Damaeus wrote:
First of all, this is my first year doing any type of serious
gardening. That said:

I was cutting the tops off strawberries this morning while thinking
about something I heard on a gardening show that plays on the radio
here. A lady called in, said she cut up banana peels into dime-sized
pieces, worked them into the soil around her roses, and the rose
bushes took off and made roses like crazy. So my question is: why
can't I just take the fresh strawberry scraps, chop them up a bit,
then sprinkle them around the tomatoes, the bell peppers, corn, and
whatever else I have growing out there?

You can do that. It would be more sensible to accumulate your vege scraps
for a day or two and then dispose of them together. It is not very uncommon
for people to not have a dedicated heap but to just bury vege scaps (and
othe useful material) in beds under preparation or next to existing plants.
Just leaving the scraps on the surface will be messy.

I'm not trying to re-invent
the wheel here. I know why people compost in a pile, but it seems
like a lot of the nutrients from composting would also wash directly
into the soil where the compost pile is located.

Happens all the time. The grass downhill from the heap will be the best in
the yard.

Why not put a few
things directly in the garden so the growing plants get more of the
nutrients?


People use heaps because it is less work in many cases, it gives them
greater control of the product and where it is applied, because the
breakdown is quicker (especially in hot heap) and it concentrates the mess
in one place. If none of these are important to you then don't have a heap.

D