QUESTION: Can I compost directly in my garden? It would be much more convenient to do it that way. – Amara F
ANSWER: Yes, composting directly into the garden is as simple as it sounds. Just bury your kitchen scraps in your garden’s soil and allow them to compost underground. Over time, the scraps will break down and add vital nutrients which will enrich your soil.
Keep all of your compostable kitchen scraps in a coffee can, a bucket, or any other type of medium-sized container with a lid. Compostable food scraps include potato peels, citrus rinds, greens, leftover fruit and vegetable scraps, bread, coffee grinds and pretty much any other organic material can be composted. The only common kitchen items that you should never compost are meat and dairy products.
When your food scrap bucket begins to get full, just take the bucket out into the garden, dig a ditch in between the rows of your crops or in an unused bed and dump the food scraps into the trench.
Cover the scraps up with soil and allow some time for the scraps to break down and decompose before planting directly on top of the trench that you dug. In about 12 to 18 weeks, the scraps will most likely be fully decomposed and you will be able to plant directly on top of your compost trench. The only time in which trench composting becomes an issue is during the winter when the ground freezes over, as it is hard to dig a trench in frozen soil.