Compost Method - Burying Material

by Tom Durbin
(Nevada County CA 2500')

I have been composting for several years now with just burying the compost in what will become a garden row and coming back the next year to plant over it. this seems to work fine but I wonder if there are really any drawbacks to this method. It's so much easier than working a large compost pile and the time one has to put into that pile.

Upsides and Downsides

Hi Tom,

Seems like you've had good success with burying your compost materials in the row getting ready for the next crop. I don't see any reason to stop doing that.

Having the material buried probably helps modify some of the extreme temperature and moisture issues that could evolve in a season.

Also the compost spreading chore is never on your list and you can get planting earlier perhaps.

Downside

There is one downside I can see and that is that you don't have any compost you could use to make compost tea or compost extract. These solutions can be helpful when you end up with trouble in the garden such as insect pressures or disease.

Just for fun maybe make a small easy to manage pile just to get compost for making extracts.

But it ain't broke so no need to fix it.

Cheers,
Leslie