My mother-in-law does this and has a wonderful garden. It might take a little longer than you want for it to compost. You can buy enzymes for the compost to make it "cook" faster. I've also heard (but not tried) adding a little bit of yeast to the pile/composter.
Good luck!

I do this in addition to traditional composting, for when I want to add organic matter but the compost isn't finished, for example. It certainly works fine, the only possible issue I can see is that it might not 'cook' like a traditional pile, depending on the volume that's buried, so if seeds/disease organisms are a concern it might not be the best idea. I don't *know* that's the case, I haven't bothered to look for any research on it, but just in case, I make sure I don't bury anything suspect. I really see trench composting as an extension of digging in a green manure.

I was thinking of starting this the other day and wondered about it and whether it would work or not. What kind of things do you throw in the ground? All vegetable scrapes?

lnewport, you are my kind of composter!

I read Peter Chan's Better Vegetable Gardens the Chinese Way about 35 years ago and that's the message I came away with - bury your compostables. If I'm wrong about what that book said, it may not help to disabuse me of the fact.

I do it in a number of ways: Especially during the winter, whenever I can get thru frozen ground, I just bury what is in the compost bucket. (Of course, the compost bucket itself has to thaw so that I can empty it.)

This is an arid climate so my (more formal) compost bin starts about 10" into the ground. That allows the compost to stay moist a little better and that soil can be used in building the initial pile.

I no longer turn a compost pile - just keep the weeds from growing on it and leave it for 18 months before spreading it back on the garden. Red worms are real helpful in my efforts and they don't like to be hurried.

At the end of a growing season, I often dig out beds in the garden and toss all frost-killed plants in the trench. Covering with about 10" of soil allows the plant roots growing in next season's garden to either penetrate what must be slowly decaying organic matter, or stay above that in an adequate root zone.

Sometimes, my pile of frost-killed plants is so high that I do not adequately cover the material in the bed. That bed then becomes a long, narrow compost pile. It may not even be well-decomposed after 18 months but I find that pumpkins or sunflowers are able to grow on what is essentially, a still decomposing compost pile.

That's about 4 different ways for me to deal with compostables.

digitSteve

I was thinking of putting the scraps in rows around my existing garden beds and in between the spaces where plants grow. Would that be a wise idea or should I just construct a whole other bed and rotate out the planting? What my thinking is, how can the nutrients from the decaying get to the existing plants if hole is dug beside the plant not under the plant?

You might want to discuss this over on the Composting Forum here as it is more relevant to that forum.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Soil & Composting Forum

I bury the contents of the kitchen compost bucket (veg scraps/peelings, no meat or oily things), soft leafy prunings or stuff from the compost bin that hasn't finished composting yet.

If critters are an issue, you might need to bury it well. I know gardenlen, who has posted here in the past, just tucks his scraps under the mulch on his raised beds, but depending on the wildlife where you live that might encourage vertebrate pests like raccoons etc.

I don't bury stuff close around growing plants. I can't be bothered pussy-footing around existing plants, I'd rather just wait until it's time to change over for the next season. I allow about 3 weeks or so(depending on temps and moisture levels) for the stuff to decay.

Again, I think gardenlen does put his scraps right alongside his plants, and it seems to work well for him, but I don't think he actually buries them. You would need to figure out for yourself how close is OK depending on the root structure and volume of what you've got planted. You don't want to disturb the roots of your existing plants. Nitrogen drawdown shouldn't be an issue, though, unless N is limiting and you are trying to trench compost woody material.

I think... yes. Did the said lazy composting last winter in a new empty raised bed with some added manure to help heating up, and soil on top to prevent bugs. I used only kitchen veggie scrapes, healthy leaf trimmings, frost bite tomato, and avoided thick stems and skins to help speed up the process. The thick stems and skins went into our green garbage recycling can.

When I digged in this spring, it's almost all black compost filled with earth worms. The spring plantings in that bed are too young to tell. But so far so good. My guess is the lazy composting may be quicker due to higher temperature in the raised bed.

A post hole digger can allow for some fairly close work in perennial beds but I haven't done that in with the annuals.

Good veggie choices, or at least ones that I've had a good experiences with growing on top of buried compostables, are the members of the brassica family.

digitS'

Thanks everyone for your input. I only throw in my table scraps , no meat but I do throw in bread, rice etc as well. I don't have a probably with local wildlife usually but I do right now with one pesky rabbit but I hope to resolve that soon.

Here's a good little article for you. Ruth Stout wrote about "lazy gardening" many years ago...

Here is a link that might be useful: Ruth Stout

Great article! Thank you for sharing. I started throwing in my Loquat's dropped leaves last night LOL. I'm seriously thinking this idea is going to work. Maybe I'll just get rid of the composter I bought since it doesn't seem to work.

From my experience this is the best form of composting. The reason is that earthworms get more food, resulting in much more intimate mixing than if you were to just spread finished compost on top. Basically, you get composting, micro-tilling, and minimal nutrient leaching in one shot. But it can only be done when a bed is unplanted, anytime between the end of the season and planting, not to disturb the roots. If you use the bed through the winter, it has to be done in May before planting for the new season.

If you have heavy clay, this method is preferable to just using finished compost to loosen your soil, again, more earthworm activity.

Disadvantages are occasional raccoons (just leave the electric fence on), and planting through some fetid stuff in May. The latter can be minimized by covering with adequate amounts of brown stuff at planting time (wood chips for cover, or leaves for mixing and covering). The smell is then mostly neutralized and disappears within a week.

I have tried a variation of this; running food scraps through a blender, then pouring the results onto the soil. It doesn't seem to hurt the soil, but that's a lot of extra work. I've also been considering taking an old food disposal device (In-Sink-Erator), attaching it to a small stainless bar sink that I have, and using that during canning season to 'process' the peelings, etc., into a liquor that I can apply to a garden bed.

I have buried coffee grounds around the edges of my garden bed in an attempt to foil the rhizomes of grass and morning glory. It is only temporarily effective. It decomposes into stuff that grows grass like crazy. But it does seem to turn clay soil into an especially friable texture, and eventually worms move into it and multiply like crazy.

But my past experiments with burying stuff like weeds in the soil usually results in a fetid, rotting mess that gets accidentally dug up later.

Since I was just to buslasyforgetful to turn compost, mine NEVER broke down it sat month after month (sometimes 2 years, and did NOT break down. So, i dug up my garden, and dumped my still unfinished compost in and started burying my food scraps. My soil is now incredible, and FULL of worms!

I can easily tell the dif. between my rich, deep brown/black moist soil, and the gray/brown dense crap that was there when we moved in.

I bury anything that was once edible including very small amounts of meat, bread, rice that my chickens or dog son't eat.

Speaking of being lazy, I use the laziest method. Instead of burying the scrap or waste. I pile them directly on the soil then throw a burlap bag over it. It is more of mulching than coposting, I guess. But the quantity of earthworms I get is incredible. In our arid climate burlap retains a lot of moisture for the microorganism. I believe this is called interbay mulching.

My way is pretty lazy as well. I throw all my scraps - including cooked meat, poultry and fish, into my hen house. Then in the fall after the garden is put to bed I send my boys out to clean out the coop and haul it all to the gardens.

I do also keep a couple of compost piles for garden waste, and add my chicken gold to it to help things along, but I don't turn it or otherwise give it a thought until I want to use it. I use bales of straw to make the walls of the compost piles so when the compost is done, the straw is in perfect condition for mulch: half rotted, just the way I like it.