Never toss all those imperfect lettuce leaves, onion tops and strawberry tops into the trash. Rather, change them into compost ideal in the back garden.
Worm and pile composting are fantastic techniques to deal with these scraps. But if these procedures are not for you, consider trench composting. This generations old strategy is minimal exertion and powerful. The system is basically invisible, removes the have to have to switch a pile of plant debris, involves minimum area and does not scent.
Only dig a 12-inch-deep trench between the rows of vegetables, in the pathway, or in any vacant location in the backyard garden. Be watchful not to damage the plant roots. Insert about 4 to 6 inches of kitchen scraps, combine with soil and go over with at minimum 8 inches of soil that you eliminated from the hole. Covering with this significantly soil helps protect against animals from digging. Repeat right up until the trench is crammed with plant particles and lined in soil.
Just like other composting techniques, use plant-primarily based components only. Do not insert meat, dairy and extra fat that can entice animals and rodents. And this is no location for perennial weeds like quackgrass, once-a-year weeds absent to seed, or invasive plants that can survive the composting and acquire about the garden.
You can also trench compost a person hole at a time. Just dig a hole in a vacant room in the garden, toss in the elements, blend, and go over with soil. I grew up with this strategy. Soon after meal or when we experienced a bowl comprehensive of kitchen scraps, we ended up sent to the backyard garden to dig a hole, dump, and go over.
For these that want to rotate plantings as well as compost, you may want to check out a person of these two methods. Plant in wide rows and trench compost in the pathway. Next yr, go the garden to the route area and make past year’s back garden the path. You will be rotating your plantings though enhancing the soil.
Or designate independent adjacent spots for planting, paths, and composting. Up coming calendar year, rotate so very last year’s composting area results in being garden, the backyard garden gets the route, and the route is the new portion for trench composting. In three several years, you will have rotated crops and improved the soil in all three areas.
Start out by contacting your local municipality to make positive there are no limits on any type of composting. Then get out the shovel and dig your way to much healthier soil and a far more successful back garden.
Melinda Myers has composed a lot more than 20 gardening guides, including the not long ago released Midwest Gardener’s Handbook, 2nd Version and Small Place Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” DVD prompt online video series and the nationally syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment Television set & radio software. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine and her website is http://www.MelindaMyers.com
Image courtesy of MelindaMyers.com
