, turkey, steak and other meats, just make sure you dig them in deep enough, I have already tossed in entire cooked chicken breasts and placed a rock on top. Bones can be buried also but I prefer to toss them in the pit when making Bio-char.
Great video, what are your thoughts on liquid composting taking vegetable scraps blending them up an adding straight to the garden trench?
Not something that I have tried myself so I can't speak with experience, but it doesn't sound like a bad idea. But that being said I'm also a fan of letting nature do the work for you.
I dig down about 3 to 4 feet an put in dead tree limps cover them with grass an cardboard then put soil back over it
Then 8 to 10 inches I bury kitchen compost plus paper grass an leafs
Then cover it with dirt
Iam trying bulid bad soil lots of clays
Plus I also put in tin cans with tree limps hoping that helps ? Any thoughts about my idea?
i buried kitchen scraps and planted potatoes on top
the plants were giant, they started blocking the sun for the other plants so i had to pull it out early
the potatoes tasted better than ever, you guys should try this out
Great example! Thanks for sharing!
@@StoneyAcresGardening yep!
at the same time?
I am! I just buried a couple rows of scraps before the spring comes. I can't wait to see how it'll come out. Btw...do I bury cardboard as well?
I have a compost pile for my garden beds but here's what I like to do in addition. First I'll dig a hole about 3' deep and 2.5' wide, and then I'll throw kitchen scraps or expiring food and cover with a sprinkle of brown leaves and a layer of dirt. I'll keep layering it as I get more waste until the hole is filled and then I will wait at least 3-4 months before planting anything there, I like to use this for things that tend to have roots that like growing 2' or more deep, for example I did it to plant my first 2 Roselle plants and I'm already getting lots of Roselle off it(more buds are popping up ever day too) after only maybe 4 months of growing and I expected to have to wait till next year since it's a plant that fruits based on daylight hours getting smaller at the end of summer.
Awesome!
Yeah I hear say it will attract worms to I tried in about 3 months ago ain't seen the first Warm yet I guess it works for everybody except me
I have fertilizer in my grass I don’t know if I can use it for compost?
That depends on your feelings about organic. I use an organic fertilizer on my grass so I don't worry about it.
If you have used a fertilizer with any herbicides in it then I would wait at least 3 weeks before I used any of the grass clippings in a trench compost, to let the herbicide dissipate.
Starbucks coffee grounds are green material. Rodale says (4) Browns (carbons): (1) Green (weeds, coffee grounds).
Yep, you are right, coffee grounds would be considered greens. Ratios are a little less important in this method as we aren't worrying much about creating heat, just getting plant material in the soil.
@@StoneyAcresGardening I pitch these things over my deck into my soil. I don't worry about proportions. I just pitch another eggshell but Fraser Valley Rose Farm taught us that Oyster Shells have 4K times the amount of calcium. I have a bag in the back of my car. I'll spread them when I get around to it:-) A 50# bag is $15 USD.
We are lucky to not have to worry about calcium in our soil, we have plenty in our area so we don't ever need to worry about adding. But there are other things we have to worry about.
@@StoneyAcresGardening I suspect some of my plants were lodging d/t lack of calcium. It's just a suspicion.
I just did this but I layered it...food scraps, some composted soil, wood scraps piled high on top. I put 2 PVC pipes (short ones) into the pile to aerate and to allow me to pour urine down deep into the pile to help heat it up.
The food scraps I used were collected over several months and kept frozen until I dug the trench.
Sounds like you’re doing a compost pile?
Burying method is a different technique altogether. There’s no heat involved, so you don’t need to do all those. This method you simply bury scraps in the ground. I wouldn’t add wood chips as they’ll rob nitrogen from your plants.
If you’re adding urine directly to your buried scraps, it’ll burn your plants & kill them.
I've seen people drill holes in 5 gallon buckets bury all but about the last 2 in of it keep a lid on it and just keep putting your table scraps inside of it the worms will come in and out of it Distributing the worm castings that's what you're doing it for anyway
shouldnt you have to water inside the trench aswell or on top of the soil?
Nope, you don't really need to worry about that.
where you get those green covers behind you?? what they called?
They are called Wall-O-Waters, they are great for getting tomatoes planted early. You can find several different types online.
@@StoneyAcresGardening awesome thanks
I have sand 80% and clay 20% soil. . Can somebody tell me if this would work to improve my soil? Thanks in advance
Adding organic matter to your soil, no matter what the composition will always improve it! Go for it!!
yeah it will really help, your plants will grow bigger than ever
I have 300% red Georgia clay, lots of organic material helps a whole lot!
Does this type of composting need balance between browns and greens?(I don't have access to dry leaves or browns. Just kitchen scraps)
How long does it take approximately?
If you have a bunch of browns (leaves) I like to balance them with some greens .But if you are mostly dealing with greens then I wouldn't worry about it.
Most of what I bury breaks down within a couple of months.
@@StoneyAcresGardening Can you use cardboard shredded for browns? 🤷
@@mariap.894 yep
How do I save kitchen scraps during winter ? Can please suggest me
I also have a compost bin and in the winter months I just put my kitchen scraps in there.
Thank you.
This might be a silly question (I’m new to this): After it’s done composting then what? Do you dig up the composted dirt from the trench and add it to your garden or is this method only for adding nutrients around the garden beds? Does the trench have to be do next to your garden bed?
You put the trenches right in the garden beds and then the compost is already where you needed it.
How long does it take to completely decompose?
For some reason I can't trench in the garden bed. I want to dig a trench some other place, bury and get the compost later and apply to the garden bed.
UA-cam videos say about 2 months. What was your observation?
I'm sorry but I don't think you understand this process. The material that you bury in the trench breaks down and is incorporated into the soil in the trench and surrounding area. After a couple of months it is just gone, mixed into and incorporated into the soil. There won't be anything left for you to dig up and move to another location, it will have all gone into the soil in the trench.
Hey freind are oaks leaves ok to use in my compost
Yes they should be fine.
Oak trees bring up minerals from very deep underground and puts them in their leaves. Oak leaves are extremely good for your garden.
when you have left over coffee grounds, mix them with water and pour it on your plants
it will make a huge difference
You have to be very cautious about coffee grounds. They are very acidic and can damage plants if you use too much or too often. Especially with plants that like a more neutral soil.
@@StoneyAcresGardening i always put coffee grounds and it doesnt damage my plants
How come this method doesn't involve heat? you are using the same material as in normal compost
I'm sure there is a little heat involved. But not to the same scale as a big compost pile. There just isn't the potential because the material is more spread out and buried in cool soil.
He'd only speeds up the process. But it's not necessary
Wouldn't they be better shredded before?
Which my neighbors would do that with their veggie scrapes othst than feed wild life.
What do ya mean no wood? Have you heard of hugelculture?
Yes Karen, What Cynthia said. 2 different processes, with trench composting you are looking for quick breakdown of the plant material so it returns the nitrogen to the soil.
Hugelkultur is a technique whereby you put large logs & twigs & branches at the bottom of your new raised bed as a filler when you’re filling it to save money on soil & also to provide nutrients to your bed as they break down over time.
Burying kitchen scraps is done to your existing soil. Though you can also bury a lasagna layer of kitchen scraps as you build your new bed.
Plus paper towels newspaper brown paper bags cardboard all breaks down really easy fast there's your brown stuff
I made a in ground compost bin, works great, check it out on my channel on how to make one
97
You can add fish. That will provide nitrogen and more the 60 minerals that the microbes and plants real love
I have to disagree, adding fish will attract vermin and even larger animals like raccoons and skunks that will then dig up your garden.
@@StoneyAcresGardening Thanks for the responds. Many cultures have use fish in gardens for more than 500 years. If you put the fish deeper than 12 inches you should not have a problem with raccoons, skunks, or vermin. ( Where I am from I don't have raccoons or skunk to be fair) however if you don't want to bury the fish you could use something call FAA this high in nitrogen. Stay safe, Keep gardening.
@@StoneyAcresGardening No if it's deep enough, you can put some things on top to add another protection
So you don’t have to add worms🤷🏻♀️
You can if you want, but there is no need to. If you are taking care of your soil there should be plenty of worms there already.
ourstoneyacres oh okay thanks 😊
I would add worms I've been waiting 3 months not a single worm yet
Nonsense. Throw it all in there. Doesn't matter the green/brown ratio. I put chicken guts and feathers, bones, whatever. If it takes a long time to break down, it's like Hugelkultur. That's how nature does it. You're making it too difficult.
I keep animal products out because they attract local vermin and dogs. I don't want them digging things up. Beyond that I'm not sure what you thought was complicated in my video, I do think it is a good idea to add some grass clippings to the trench if you are filling it with leaves to help them break down quicker. But I didn't say anything about ratios, that's the whole point of this method, you don't need to worry about ratios.
Animal products may contain pathogens as well. I bury animal products much much deeper to deter vermin & stray cats from digging.
Animal products R best for composting. This video is inaccurate. If u dont believe me, try it!😂😂😂😂😂