Shhh!
Nosey neighbors? Annoying homeowners association? You
can compost in your backyard for free without anyone knowing.
Composting in a pit or a trench allows you to:
- Improve poor soil
- Compost without worry of smells or attracting raccoons and other furry critters
- Spend $0 to compost
How to Compost in a Trench
- Dig a pit or a trench as deep as you can comfortably dig. One foot deep is perfect. It can be as long or wide as you need.
- Place food scraps and leaves into the trench, leaving 5 inches of air space to ground level.
- Fill the rest of the pit or trench in with soil.
Cold Composting
Trench composting is cold composting so it will take longer
to decompose than in a compost bin or pile. You will also not need to harvest
the finished compost. It is already there, incorporated into your soil.
Cool.
Free! Woo-Hoo!
Of course, aside from the cost of a shovel, which most
people already have, trench and pit composting are free.
But, “there is no such thing as a free lunch.” Yep. Trench
composting won’t cost you money, but it will cost you time and sweat while
digging a big hole. Or a bunch of holes. Or a bunch of trenches.
You will have to dig. A lot.
I Buried My Food Scraps, Now What?
The decomposing food scraps could steal nitrogen from
whatever you plant, so either wait a year to plant anything on top of a
composting trench or add fertilizer.
If you want to get fancy with your hole of decomposing food
scraps, check out these sites:
Consider planting clover over the pit. It fixes nitrogen to deal with the compost stealing nitrogen, and if you pick something like white or crimson clover, it is a great pollen source for native bees! White clover used to be mixed into lawns at a 25% rate to add the extra nitrogen lawns needed beyond just leaving the grass clipping on the yard when you mowed. No chemical salts (a.k.a. fertilizer) needed for a natural, healthy, frugal yard.
ReplyDeleteGreat suggestion, Sean!
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