Does anyone trench compost?

[Meadowlark]

... I don't use un-composted material...

Bingo!

Hence, I find absolutely no use for the trench method. I use a lot of composted cow manure. I subject it to "hot" composting to kill all pathogens and weed seeds long before it ever goes into my garden. I apply it in the soil where it is needed and used by the plants I'm growing. That's just the way I roll.

 

[UrbanWild]

I do a little trench composting and have for a couple of decades. These days I mainly do it in the fall.

In any beds that didn't have perennials or won't be used for winter vegetables, I dig a deep trench by pulling up the soil on both sides. The depth is basically whatever the bunk of soil will tolerate without caving back in... Maybe a foot or so down the middle of the length of a bed.

I have a local brewery that lets me have freshly spent grain. I fill the trenches and then add a layer of leaves and pull the soil back over the trenches. That pretty much sets those beds for the winter. In the spring I plant as normal. The soil organisms seem to do well and in return the plants also do well.

When planted, during the growing season I may also layer compostables on the surface between plants. They also break down as well as make more food for soil organisms and by default, the plants.

Anyway. I try to alternate which beds get the trench treatment to every other year.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

If you have a piece of ground that is a bit dire trenching and growing runner beans on it improves things greatly, a lot of organic material added and the roots and plants from the beans chopped into the ground when they finish add nitrogen. The beans love the extra moisture the trenching gives them.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I do it with runner beans, they don't mind what you throw in there, composted or not, so long as it holds a bit of water. Back in the day when newspaper was made from straight wood pulp I remember my Dad lining the trench with old newspapers, someone gave him a pile of back copies of the Mirror. He read the Manchester Guardian and I grabbed them to sell to the fish shop for fish and chips, they liked the broadsheet and I got 1/2 d a pound, increased to a penny if I slit them all into separate sheets, which of course I did.