Direct composting to improve soil in a problem area

I agree with what Justonavice says.
Buy yourself a large plastic compost bin.
As well as vegetable kitchen waste ,soft garden waste and grass cuttings add cardboard and torn up newspaper or old bills.
If you want to shred it - fine.
I don't bother.
If you have access to any nettles-I take a big black bag to a local park and fill it ,that is great to add to make compost.
Buy some comfrey.
It will soon grow
Brilliant to add to make good compost.
Do add horse manure-well rotted.
My bin is packed full of tiny little worms
When I get the compost out ,it smells lovely.
I usually sieve it before using it and get rid of any twigs or stones that may have made their way in
Good Luck.
Like Monty Don I love my compost bin.

Haven't read all the replays but it sounds like the soil needs some well rotted manure in it to add structure to it.

Jeannie99, you mention the different soils but you don't mention whether the areas get differing sunlight. This may have an effect too.

A direct compost trench is great if you are doing this say in the autumn and filling a trench with lots of garden waste giving it time to rot down over winter. You say you dug 6 inches which I don't think is deep enough, certainly not if you were growing vegetables. It sounds a bit fiddly to be digging a random little hole now and again and probably less effective.

It sounds like you may have ericaceous soil in the non clay area and if so it would be great for growing blueberries. Maybe test the soil and check what plants etc prefer that soil and grow accordingly.

Compost bins shouldn't be put on patios. They are best placed on soil that way when the garden waste is breaking down the nutricious juice will drain direct to soil. Putting chicken wire under the base of the bin between the soil and bin will prevent rats rummaging if you do have any in the area. Obviously there are areas that have more of a problem but not all are affected by the problem.

You could use a rotating composter. You add veg peelings, grass cuttings etc, water it and notate it every day until full then rotate every day for 28 days and should be ready to use as mulch.

Not having worms is a problem, as they aerate the soil.

Making your own compost in an open compost pile or digging it directly into the soil, is said to attract rats.

It works here, as I have a cat that catches rats,and all the b´niegbours keep cats too, so the rats know better than to come here, but I don't advise anyone to use an open compost bin, or direct composting unless they keep cats or terriers.

Mushrooms compost is brilliant. It usually is sold at reasonable cost per bag as the company have used the nutrients up in it. So it is really a soil structure improver. Put a thick layer on the surface as someone above said. If you have worms they will drag it down into soil. If you don’t you can dig it in at a much later stage. Works wonders with clay soil. You can buy earthworms on the internet but you still need quite good soil for them to be happy. If you build a compost holder out of wood with two separate sides, you can leave one empty, decant first pile into it much later when it’s started to breakdown to aid breakdown of matter. A perfect compost result is almost like rich new soil.

I've dug and filled runner bean trenches in the past and put in all the peelings and suchlike. Part of my garden is very sandy [and next door have some clay just the other side of the hedge, but with my veg am growing in raised beds, and started them off just putting in stuff I'd normally have composted, veg bits, lawn clippings, have also added lots of lovely horse much, and topsoil and more much and topsoil. If you enrich the sandy soil eventually you will have better soil, and I'm currently using horse muck on top as a mulch and some has been dug in along with some compost. I'm using dalek bins as compost bins, compost from them has also gone in the beds, looking forward to lots of lovely compost from these, am putting my chicken muck in, so far mainly in the bin nearest to the chickens lol. I don't put meat scraps or anything that might attract rats..

I have composted for years and years. Have three on the go, one to be filled, one "cooking" and one for use in the garden. All the egg trays, toilet roll and kitchen roll insides go in and layer them so you have a mixture of "greens" and "browns". If you use too much in the way of greens you end up with a slimy mess. Have a small bio bin under the sink and put in teabags, egg shells, all fruit and vegetable peelings. All the lawn cuttings go in as well. I live right on a river and never had a rat in the compost bin, the odd sweet little mouse in winter. Every spring I empty the oldest compost bin and dig into my clay soil veggie patch. Love it!

We are clay bound, however by using grit mixed into compost and MR MUCK’S ORGANIC HORSE MANURE COMPOST 7-9 YEARS FULLY PROCESSED AND STERILISED WITH ONLY 2% WHEAT STRAW PER SACK IT’S OUR ( BLACK GOLD) from mrmuck.co.uk - it has worked well, also we recycle most food waste and have produced exceptional compost in simple to erect professional wooden compost bins from gardeningworks.co.uk - but naturally, nothing comes cheap and it does take time...

Three autumns back I dug and filled a compost trench.

After I had filled it and covered it over with soil, I left it as a path between rows of veg for the first summer, then planted in it the next.

I put all raw veg scraps in that trench, along with some newspaper, all compostable garden waste, and some layers of grass cuttings too - basically, anything that would have been suitable for a compost heap.

There was nothing in it that wasn't already growing in the garden, so no reason why it should attract any extra rats.

This year, I have sown lawn over that area of the garden, and even after all this time, it's very clear where that trench had been because there is a row of much greener, faster-growing grass above it.

The only thing stopping me from doing this regularly is that my back is no longer up to the heavy work of digging out the trench.

I too have a compost bin. I put all green waste from garden in plus peelings, not potatoes , and every now and then cut up brown cardboard into small pieces to help with the wet dry system that is required. My problem is that the inside of the bin is over run with ants, there are hundreds of them. I use a compost activator which you sprinkle on every few inches which help break everything down. I thought it might help get rid of the ants but, no. Are they good for compost or should i be worried??

You need wet and dry in a compost heap. In my compost bin I use veg and fruit waste plus garden clippings, then add newspaper and cardboard so it isn't too wet. When I used to grow runner beans, I would dig a long trench and throw in all veg waste then old papers. Even added a few old phone directories. Then, in spring, filled it in and put canes up. Had lovely beans.

Test your soil. Get testing kit from garden centres. If the soil is different in each area you will then find which plants grow best in those areas.
Direct composting is great. Lay lots of old newspapers/ shredded paper in the bottom of the trench, it holds water and rots down too, add all the peelings you can and your soil and worms will love it!

I also have a worm farm which deals with most of the kitchen waste. Mine is outside but the bin is sealed so rats can't get in.
It produces worm tea and lovely compost.
When I have used horse manure I put it in a trench deep enough so the weeds can't sprout.
If you can get mushroom compost you can spread it on top thickly 5 to 10 cm and it will suppress weeds.

Also try sowing green manure late summer and leaving overwinter. Protects the soil from rain and you dig it in in Spring.

www.growveg.co.uk/guides/green-manures-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/

Get a compost bin. Fill it with vegetable kitchen waste, soft green garden waste, not perennial roots, and grass cuttings don't forget to water it and in about 6 months you should have some gorgeous compost which can then be used to mulch anywhere that needs it.

? Aepgirl dear God, I hadn't thought if that. I've only recently started a compost bin going and thought it would be rat proof if I put it on a concrete slab.

I only put raw veg or fruit peelings into the compost bin. Also I put eggshells into the bottom of the oven to bake, then I crush those and add to the mix. I never put in cooked items or raw egg shells as they encourage vermin, neither do I add weeds. Lawn clippings and occasionally shredded cardboard are added. I empty those compostable caddy liners as they take ages to decompose and they go in the Council green bin!
Crushed baked egg shells are good around delicate plants to discourage slugs.
Last year we had bumble bees nesting in a compost bin which was lovely until a badger broke in and destroyed it

Just be prepared for rats - they love the warmth of compost. As for citrus peel, I recently ate an orange whilst sitting in the garden, left the peel out there, and then saw a rat gather it up and take it away.
I also had a compost bin on a concrete slab, but the rats found their way in and nested there.

Our own compost is good for conditioning the soil but since using very matured (years old) horse manure and this year some bags of manure from the garden centre, we have had better results than from just using compost.

I wonder if your house had any previous owners and your soil is better in some areas than others because they did condition the soil?

best to hot compost everything, to get rid of problems first. That soil need masses of organic matter, a few veg peelings here and there is not enough. I use 2 x mini hotbins and grow comfrey (bocking 14) to help feed the compost worms in there, also to heat up, I chop my garden trimmings which makes compost faster. They were 110 degrees the other day and are 100 degrees this morning. They were full to the brim 2 days ago and are now down to half full. This really is black gold and better than any animal manure but of course well-rotted animal manure is better than nothing. I also use shredded paper and specific cardboards which I tear up

If you don't want to compost, I wonder if you might have better success with a small wormery? You can put all kinds of waste in it, veggies, flowers etc but also torn-up paper and cardboard, and the worms produce not only lovely rich compost but also a liquid which you can dilute and use as a liquid feed. Mine is a cube of about 18" and lives in a corner of the garage.

I still dig a trench in the autumn and put my veg peelings in layered with a little soil throughout the winter. Never, ever put cooked food/veg scraps in. I always get a really good crop of runner beans... too many sometimes, but that’s a good problem.

I remember both my dad and father-in-law used to dig trenches and put in veg peelings until they were ready to plant their runner beans.

Maize, yes you did a trench and add waste, cover and water.

Thanks everyone for your comments.

It seem no one does direct composting but the big pile composting which I have tried over many years without success and I do not want to do that again.

I am interested in the Horticulual compost and will check this out at the local garden centre and may even try the horse manure again even if it has all the weeds coming up. I really do need to get this sorted. The plants in this area don't grow as they should.
An example is this
I bought 4 small fuchsia plants last year, one I planted in the clay soil it as grown well no flowers, the one in the normal soil is OK no flowers but not as good as the clay planting, the one in the problem area as two leaves at ground level, the one in a plant pot as flowers on(this was protected being in the garage during the winter and only brought out in the spring on good days.
I will continue also with the direct composting, can't see it doing any harm and will check it at 1 month to see what is happening.
I did think about starting a wormery.