Pros & Cons of Direct Trench Composting
This method uses only some of the composting elements listed in 8 Composting Methods; Water, Worms, Vegetable matter and Bacteria.
The pros and cons are intermingled because what might be a pro to one person is a con to someone else.
It is essentially the same as digging a hole. To me, this is the cheapest way to compost if you want to save money and the best, but it too has some challenges.
It requires
- Digging a hole – every time you bury your waste
- Filling only with worm friendly waste
- Covering with dirt
- Waiting for a few months to decompose
- You can only bury worm friendly food – generally speaking
- It needs to be buried at a certain depth to avoid critters digging it up
- Dairy, eggs, meat or bones will attract rats, mice, and other native animals
- Cannot be refilled until all decomposed or you make a big mess digging up a previous hole
- A new hole must be dug each time you bury your waste – a little extra work
- If you don’t have enough garden you may run out of places to dig holes
- It decomposes really slowly once you cover it with dirt as there is no aeration
- It is not exposed to the same elements once you cover it with dirt
- You have to separate your waste to bury some and throw the rest in your council bin or freeze it till council pick up day. For me, I don’t have space in the freezer.
- You are wasting half your waste that you could be composting
- It is, however, the cheapest most amazing way to compost but you can’t bury meat, dairy, citrus, onion, eggs and a few other things that rats and other critters will dig up.
- It works faster if you chop everything up into small pieces or blend for super fast results which therefore requires a further step and more utensils to clean
- Definitely not good if you have a bad back but
- great exercise to keep you fit if you have the time
- The worms do love it though and will produce beautiful nutrient rich soil
- This to me produces the best result in your garden but
- You have to keep digging holes
- You can’t dispose of ALL your kitchen waste
- You can’t collect it and use it somewhere else.
- You need a reasonable amount of space for all the holes
- It is slow to decompose
