• slide
  • slide
  • slide
  • slide
  • slide
  • slide
  • slide

Trench Compost Kitchen Scraps

Summer means lots of fresh fruits and vegetables and that means lots of kitchen scraps to manage.  Don’t send them down the garbage disposer or throw them away.  Instead, recycle them into your gardens. 

Worm and pile composting are great ways to manage these scraps.  But if these methods aren’t for you, try trench composting. 

Cut the kitchen scraps, no meat, fat or cheese please, into smaller pieces whenever possible to speed decomposition.  Then bury them in a hole in a vacant space in the garden. It’s really that easy.

My friend Ray would always trench compost in the pathways of his garden.  He would bury plant waste in the paths throughout the summer.  The following season he would use the amended pathways as the planting area and last year’s planting beds as his path.  That way he was continually recycling kitchen scraps, improving the soil, and rotating his crops.

A bit more information: Sheet composting is nature’s way of converting leaves into organic woodland soils.  As leaves drop to the ground in the fall; worms, ground beetles, and microorganisms help break them down and incorporate it into the soil.  You can do the same.  Shred leaves with your mower and use them as mulch in your flower and vegetable gardens.

Upcoming Live Events
& Webinars


Feb. 14-16, 2025
NARI Milwaukee Spring Home Improvement Show
West Allis, WI

Feb. 19, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Strategies for Managing Invasive Plants

Register here

Feb. 26, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Create a Beautiful Shade Garden

Register here

Feb. 27, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
How to Select Rain Garden Plants

Register here

March 12, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Grow Pollinator-friendly Spring and Summer Flowering Bulbs

Register here

March 19, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Be a Waterwise Gardener
Register here


March 22, 23, 29, 30, 2025
REALTORS Home & Garden Show
West Allis, WI

March 26, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Succession Planting & Crop Rotation

Register here

March 27, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Rain Garden Q & A

Register here

April 2, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Container Gardens for Sun & Shade
Register here


April 10, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Reinvigorate Your Rain Garden
Register here


May 7, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Vertical Gardening
Register here


May 15, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
7 Steps to Managing Water on Your Property

Register here

June 4, 2025
FREE WEBINAR:
Attracting Hummingbirds

Register here

WATCH ON-DEMAND WEBINARS

Learn More

Book an Appearance

Learn More

Enter to Win 3 Collections of Longfield Gardens
Dahlia Bulbs

ENTER NOW