Trench Composting

Check out our episode from this week where we talked all about what we do for our gardens in the fall. Listen to that HERE. Today I’m going to dive a little deeper into trench composting. We discussed it in the episode and it needs a bit of explanation.

I apologize for not getting this out as promised on Friday. Life happens sometimes and there is no help for it.

Here We Go

As promised in the episode on Wednesday, I’m going to discuss my method for composting. Trench composting is a way of making new nutrient rich dirt for your garden without having to have a pile in your yard somewhere. For me, living in town, it can be problematic to have a compost pile. Done well a compost pile won’t smell or attract critters. However, there can be a learning curve to figuring this out. Trench composting can save you some unsightliness. I also like trench composting because I can prep my beds as I put them to bed for the winter with materials I have on hand. In the spring, my beds are ready for business without a lot of fuss from me. Lastly, I like this method because my beds are more rich and fertile than any other method I have tried. I’m having an exceptional year of gardening this season.

The Process

First, please don’t judge. I’m just over here keeping it real. Here is the bed before I started. You’re judging. I can feel it. This was where my lettuce was earlier in the season. You can see my bolted lettuce and a whole lotta weeds

There! That’s better. Here we are with all the mess cleaned out.

The next step is to dig down about 12 inches. Here is my hole in the ground. It is a lovely hole, isn’t it.

Now We Layer

Now we start to layer. First my browns. This can be a lot of different things. dried leaves are amazing if you have them. That’s why this is usually a fall project. It is a little early for my leaves. I do have paper. There is some controversy of the use of paper in the garden. I’ve done the research and I don’t find anything too egregious in paper made today. I use it without ill effect to my beds. Use your own judgement here. Honestly, I don’t have enough browns right now. I’ll probably retreat this bed again when the leaves fall.

Next comes my kitchen scraps. You can use anything here. Vegetable trimmings, coffee grounds, egg shells, potato peelings and so much more. I keep my compostables in a 5 gallon pail until I’m ready to use it. For us, most vegetable trimmings go to the chickens. So we don’t have a problem with a stinky pail. If you don’t have chickens, you might have to process this stuff into your garden a little more often than me.

As I’ve mentioned before, we raise rabbits. Rabbits poop. A. Lot! Rabbit manure is amazing stuff. It is a cold manure which means you can use it right away in your garden without burning your plants. It immediately goes to work as an amazing fertilizer. So here we have a layer of rabbit manure.

And lastly, I cover it over with dirt. You can plant in this right away if you want. I do sometimes. Or leave it to do its magic over the winter and come back in the spring.

That in a nutshell is trench composting. I highly recommend it for raised bed gardening. I think it would work well for in ground gardening also. Though I haven’t tried it myself. Happy composting! You’re garden will thank you.