No Compost Bin? Try Trench Composting

If you want fast compost without a compost bin, or if you’re preparing a new organic garden bed, just add your kitchen scraps to the area to be planted. This is called trench composting.

Trench composting is how composting was done many years ago – the official name is Pit, In-Place, or Trench Composting. I was recently clued into this style of composting when I ran into an elderly couple I’m acquainted with. They hail from Germany and are fantastic gardeners. Trench composting is the only way they compost, and they have been doing it like this their entire lives.

How to trench compost

During spring and summer, dig a shallow trench in your vegetable garden (side, middle, anywhere there aren’t plants) and add kitchen scraps. The food scraps will break down in about 60 days, giving your soil a boost. If you’re also adding meat scraps and bones, make sure they’re buried at least 12 inches deep, as animals will find them if they’re closer to the surface (meat and bones are not recommended for compost piles). I don’t trench compost in my flower beds, as I don’t want to disturb any dormant bulbs or perennials that may have re-seeded, but I use it from time to time in my vegetable garden.

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Trench composting is a great solution for winter composting

Trench composting is a great strategy to use over the winter if your compost pile is frozen. I can’t bear to waste kitchen scraps (all of that potential nourishment!), and this works very well for me, especially in garden beds where I grew heavy feeders like sweet corn the previous season. I dig a trench in the vegetable bed, pour the scraps in, and cover it with soil and winter mulch (usually straw). I do not include bones or meat, as I have a dog whose nose is her superpower – she would dig as far as needed to find them. She proved this years ago by digging up a beef bone that she had buried in a flower bed the previous year, and I had planted over without realizing it. Good-bye Petunias.

Use trench composting in the fall to build organic matter in garden beds

Trench composting is a great way to replenish the fertility of your vegetable garden beds in the fall. It’s also useful before you plant a cover crop or cover the garden with mulch for the winter. By the time you plant the following spring, earthworms and bacteria will have digested the kitchen scraps, and your soil will be full of the nutrients your plants require.

Read more about the types of composting from Oregon State University Extension.