On Mon, 18 Aug 2003 14:11:44 +0000 (UTC), "Franz Heymann"
wrote:

"Stephen Howard" wrote in message


All that would achieve is leaving behind a trail of soil packed full
od raw vegetable matter - it takes months for the worms to break the
stuff down.

Then my understanding of worm composting is cockeyed. I thought that well
trained worms disposed of vegetable matter in a trice. Or so the worm
composters have led me to believe.

No, as far as I've seen it's a slower process than the good old hot
compost heap. The advantage of worm composting is that it doesn't need
to generate the heat, and you don't need the same volume of organic
matter.
The downside is the time it takes - but the results are pretty good,
so much so that it almost seems a crime to use the compost for general
purposes. A side product is a pretty powerful liquid manure that you
can drain off from the bottom of the bin.

Why not just trench compost?
I do this through the winter months ( though there's no reason why you
can't do it throughout the year ) ...all the kitchen scraps go into a
trench of about a spit and half's depth and are covered with soil as I
go. Come spring these trenches are ideal for sowing peas on, and later
in the season the beans and courgettes take over.
By the next year the raw matter will have been well and truly
incorporated and the same area can be used for standard crops ( spuds
etc. ).

That sounds more or less like what I am talking about, if you replace the
polythene cover by a soil cover.

Not quite - you can compost on the surface ( sheet composting ),
though on the whole this is done with animal manures... bits of
broccoli stalks and old carrots seem to hang around for ages unless
buried, and it seems to encourage rodents. Not only that, but you have
to wait some time before you can plant through the mulch.

By covering the raw stuff with a good 9-12 inches of soil it gives new
plants something to get their teeth into - and by the time their roots
hit the layer of raw matter it will be well into the rotting down
process.

Regards,



--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
www.shwoodwind.co.uk
Emails to: showard{whoisat}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk