In-Bed Composting Methods for the Time-Starved Gardener

You’re hearing all about the benefits of composting, but you’re starved for time and need a composting plan that doesn’t involve regular maintenance (monitoring temps, watering, or turning). You’ve come to the right place! Many of my educational modules are geared towards “time-starved gardeners”- because let’s face it, most of us are short on time, but that doesn’t have to be a reason to give up on your gardening goals.

Large chard leaf next to a dollar bill for size comparison, grown in one of our compost-filled raised beds.

There are two primary ways to incorporate your kitchen vegetable and fruit scraps directly into your garden when you’re short on time-

The first, is adding compost to a new/empty raised bed. so instead of dumping your kitchen compost bin into a larger compost pile, you can dump the contents directly into a raised bed frame (once it’s in a optimal long-term location). This is something you can do any time of year, and does not require mixing, monitoring, or watering. Once you’ve filled the bed frame about halfway, you can add a layer of leaves (optional) followed by a top layer of raised bed mix garden soil (at least 10 inches deep). That’s it! If you’re not a fan of raised beds and prefer to plant directly in the ground, you can use a version of this method, by digging a trench to fill in with your kitchen scraps before topping with soil. Be sure to have your soil lead levels tested prior to planting in the ground.

The second method involves adding a “compost chute” (or several) to your garden bed(s). You can make a simple DIY compost chute by bending a piece of hardware cloth or chicken wire into a cylinder between eight and twelve inches in diameter (or wider depending on the diameter of your kitchen compost bin and available space in your garden bed) and fastening the seam with zip ties or wire. You can then dig a hole in your garden bed to accommodate two thirds of the cylinder’s height, and burry it leaving a few inches out above the soil. You can dump your kitchen compost bin directly into the compost chute, covering it with a layer of leaves each time. Some folks like to have several smaller compost chutes throughout their garden beds, others prefer one larger chute in the center of their garden.

One note worth making is that this is not a “hot compost” method, so if you add bones or eggshells to your kitchen compost, or use animal manure, this is not a method we recommend.

We used the first method in our own garden this past growing season, and grew the biggest, healthiest chard we ever have before. Once you try one of these super simple in-bed composting methods, you may wonder why anyone bothers with more labor intensive methods.