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We all know that composting is essential in the garden, but compost piles can soon overflow at this time of year when you’re cutting back perennials and pulling up spent vegetables. If you’re wondering what to do with all that extra organic matter, it’s worth considering in-situ composting.
In-situ composting, or composting directly where you’re going to grow, is simple and it’s a great way to deal with a glut of compostable material. Worms and microbes in the soil will do a fantastic job of turning all that organic matter into crumbly, nutrient-rich compost, right where you want to use it.
In this short video we demonstrate three easy ways to compost directly on and in your garden beds to help you improve your soil and prepare the soil for bumper crops next year!
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Yes! Fantastic! I will dig a trench along my heirloom tomato rows to do in situ composting. Presently, I am hauling so much earthworms-rich compost from my chicken coop and run. Thanks again for your lovely videos! Love from me at #CastleofCostaMesa in Southern California.
What about rodents digging up your organic waste?
Does it not attract critters
What a grt idea! Trying this definitely at the end of this year’s growing season
I call it lazy composting and it works well. Give it sometime, may be 6-12 months. You can pretty much dump everything organic in the trench except for uncut heavy wood or log.
Is it possible to make compost in bin bags? I have a small garden and have created a veg bed. I don't have the space for any size of composter. I don't want to waste the potato leaves or any old plants. I would be grateful for any advice. Thanks
What to do with rodents? I have a terrace garden on 4th floor,but I still have regular visits of rodents! I am from Pune,India, I like your videos. Thank you very much.
This is easy and simple method of composting and it works amazingly. thank you . from India.
Thank you for this I will try it
My Asian lilies were sumptuous this year where I had dug table scraps, leaves and cut grass around them. Love this method and use it in my totes on chairs garden.
Could you grow directly on top straight away.
Thanks for video
Edit.was I scrolled further down and found a similar question. Only I don't blends waste .but I do chop up very small with clippers and do not add kitchen waste just veg and dockleaf ect.just wondering how this would work directly planting on top . (Planting into soil obviously )
I'm going to have to start doing this because ants keep overtaking my compost pile then I have the world biggest fire ant bed
I just started in November to do this and i feel excited already, can't wait to start planting ☺
Well
For over a year, I have been placing daily about 10 kg of discarded veggies and fruits from the local market in the ground. I dug pits, now I just place them in heaps and cover with some dry weeds. Within 10 days, the pile would have collapsed as most of the moisture have evaporated. Microbes takes another month or so to reduce them back to ground level.
I then add more fresh organic material. It is my way to reduce the amount of material sent for incineration plus give Nature a nice meal each day.
I am heading to Tunisia where I have 300 hectares of land awarded for an infrastructure project. I plan to hire refuse pickers to collect all fresh organic waste from the vegetable markets…no flies, no pest gather at the compost piles. I will just place them on the ground, no need to even dig a trench. I will introduce some earthworms and they will multiply.
Nature does the rest of the composting with fungi, microbes, insects, etc. The fertile land will be used for growing fruit trees later.
Dry leaves are great for suppressing the weeds. I sweep them up into buckets, dump them in the garden where there are weeds. Takes some months for the leaves to compost. Meanwhile the weeds are buried and they die. I now do that with garden trimmings. Leaving in shallow piles do not require turning.
Really, we need to let Nature do the work. All we need to do is to bring the organic material and lay them in shallow piles. Viola.
If you place cardboard with bricks on top, rodents (so far) haven't been a problem. In
I started a pit compost in three areas this season and decided to try the method of growing right on top with russet potatoes and they are doing great I have been hilling them for 4 months.
I think that once your garden is up and running you could use this technique every year.
I practice this all year long as well as compost piles. Works very well, my sand soil is now dark brown to black. This is not new for me as I have been practicing this for 15 years. Give it a try you will like the results.
Thanks for the video. It seems that in-situ composting is anaerobic. So without oxygen I wonder whether this method also allows for temperatures to get high enough to kill any pathogens in the material/soil? And also how this method compares to pile composting regarding nitrogen losses?
This is the solution i need! Overflowing compost bin which is hard stir so it barely rots down. Cheers
I started doing this in December. The places where I buried food scraps, old bread and paper towel waste are just loaded with worms and castings. Best thing ever!
I made a in ground compost bin, works great, check it out on my channel on how to make one
Great tips. I like the idea of planting around the pits as I’m only just starting gardening now so haven’t made my own compost yet or prepared the beds very well and the shop bought compost is getting expensive
It is so simple and easy.
I just buried 40 catfish in trenches in my garden yesterday. Hoping it makes good growing come spring in about 7 months. I have only did this where i have already harvested but as any area gets cleared its getting fish buried in it. Heard too many times that it works well not to try it
I do this all the time with all crop residues. I just dig a trench and bury them right where they came from. The single exception for me is any curcubit that has squash vine borers as I burn those. SVB don't have effective predators but most other pests do.
One time, when I was a child, my piano teacher showed mom and me her trench composting technique in her garden. Her hubby had dug a long trench the length of their huge garden area, and during the winter they'd pack chopped up kitchen scraps in the trench and cover over with dirt. When the last of the trench was filled in, he'd dig another and start the process over again. Mother, being an avid gardener, loved the idea. However, all of our kitchen scraps went to either the pigs or the chickens on our small farm, and weeds and spent plants pulled from her garden didn't deteriorate well using this method. I'm thinking the kitchen scraps acted as catalyst for rotting out thicker materials. ?? I'd try this technique somewhere in my yard this spring. Thanks for the tip.