[Sir Lance-Allot]

Hi All

We are complete newbies - we have just got our first plot.

Many of the other owners have trenches at the front of their plots in which they are throwing 'compostable material' - old bits of paper, plants etc. Is this simply a way of composting 'in situ'?

We are bumping into some of the other plot owners as and when but it is very quite at the moment. We'll get the answer, I'm sure soon enough.

[mumofstig]

Hi and a big welcome

think you will find that the trench with paper and other stuff is a runner bean trench. Fill them up with anything compostable and then cover back over with the soil, before sowing your beans. They are greedy & thirsty plants and like anything that can hold on to some water.

Hope this helps and good luck with the plot

[DD.]

Not necessarily a bean trench.

Many dig a trench to simply throw in stuff that takes a long time to compost, sprout stalks & the like, rather then chuck them in the skip.

[Porffor]

read about this is Johns book recently, interesting and something i'm planning in a raised bed - to move my compost heap into it.

Welcome to the forum and indeed to allotments!

[Clampit]

Hello and welcome, i'll be digging one of them thar trenches today, all my brassica stems (but not the roots) and things to bulky to go on the compost heap go in it, I just lob it in, chop it up with my spade and then fill it in with the soil I took out about April time to give it time to settle before planting my runner beans in May/June time.
Does anyone do this for other beans or is it mainly runner beans?  

[Sir Lance-Allot]

Thanks, Guys 'n' Gals

I remember now my dad laying paper down under the beans for water retention.

The long composting of that tough stuff makes sense now.

Many thanks

[Porffor]

Must admit I didn't think to leave brassicas in place etc my veggie patch is bare now (with the exception of some japanese onions) as i put it in the compost heap at the end of the autumn. I will know better next year!

[corynsboy]

I tried a bit of that after a brilliant crop of tomatoes and sweetcorn turned my ground into grey dust.

Here's my blog post and pictures.  I like to keep it light hearted with plenty of pictures.

http://growingyourownveg.blogspot.com/2008/10/can-i-dig-it-yes-you-can.html

Obviously it will take a while to rot down but we needed to dig the soil and feed it something. We had loads of compost from our bins and plenty of green matter.  I don't recommend too much of one thing, we mixed nettles, new compost and kitchen waste (not onions or cooked food) and it seems to be OK.  Go easy on the paper and make sure it is shredded or ripped into small pieces.  Wet paper is considered better still.

Don't put anything in the ground that you think a fox might dig up.

I've since dismantled a couple of our in inherited compost boxes and dug those in too.

[Sir Lance-Allot]

... compost and kitchen waste (not onions or cooked food) and it seems to be OK

Thanks, again, to everyone for their suggestions .. why not onions??

[Dabhand]

I have always put raw onion peelings on my compost heap.  Is this wrong then :?:

[cawdor2001]

not anything a fox will dig up?  just about anything then.  I have been adding kitchen waste, veg peelings etc plus newspaper to the bean trench for a while now, Mr fox has been digging it up a bit but not too bad.  Covered over and will leave now until May for planing runner beans as it will be slow to rot down until at least March when weather and soil warms up a bit.

 Cawdor

[corynsboy]

No Onions or cooked food?  Hmm.  Sorry, I must have been thinking of a wormary I guess.  Not sure where that came from.  I'm recovering from a migraine and my brain isn't working properly.
 :roll:

We have a nightmare with foxes.  If I was smart I'd bury bacon Frazzels everywhere and have the foxes dig over my plot for me!

[cawdor2001]

We have a nightmare with foxes. If I was smart I'd bury bacon Frazzels everywhere and have the foxes dig over my plot for me!

     


Cawdor