Compost trench

[Anita Plot]

I am so fed up with my compost bin taking up space and looking ugly in my garden.

I was thinking maybe I could just dig a hole or a trench and chuck the kitchen scraps in it.

Don't think rats would be a problem because I have 7 cats.

What are your thoughts please?

[allaboutliverpool]

Great idea, but then what?

You would have a hole surrounded by ugly piles of soil.

You could cover it up and grow greedy plants like runner beans or marrows/courgettes.

Is is a feasible but you still have to have a plan!

[Two_Sheds]

You could dig a hole or trench, but you won't fill it immediately, so it will be open for a while? That won't look "nice"


Also, as the compost rots, it will sink. The soil on top will also sink. You will be left with uneven ground ... which isn't too much of a problem if you don't care what things look like, say on an unused patch of allotment ground, or as prep. for a bean trench.

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If your compost bin is ugly, can you not erect a trellis around it, and grow a screening plant, like roses, clematis, honeysuckle or even bamboo?

[Lazgaot]

How about getting a wormery or building your own? I have a Wriggly-Wrigglers Can-O-Worms and it is fantastic at dealing with kitchen waste. In the summer I get about 1 litre of worm juice (the fluid that collects at the bottom of the container) per week. This is a great organic soluble feed when diluted 10:1. At the end of the summer I often empty the lower two tiers and into my greenhouse raised bed. By this point everything has been consumed and composted down.

[BarleySugar]

I was thinking the same as Two Sheds, about screening it with plants or something.

Surely you must have garden waste as well as kitchen scraps to compost? My garden is tiny, but I still use 2 compost bins. Admittedly, once one begins to rot down, I continue to fill it with fermented bokashi and old compost layers, while the other one takes the green garden waste again. It then cycles round, with the rotted compost going onto the garden.

Last year I did empty the bokashi directly into a trench for my beans, but it was very inconvenient, having to dig the top layer off to add to it etc. Also what would you do once the bean trench was done? If you started another hole, the rotting can temporarily take nitrogen from the soil, not a problem with beans, but it could be for other stuff. This year I am just going to dig one big hole and fill it with the pre-rotted compost. That way I can level the ground, set up the supports, and plant the beans all in one go.

I'd keep the compost bin, but find ways to make it blend in with the garden, or if you can afford it, get one of the swish looking 'bee hive' ones.