Some 60 years ago, our family used to bury our food scraps in the same way. As I recall, our vegetable garden [aka 'Victory garden'] was dynamite ... and we did live off that garden to a great extent.

These days, when I'm too busy/lazy to balance a compost contribution, I dig/bury so nothing goes to waste. Our climate makes it easier, might not work so well in your colder climate.

When my dad was alive, I used to get all kinds of fish waste from him on a regular basis. I buried that under plants, and they loved it. He would go fishing 7 days a week if the weather permitted.

It's the time-tested method. I have done it plenty. It is about the same as a small cold pile that deosn't get turned.

I did not have a compost pile of any sort this year - for the 1st time in many, many years. I've always had various methods and locations for composting. And, the one I've used more and more is burying the compostables under 8" to 10" of soil directly in the garden beds.

With large gardens, I've usually got lots of plant material to compost - especially, after the 1st frost. There is, however, a question in my mind that I can keep up the "shovel work" required of this composting-in-place approach that I'm now fully involved in.

Posted by nappingking. . . I dig a 2 to 3 ft hole in our raised veggie beds and we fill it up and backfill it with some of the garden soil...I have been doing this systematicaly through out our beds. My thought that bringing up the soil down deep and mixing it up with the topsoil can only be good. I toss all waste into the holes...bones, fat, cardboard etc. . . .

Is that a 2 to 3 feet deep hole, Nappingking? Only in beds where I've been gardening the longest would I not be down to the caliche level at that depth. Digging out the hardpan and mixing it with fertile topsoil wouldn't be a good idea. I wouldn't even want to get much below the top soil and in this area, that is only about 8" to 10" down, anyway.

Perhaps at 2', I wouldn't have to be concerned about things being dug up by the critters but I don't put any meat or even cooked things in my compostables. A little paper gets in there.

Steve