Have you ever started doing something or perhaps been doing something for a while and felt weird about doing it, because nobody else does it this way, but hey, it’s working for me? And then you find out that, oops, there are other people doing it this way and it’s actually a legitimate thing?
So I was visiting with my friend Renee earlier this week and she was showing me how she used natural yeast to bake bread and then shared the recipe from the book that she uses. I recognized one of the authors and was interested enough in the topic to look his book up on Amazon, hoping to find an inexpensive, used copy. No such luck with that, but in the process I did see titles for some of his other books, one of which was on pit composting.
I knew exactly what that meant, even though I’d never heard the term used before. I’d been doing it for years, feeling like a sinner, because, you know, nobody composts that way. I thought if anybody did, I should have read about it by now. Wrong again.
To be truthful, I have made regular, socially acceptable compost piles. They worked best when I had animal manures to add to them. I have another large one going right now, but without any animal manure and without me watering it and turning it regularly, because, you know, now being cold outside, it’s not doing much. And it won’t all winter. And then in spring I’ll have an unsightly pile of uncomposted garden waste.
My native “soil” here is really nothing but rocks, everything from sand and pebbles to boulders. It’s not at all conducive to raising fruits and veggies. The common suggestion to simply work in some compost just won’t work here, at least not quickly enough for me. I don’t have ten years to develop good garden soil.
So what I’ve been doing here for the past three years, and what I did on a much smaller scale with my raised boxed beds in our previous location, is called pit composting.
Basically, you dig a hole about 12-18 inches deep. “They” say the hole should be at least three feet in diameter; I’ve just dug random holes to fit in with the existing landscaping, working around the boulders and tree roots and sprinkler pipes. And then you line it with cardboard and fill it to the top with kitchen and garden waste, or in my case, the piles that accumulated over the season. Add another layer of cardboard and then cover with nice soil. While reserving the garden soil that you removed to create the hole is what most people do, I haul that stuff far away, and use store-bought compost and topsoil (but mostly compost) instead. When I reach the point that I am satisfied with the size of the garden, I will continue to dig pits for composting but will reserve the soil and backfill it.
In the beginning, my husband protested that the garden waste wouldn’t decompose and it would all be there the next year. And it would stink. Of course, he was wrong about this. No smell. And when I dug into the raised boxed beds the following year, I couldn’t distinguish any organic matter. No orange rinds or banana peels. Only the occasional strip of tape from the Amazon boxes, but no cardboard remaining. Nothing but rich, beautiful soil.
The basic guidelines:
Dig the pit about 12 inches deep. You may go dig down up to three feet, but should go any further than this as the beneficial microorganisms responsible for decomposing don’t live deeper than that.
Fill in with organic material. One source said to make sure everything is finely chopped. I’ve put whole tomato plants in there and found only the ties used to stake them the following spring. Berry canes and tree branches, however, do not decompose so quickly. I prefer to just throw whole plants in until the hole is filled, stomp them down, and cover with 6 inches of soil. By spring, the plants have decomposed and the soil on top of the pit will have settled so that it is just about level with the surrounding area.
With trench composting, trenches are dug alongside garden rows, about 12 inches deep and wide, and as above, are filled with kitchen and garden waste and then backfilled with the previously removed soil.
Dig-and-drop is basically the same as pit composting, but on a smaller scale, with smaller holes dug still to a depth of 10-12 inches, but nestled in with your veggies and flowers. Drop in 2-3 days’ worth of kitchen and garden waste and replace the soil. As always, never use meat or dairy waste to avoid attracting dogs and rodents.
The beauty of these various forms of pit composting is that you don’t have unattractive piles of compost filling your yard. Instead, the waste material is put right back in the ground and with several inches of soil on top, you can plant immediately. Yes, composting doesn’t proceed as quickly, but if you’ve been fertilizing your plants regularly, this shouldn’t be an issue. And as you continue with pit composting in its various forms, your needs for outside fertilizer will gradually diminish.
References:
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/composting/basics/digging-holes-for-food-scraps.htm
https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Compost-Pit
https://www.thespruce.com/easy-composting-dig-and-drop-method-2539477
The keyhole garden system does pit composting with the advantage of watering in the pit to fertilize.
ReplyDeleteMichael