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| Back in the '50s, my aunt dug food scraps directly into the soil throughout her annual bed after the flowers were dead. (Dug holes about 4"-6" deep, dropped in the scraps and covered them with the original soil.) With the exception of a wax-covered milk carton or two... :o)...there was rarely any evidence of the original materials when she dug in annuals the following spring. And even to an uninterested fourteen year old, the plants seemed to thrive. Of course, she didn't have to deal with any critters who might otherwise have performed some night raids on these buried goodies! Plus, I would guess that the mild winters in southeast Virginia certainly didn't hurt this process.
Is this still an acceptable alternative to composting in a pile? Any drawbacks?
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Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by emgardener (My Page) on Mon, Oct 22, 12 at 22:49
| I've been doing this. It does attract racoons though. If you carefully bury the scraps without letting your shovel touch the scraps, then water the area right after, the scent can be removed and the racoons won't find them. In one hole I buried 5 gallons of kitchen scraps, next to some tomato plants. It didn't seem to help the plants all that much. When I dug up the area this fall though there were these nice clumps of 'worm-casting' dirt riddled with worm holes. I suspect most of the scraps decomposed anaerobically, but the worms ate a lot of the scraps from the sides of the hole. I'd suggest putting no more than a half-gallon of scraps in one hole, or just sheet compost on top of the garden bed. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Low cost vegetable garden
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- Posted by tishtoshnm 6/NM (My Page) on Tue, Oct 23, 12 at 0:01
| This is often called trench composting. I often use this method on areas I am planning to build the soil in the future. This often happens when my compost bins and worm bins are full. Sometimes when doing this, I throw a handful of worms in with it. Depending on what I am throwing in, I will often throw in a gallon of water too but that is because my climate is dry. Most often,the things that I can find after doing this are corn cobs and avocado pits, everything else seems to disappear and the corn cobs do not bother me, I just assume that they will absorb moisture. |
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| I often bury items in the garden as I use a compost heap that sits for years and at times gets too full, or I simply have shovel handy, so I just bury items in the garden. In the winter I do not want to bust snow to get to the compost heap so in the fall I dig a hole approx. twenty four by twenty four or so, and dump items in it all winter then rebury them when the frost goes out. |
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| Known as trench or pit composting this has been done, maybe longer, then maintaining a pile of material to compost. If what you bury is being dug up by wild critters you are not burying that material deep enough. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Trench or pit composting
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- Posted by purpleinopp 8b AL (My Page) on Wed, Oct 24, 12 at 14:19
| This is an excellent way to compost if a pile is not possible or permitted in a neighborhood, or you just don't want the bother of moving compost around. I've been doing more of this type of composting too. You can also fill a bucket with compostables, then dump it and leave the bucket overturned on the contents. I do this in the back yard sometimes in winter, our dog keeps most critters out but he seems to abide armadillos. It's ok with me if they find a few bites. Cover with leaves if there's still something there you don't want to look at when you remove the bucket. Throughout summer, I put really heavy, wet stuff like melon rinds directly at the base of thirsty plants. They melt within a couple days and it seems like misplaced effort to walk so much farther to a compost pile that's already moist to add something that's mostly water. Also research "sheet composting" if you want more reading material. |
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- Posted by emgardener 9 BayArea CA (My Page) on Wed, Oct 24, 12 at 16:46
| Some one mentioned corn cobs in a post here. I saw great results putting corn cobs in a 1/2 gallon "planter". Now I'm saving cobs to bury in the garden when I do transplanting in the spring. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Corn cobs in the soil
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| I buried 50 yd3 of waste produce (fruits, veggies) in trenches in my garden this summer. I've never done it on this scale before, and I had nightmares that featured thousands of rats overtaking the neighborhood, huge clouds of flies or methane gas, and thick nitrogenous goo running out of my drainage system and down the street. None of that happened. I had big piles of soil that gradually settled back down to their previous elevation and now I'm growing winter cover crops over the whole area. I'll report back on the results in a year or so. |
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- Posted by emgardener 9 BayArea CA (My Page) on Thu, Oct 25, 12 at 2:43
| 50 cu yds! Wow, where did you get all the waste? Did you dig it in with a hand shovel? |
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| I got the compostables from "various local sources". For anyone who wants to do this I would suggest asking around. A lot of this stuff gets picked up by refuse companies . . . who then shred it up with a healthy portion of plastic and glass and try to sell it back to us. I dug all the trenches by hand and have a sore knee and back to prove it. |
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- Posted by briergardener 7 (My Page) on Sun, Oct 28, 12 at 10:04
| I do trench composting all the time. Ealy in spring i make a long narrow trench and put there some "goodies" along with some cotton or wool old things. Along this trench i make another where I plant radishes. They like heat comming from trench next to their roots. |
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| I've done this for almost 30 years in various zones and found it works very well. I have a 1 gallon container and find if I dig a shovel full of soil out in between the plants in my perennial beds that amount of kitchen waste fits. So it's not buried very deeply but I've rarely had varmints dig it up. Even in zone 3 the stuff disappears quickly, often within a few weeks. Of course there are a few winter months when the ground is frozen so I use other methods then. I have a lot of worms in my soil and believe the reason they multiply so well is because they are well fed. I first started doing this because I didn't want to bother with a compost pile. I was sold on the idea when the horrid clay soil became dark and rich. In those days we had kids at home who didn't even mind burying the compost. I expect because it was an easy chore and they could dawdle and avoid other chores! LOL |
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| Thanks to all for the benefit of your experiences! Another related question occurs: how deep should I dig the hole/trench? The link kimmsr provided advises digging a hole 18-24" deep so that you can also throw meat, dairy products and cooking oil into the hole without attracting rodents and flies. Since the dogs pretty much keep this area "varmint free" and there are no flies around this winter, is it safe to dig the trenches not quite as deep? Taking this one step further, I'm doing this to prepare a new planting bed for perennials in the spring. Since most of them have fairly shallow root systems (8-10" deep), would it be best to bury the scraps at that same depth so the roots can benefit? |
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| I expect the correct answer would be to dig as deep a hole as one is able to but in my clay soil there are areas where one shovel depth is as deep as I can easily dig. Really solid clay here, similar to concrete. In areas I've done this for years I can dig deeper but those areas don't need it as much so I'm using areas further afield. I seldom bury meat, dairy products, or oil tho. Sometimes those go in my compost pile. One thing I do is compact the soil a bit over the "goodies" which IMO likely makes any odor less. I just pack the soil down a bit with the shovel. I also usually half fill my compost bucket with water so it starts out moist and may attract worms faster. I've seen worm holes 2' below the surface throughout the hard clay (when DH double-dug one bed) so I think the worms will move throughout the garden leaving their castings so the scraps don't need to be at the same depth as the roots. Feed the worms well and they will multiply increasing the nutrients throughout the soil. |
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- Posted by purpleinopp 8b AL (My Page) on Thu, Nov 1, 12 at 10:48
| If you want to use this area in spring, I would leave the trenches open, if I dug any at all. Oxygen will help your compostables break down much quicker. There shouldn't be any odor unless the material is smelly when you put it down. After a day or two of exposure, the odor should be gone. Composting odors are caused by lack of oxygen. |
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| Terratoma: When I bury items from huge piles to a small bucket, I usually dig it in two shovel depths on average. Obviously more if the amount is huge and less if it is smaller. |
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| If your soil is too tough to dig as deeply as you want just go as deep as you can this season. You can gradually go deeper each year as the compostables increase OM in the compacted zone. My practice is to dig a trench one day (actually a rectangular hole), then fill it with compostables the next day and immediatley dig an identical trench right next to the first (6-12" away to maintain a wall of soil between trenches) and heap the newly excavated material onto the compostables in the previous days' trench. This keeps everything covered and away from pests. No problems with odors. The most important thing, IMO, is not to have compostables that are attractive to insects or rodents sitting around in an unburied state. Lawn clippings and leaves go in the above-ground compost pile but a juicy melon or a cob of corn has to buried. |
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| How deep to dig depends on what is around you. If that material is not buried deep enough in bear country you will have them in your backyard. If your dog, or the neighbors dog, digs up what you have buried then you need to bury that deeper. When we did trench composting 12 to 18 inches was deep enough, but today with bears, coyotes, opossums, skunks, and raccons wondering around the neighborhood I would go deeper. |
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| Great ideas! Have begun digging and burying: I carved 5 pumpkins for my granddaughter and this will make great burial sites. :0) BTW, have any of you buried shredded leaves in your trenches? I've got half the neighberhood's leaves in my yard, thanks to the recent winds, and have shredded them. I've read that some people use them as mulch while some make leaf mold. I would think that shredded leaves would blow away if used as mulch and making leaf mold takes too long (or so I've been told). I'd planned to add them to my compost pile. Which way do you think would produce better results: adding them to the compost pile or digging them into the ground? (If this question should be placed in a new thread, please let me know.) thanks |
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| Kimm, I live in bear country and have only once in 16 years had a bear dig buried kitchen scraps. He was digging it up for the earthworms in late fall and he appeared to be an old bear. Cranky, too and wouldn't run off when I yelled at him - likely hungry and no longer able to forage well. Twice in the same period I've had bears check out my compost pile so it's not a huge problem even living here. I do admit varmints could be a problem so one has to know their situation. None of the many pet dogs I've had over the years has shown the slightest interest nor have coyotes or foxes. We don't have opossums, skunks, or raccoons here but I've heard they can be a problem. Terratoma, shredded leaves if spread as mulch and watered will settle down and not blow away. Could certainly be added to your compost or buried but if the latter I'd mix with the soil a bit, not bury in a thick layer. |
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