Do you have extremely hard soil, or is your soil soft but low in nutrients? Do you have bad luck with your crop, picking your crops wondering why they are smaller than they should be?
Well, I have a few suggestions for that, and the main one is underground composting.
Underground composting is where you dig a trench, around 10 inches deep, and where the 10 inches of soil is replaced with 8 or 9 inches of garbage that is biodegradable. After that just add 3 or 4 inches on top of the trench (make sure to keep it moist). The dirt on top allows common composting insect life to eat away at it (you’d be surprised just how much they help the process). Your trench sinking is a very good sign, it just means your trash is turning into really nice nutritious dirt, just be sure to add soil if it sinks too much, and make sure to keep it wet as this speeds up the decomposition process. After that, be sure to wait around 2 or 3 weeks (although you most likely could get away with less time – it’s really up to you) and you should be safe to plant over the trench!
I used to compost in piles, but I realized this is a much better method of doing things for multiple reasons. It adds a bunch of nutrients that are going to boost your plant life, and it’s easier than carrying pounds of compost to your garden, why not just compost and plant over it? Of course, if you have extremely hard soil, just make a raised garden bed, use 2×4 planks on all four sides (untreated is best if you plan on planting food crops) and do the exact same thing. Eventually from constant watering (from watering your plants), and the added compost, your hard soil will loosen greatly.
Tips, and what you can do to speed up your compost –
I really can’t overstate the importance of water when it comes to composting, without it your compost will take longer, and won’t be as easy on you. Make sure to water your trench compost at least once daily. Don’t let it dry if possible.
Another thing that is amazing at speeding up this process is adding composting worms. Every time my worm colonies are done, I take half and spread over trench composts, or anywhere else I feel it’s needed. Worms eat 100 percent of their own body weight, meaning if you have ten pounds of worms you have ten pounds of dirt being made daily. So spread half of your colony, or more on your trench, and don’t worry about releasing them really anywhere in your lawn, or gardens, they will always be there from now on benefiting you!
If you have any bad smells, or if you get impatient waiting to plant, just add some dirt, this covers the smells and allows critters to eat your garbage, thus speeding the process.
There really should not be much difficulty composting on your own, rarely do problems come up if you follow proper procedures (or don’t most of the time). Composting is one of the easiest things that greatly benefits the size of your harvest, your soil quality, and the local environment. So start now, use your own trash to your advantage, and it doesn’t have to be food crops, flowers and beautiful plants benefit from your efforts just as much as the veggies do!
The benefits on your local environment really make the minimum effort required worth it, when you start seeing the beautiful insects, worms, and bacteria create your great smelling soil, you’ll regret not doing it earlier, trust me that’s what we thought the day we turned our first compost pile.
If you have any questions or issues ask away in the comment section, and I will try my best to answer you as soon as possible!