Composting seems complicated. There’s so many things to consider. From the ingredients to ideal temperature to oxygen levels…it’s a lot to consider.
The fact is that composting can be as complex or simple as you want it to be. There are a thousand ways to compost things, and all of them have pros and cons and are ideally suited for different circumstances.
Let’s say you want to recycle your food scraps from your kitchen. You don’t want to send the waste to the landfill but you also don’t want a pile of steaming in your backyard. Maybe you’ve got bears.
You might think: “Hey, all this stuff is biodegradable, can’t I just bury it and let it decompose naturally?”
The Answer: Yes you can! Isn’t that great? It’s even got a name: Trench (or pit) Composting.
All things biodegradable will break down and become dirt eventually. Bacteria will do their thing on everything given enough time. Burying your food waste or other compostables just returns it to the earth a little faster. The waste will break down more slowly but the nutrients will be immediately available to the soil, and worms and other bugs can get in on the action too.
Pit Composting Can Be Awesome For Your Garden
One of the major questions that surrounds pit composting is that you don’t get the end product of finished compost with which you can topdress your garden. Top dressing is the most common way to add compost and revitalize your soil.
But there are some major advantages to in ground composting and in fact, your plants will actually love the nutrient availability!
If you think about it, when you add compost to the top, water brings the nutrients down into the roots where it can be taken up by the roots of the plant and used. But if the nutrients are already in the ground, so much the better for the plant. As waste slowly breaks down in the ground, it also slowly releases nutrients. All you have to do is plant on top of your pit or trench and then your plants will be supplied with high quality nutrients all season long.
Worms also love this because as all that waste starts to decompose, worms can move in and start to munch away, producing the magic worm castings we all love. Because the waste is right in the ground, worms can find it no problem.