How to Start a Compost Pile when You're Lazy or Inept

Do you garden and watch gardening shows on TV, only to feel that familiar twinge of guilt when they start talking about composting?

Do you find yourself buying bags of compost in order to improve your lousy gardening soil?

Do you want to avoid poisoning your vegetable garden with chemicals?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, welcome to my world.

I love to garden and have always had an interest in growing my own vegetables for the table and flowers for the birds, bees, butterflies and my own mood improvement. But creating and maintaining a compost pile that would bring lovely worms and improve my soil just wasn't a thing I seemed able to do.

There were times I came close. I'd even see a bit of steam here and there when I tried to turn the mass, but alas...eventually the weeds would sprout and there would be one more tiny hill my husband and I would have to hack through and level off. After at least three of these monsters, and piles of instructions from the local farm bureaus, we decided there had to be a better way.

Enter hole composting. Yes, this is akin to trench composting but is even easier than that method.

What do you need to do?

1. Grab a bucket

The first thing you need to do is to get a good bucket with a lid. This is going to be kept in your house, preferably near or in the kitchen, so use your own judgment. We use an old plastic bucket our cat's litter came in. That works great because it has a handle, a lid and is easy to clean.

2. Save those vegetable scraps

All vegetable scraps go into that bucket: ends and tips of celery, unused lettuce, tops of bell peppers, onion peels, etc. In addition, you can add corn husks and silk, coffee grounds (even the filter if you use non-bleached paper filters), tea bags (minus the string), and egg shells (rinsed). If it can break down, it can go into the bucket.

The most important rule to live by is no grease, diary or oil of any kind. No cooked food that contains meat, meat juice or fat. No bones. No pet wastes (though you can add the removed hair from when you brush them). By eliminating these items, you remove the danger of rodents, dogs or other critters digging up your compost.

3. Dig a hole

Figure out where you wish to plant your new garden or flower bed, or head over to your existing plot. Throughout the year, dig a hole big enough to contain all the scraps you have collected in your bucket for the week. Dump the bucket into the hole and cover with the dirt you removed in digging the hole.

If you are not strong enough to dig a big hole, you can dig several small holes.

4. Leave it alone

This part is pretty easy. Once you bury it, just remember where you put it. That way, you'll dig somewhere else the next time. At the end of a year, you will be able to turn the soil. You will be amazed at how much your soil improves in just one year.

We have used this method in a variety of soil types. In South Carolina, we had a heavy clay soil. In Florida, we had sand. In Seattle, we have some clay and more dampness to contend with. The method has worked great in all of these places. It is a great, chemical free way to amend your soil and fertilize your beds at a very low cost. Since you're using your own kitchen waste products, you'll also save on garbage disposal.

If you like what you hear above but wish to be somewhat more organized than random holes, you can trench compost with this method too.

Next to your planting row, dig a trench. Throughout the season, dump your vegetable wastes in the row, covering that week's pile with dirt. Continuing the process down the row all season.

What leaches from the breakdown of these vegetable scraps will feed your plants and in the next year, you can plant the row over the trenched area and start a trench where your plants used to be. This keeps your soil in tip-top shape.

Remember the old, "Where there's a will, there's a way" and enjoy your gardening the lazy man's way!