Comments on: The Vermicomposting Trench

By: Marilee Hird

Marilee Hird — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 22:37:33 +0000

I did something similar in my garden for years. As I removed things in the garden, like bolted lettuce, I dug a trench where they had been and buried them. Less waste.

By: joel

joel — Tue, 21 Jan 2020 21:52:31 +0000

It seems to me that everyone who is doing organic gardening , is now doing vermicomposting. Or maybe everyone doing vermicomposting are gardening.
Now to get some honeybees.

By: Bentley

Bentley — Tue, 21 Jan 2020 16:15:10 +0000

Thanks for sharing, Mary! Your name sounds similar to “Hugelkultur” – yet another cool subterranean decomposition strategy. More people should be doing all these sorts of things in their yards!

By: Mary Wenzel

Mary Wenzel — Tue, 21 Jan 2020 14:25:22 +0000

Awesome. I’ve been using this technique for many years now to build soils for raised beds here in central Texas. I call it “hugeling”. The only difference between your method and mine is that I use the method for building entire garden beds and also I incorporate directed composting methods to continuously build soils all year long. It works one of the many benefits of direct composting is that we grow volunteer plants like tomatoes, cantaloupe, peppers, sweet potatoes & potatoes–essentially without extra cost of buying plants. Quality is very good also. We do have a long growing season here though so that makes a difference I think. There’s a really good book by Sally jean Cunningham called “Great Garden Companions” that is very helpful for folks interested in learning organic gardening techniques and incorporating companion planting techniques also. I’ve been using many of Sally’s techniques for many years in my vege garden and have increased production without use of harmful chemicals. It works.

By: Joel

Joel — Sat, 05 Jan 2019 03:12:43 +0000

I am going to grow mushrooms in straw & on logs.
Is there any system for reusing the waste with red worms?
Or should I just put the waste in a trench.

By: Bentley

Bentley — Thu, 29 Nov 2018 17:20:17 +0000

Hi Tracey – it is pretty important to be familiar with your own local wildlife situation and adapt accordingly. Different foods, and different management practices can vary widely in terms of potential for attracting critters. If you use “living materials” like well-aged horse manure, composted leaf litter etc, these can definitely help to mask odors – but even still my advice would be “it depends”. eg if I lived in bear country I would likely avoid ALL food wastes in a vermicomposting trench – or maybe experiment a bit with one that was far away from the house etc. Hope this helps.

By: Tracey

Tracey — Thu, 29 Nov 2018 15:24:55 +0000

What do you do about wild animals coming from the smell ? Will it attrack a ton of critters ? Thank you

By: Joel

Joel — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 23:06:51 +0000

I have not had a problem with rats/rodents, because of compost or trench systems I have used. I have 10 acres, if you have only i acre or less then It could be a problem.

By: Bentley

Bentley — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 11:49:01 +0000

In reply to Clm.

Define “problem” – haha. I’ve certainly had various rodents setting up shop in various outdoor systems over the years. None of them have created any real challenges or headaches for the most part, although for some reason this year the shrews finally seem to be having an impact on the worm populations in the systems they’ve invaded.

By: Clm

Clm — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 02:40:44 +0000

Do you have a problem with mice and rats using this method?