DO NOT THROW AWAY THE WATERMELON RINKS! (Dr. Popov P.A.) People are often bothered by noise in their heads. It is a consequence of hypertension, which most often occurs from stress and poor nutrition. Doctors prescribe various drugs for treatment, in particular those that remove fluid from the body. I will tell you about a wonderful, harmless, very effective medicine - everyone’s favorite watermelon. Watermelon, indeed, removes toxins from the body, cleanses the kidneys, cleanses the blood. But how do we eat watermelon? Yes, with pleasure, but only its pulp. We always throw away the peels and seeds. And in vain. Because it is an excellent medicine in the treatment of hypertension. So, if you collect watermelon rinds and seeds, dry them well and grind them, you get the medicine you need. Preparation and contraindications of watermelon rinds There are practically no contraindications, only individual intolerance and allergies. But regular use can lead to a decrease in potassium in the body. To compensate for its deficiency, you need to eat foods rich in potassium: raisins, watermelon rinds, prunes, nuts, dried apricots, honey. In addition, you need to be treated with rinds with caution in case of exacerbation of gastrointestinal diseases, flatulence. To prepare the crusts for future use, you need to rinse thoroughly, peel off the green top layer, you can leave it, cut into pieces about 1 cm, fold in one layer and dry in the shade. You can dry the crusts in a low-heat oven, first for an hour and a half at a temperature of 30 -50 degrees, and then for another 40 minutes at a temperature of 70 degrees. The peels can be stored for a year. You can also prepare the top green layer, cut off no more than 2mm with a knife or peel the vegetable, dry and grind into powder, store in a cardboard box for up to two years. Watermelon rinds increase urination, but do not irritate the urinary tract and kidneys. Fresh crushed peels will help with osteochondrosis; they need to be brewed and added while taking a bath. 20 grams of fresh and dry peels are poured with a glass of boiling water to infuse and drink half a glass 3-4 times - this is an excellent diuretic. The benefits of watermelon rinds for obesity. Place 2 tablespoons of watermelon rinds in a thermos and pour 0.5 liters of boiling water. Drink in several doses to remove salts. Pour boiling water over 1-2 teaspoons of peel powder or fresh grated peels (you will need 1 glass) and leave for 20 minutes. Treatment: a glass of infusion 3 times. Clears harmful debris accumulated in the body. Take half a teaspoon of watermelon rind powder, stirred in half a glass of water, or you can take kefir, twice a day between meals for coronary artery disease, insomnia, and obesity. Mix 2 tbsp of peels (crushed) with the zest of 1 lemon, pour a glass of boiling water, leave covered for 2 hours, intake: 3 tbsp. l. 4 times 10 minutes after eating for obesity. All infusions must be filtered. Be healthy!!!
Many people are now talking about the fact that household food waste can serve well in the garden. That is why they are not lazy in winter to make useful supplies.
BAG - BATTERY - BAG
I have long adhered to the separate collection of household waste. And a few years ago, food waste (except for meat and fish) began to be collected in separate buckets and everything accumulated was taken to the site. Once I accidentally read in the newspaper that one summer resident first passes bread and eggshells through a meat grinder, dries it on a radiator, and only then sends it to the site. And I improved the technology.
I sew two bags made of printed cotton: bag No. 1 - for collecting daily food waste, bag No. 2 (larger) - for weekly storage. For the Soviet meat grinder I took a large grate and a knife (photo 1).
In the kitchen, next to the trash can, I place a plastic bucket with a volume of 3-5 liters. I chop all food waste without signs of rotting with kitchen scissors before throwing it into a bucket. In the evening, I pour the contents of the bucket into bag No. 1 and put it on the radiator for a day.
At the end of the next day, I pour the contents of bag No. 1 into bag No. 2 and also leave it near the battery. And I fill bag No. 1 with fresh waste.
At the end of the week, I pass the contents of bag No. 2 through a meat grinder, after which I pour this mass into plastic bottles (photo 2).
In our family of two, by the end of the week we get 350-450 g of dry product, and in 6 months - from 4 to 6 five-liter PET bottles weighing 3-3.5 kg each. The resulting mass can be successfully used for adding to holes, mulching, and preparing compost. This is a wonderful “dessert” for the soil. And the good thing is that when dried, crushed, it takes up little space!
TIP: you can simplify the technology by eliminating the meat grinder. After the food waste in bag No. 2 has dried, place it on the floor and trample it thoroughly with your feet. And instead of plastic bottles, you can use construction waste bags.
FERTILIZERS FROM THE KITCHEN
I have four jars in my kitchen. One whole winter I collect eggshells, another - dry onion peels from healthy bulbs, a third - sleeping tea, and a fourth - dried orange and tangerine peels. I will take all these supplies to the dacha in the spring, where they will be very useful. By the way, collecting some of them has its own secrets.
Eggshell
To avoid a bad smell, I try to rinse the eggs with water before cooking. I then dry the shells and, compacting them, put them in a jar. To use it in the garden, I then crush it: I crush it with a masher or grind it in a coffee grinder. Where to apply?
Shells (1-2 cups per 1 sq.m.) deoxidize the soil and improve its structure. By the way, they say that when cooking, some of the calcium is washed out of the shell, so raw egg shells are more useful for deoxidizing the soil, but I collect any.
I add crushed shells to the tree trunks of roses every spring. for beds for peppers, eggplants, beets, watermelons and melons.
I water the seedlings and house flowers with the water left over from boiling the eggs. Or this: wash the crushed shells of 3-4 raw eggs, pour 1 liter of boiling water, leave for 5 days, stirring daily. I feed seedlings of peppers, eggplants, and asters with this infusion 2-3 times.
Tea brewing
Before. How to put it in a jar, I dry the dried tea leaves thoroughly, otherwise it will get moldy. By the way, you can collect any tea: black, green, small, large, leaf, even tea bags.
Where to apply “kitchen” fertilizer?
I pour it into the holes when planting seedlings. Tomatoes, cucumbers, and physalis especially like this. The soil becomes more breathable and moisture-absorbing.
It is good to add tea leaves to the soil mixed with ash when digging beds for gladioli - the plants grow more powerful and bloom earlier.
Or you can feed the seedlings with sleeping tea: 1 tbsp. pour dry raw materials into a three-liter jar, add hot water, leave for 4-5 days, stirring occasionally, strain.
DIY BANANA FERTILIZER
I lay out the banana skins on the radiator and then put them in paper bags. Then I put three skins in a jar (3 liters), fill it with water up to the neck and let it sit for 2 days. I strain it. I water seedlings or indoor plants with the prepared infusion.
I add the crushed peel to the holes when planting seedlings in the spring.
Before removing the skins, I always wash bananas well under hot water, because it is possible that they were treated with special substances during growth.
A HUNDRED QUESTIONS ABOUT WASH
Tatiana MIRONCHUK, a social entrepreneur, talks about ways to manage waste competently and environmentally while our separate waste collection system is imperfect.
Compost is not that simple
The most environmentally friendly option for processing food waste is composting: when fungi and bacteria, under the influence of oxygen, transform organic matter into fertile soil.
But there is also a special compost, in the creation of which worms take an active part. What makes it unique? Passing through the intestinal tract of worms, organic matter is enriched with valuable substances. They significantly increase soil fertility, improve its structure, reduce acidity, inhibit pathogens, stimulate the growth of plant roots and their immunity. Our vegetables, flowers and bushes are becoming more resistant to radionuclides and heavy metal salts.
The more worms in the ground, the more such soil. This means we need to help them be fruitful and multiply. This can be done using a vermicomposter both at the dacha and at home in a city apartment.
It consists of 2 boxes stacked on top of each other. In the upper layer, with a perforated bottom, worms live in the soil layer, and the lower one serves as a limiter so that they do not crawl out through the side and bottom ventilation holes.
Such a “unit” is sold (about 10 thousand rubles, without soil and worms) or made with your own hands from two containers in which holes are drilled for ventilation and removal of excess moisture.
California worms or prospectors are easy to buy from breeders. The kit costs from 300 rubles.
After the “worm-catcher” is equipped and inhabited by small residents, you have to take care of them - maintain the desired temperature, monitor the moisture and acidity of the soil, lightly loosen the soil for ventilation, feed, but not overfeed.
Normal and extreme diet
What can you feed the worms, what kind of garbage will they eat and process?
Allowed products: vegetable and fruit peelings, dried tea leaves, coffee grounds, eggshells, paper.
Do not give: meat, dairy products, eggs, fish, citrus fruits, various oils, fats, onions, garlic.
I conducted an experiment: I put a turtleneck, which consists of cotton and synthetics, the worms ate the cotton part, but the synthetic mesh remained.
In order for the worms to pass the food through themselves faster, it is crushed. Otherwise, they will wait until the food begins to rot and soften, and this will cause an unpleasant odor and midges.
There are also restrictions on the amount of organic matter that worms can process. On average, 2000 worms will eat about 2 kg of food per week. If you put more, the soil will turn sour and the eaters will “run” out of the soil in different directions - they will accumulate in balls in the corners and crawl into the pan.
You can choose ready-made compost regularly: a little at a time, carefully, so as not to disturb the worms. Or one-time, forcing them to “lay low.” To do this, they are not fed for a week, after which the top layer of compost is calmly removed.
There is no unpleasant odor with this type of processing, but it is troublesome and requires attention and time. True, there are other options for environmental waste recycling.
Bucket with a secret
The EM (effective microorganisms) technology, known to all summer residents, is not bad. It was developed by Japanese professor, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences Teruo Higa.
It is based on accelerated fermentation of organic matter using a preparation containing microorganisms. It is in the selection of the composition of these microbes that Terua Higa’s merit lies. In its preparation, anaerobic (not requiring oxygen) and aerobic, heat- and cold-loving species coexist.
Liquid preparations and Bokashi powder are available for sale. All together will cost about 2000 rubles. They can be poured into a regular compost bin, or they can be poured into a special EM bucket, convenient for both a country house and a city apartment. This is a 15-liter container with a tap at the bottom to drain the liquid that is formed during the fermentation of organic matter.
Waste is placed in a bucket, poured or sprinkled with EM preparations. The contents gradually sink, and new garbage can be added. The liquid from the EM bucket is used to feed plants, including indoor plants, diluting it with water. It is also very good for cleaning pipes in country houses.
This is the undeniable value of the method, but there are also disadvantages. It takes a month to completely process organic matter. Therefore, half-decomposed, wet remains from the EM bucket should be buried in the ground once a week or placed in a compost bin at the dacha.
Drying and grinding is the way out
It is clear that neither a vermicomposter nor an EM bucket can cope with all our garbage. What should I do? Most skins, peelings, cores and husks can be dried. This is generally an ideal method for lazy vegetarians: put a mesh bag of cleaning products on the battery and after a few hours you get dry organic matter.
Dry potato peelings are good as fertilizer for berry bushes: they are dug under the bush. And one more thing: somehow magically, when burned in a stove, they clean the pipes well of soot.
If it suddenly happens that I have waste that cannot be dried, and the worms are already full, I see if the organic matter can be crushed with a knife and thrown into the toilet. Through the sewer, it ends up in settling tanks, and then as fertilizer on the fields.
6 PERSONAL RULES
If all this is unacceptable, you can take another elementary ecological path. Simply reduce food waste!
Follow the rules that will improve your budget and reduce the pressure of garbage on the environment.
Make a shopping list when you go to the store so you don’t buy too much and then throw it away.
Pay attention to what's in your trash can.
This way you will determine what and how much you throw away most often, and also get the impetus to change your habits.
Store food in airtight containers to prevent spoilage, and freeze some vegetables if you don't want to eat them right away.
Properly distribute food in the refrigerator. Move closer those that are nearing their expiration date. When purchasing new ones, place them away. An organized refrigerator will not only help you throw away less food, but also help you plan your next purchases.
Watch the size of portions, because too large ones will quickly fill the trash can, empty your wallet, and ruin your figure.
Buy vegetables and fruits of non-standard shape. They remain on store shelves, and their fate is sad. But they are normal, tasty and healthy. But they end up in waste from the store.
Every year, leaves fall, animals defecate, trees die, and organic waste is dumped, filling landfills.
When organic matter falls to the ground, a whole army of microorganisms goes to work and in a few years, months or days this material will be processed into vermicompost.
The disappearance of humus is a serious problem in agriculture today. This loss creates a chain reaction that is very difficult to control (soil depletion, water pollution, leaching, loss of soil biodiversity, etc.).
Humus is balanced and natural in its composition of microelements and effects, promoting the growth and development of plants.
Maintaining and, if possible, increasing the humus content in the soil should be the goal of every farmer and gardener.
Natural fertilizer is much healthier than chemical fertilizer. Therefore, all activities in the field of agriculture and gardening should be carried out in such a way as to give more life to the earth. In humus-rich soil, crops germinate quickly and take root easily, grow healthy and become resistant to fungal diseases and pests.
Using the mechanisms of our Mother Nature, composting methods have been developed to produce high quality compost in a matter of months.
Now you can easily get environmentally friendly and cheap fertilizer at home by composting organic waste. And this includes an apple core, fruit and vegetable peelings, pasta and the rest of the food, coffee grounds with a filter, or even sheets of paper.
Compost will easily improve the soil in the garden, in pots of flowers or indoor plants, reducing the purchase of fertilizers and humus.
Compost is like a healthy gourmet meal for plants and you don't just have to throw leaves and grass clippings into it. You can get more creative with this process, since there are 163 different types of materials you can add to your compost pile, your plants will benefit greatly from such exquisite nutrition.
When laid in autumn, the compost turns out to be richer in composition than spring compost. The cut aerial parts of medicinal herbs, aromatic plants and perennial flowers are added to fallen leaves, weeds, and plant debris. So they saturate the compost with vitamins, antibiotics and growth stimulants.
What, in fact, can compost for the garden consist of?
Tea bags
Herbal tea
Coffee (with filter)
Kitchen waste
Leftover bread
Pie crust
Bread crusts
Burnt toast
Frozen fruit from the refrigerator
Frozen old fish
Pasta
Expired potato chips
Spoiled corn flour
Wheat bran
Old spices
Expired breakfast cereals
Moldy cheese
Legumes (leaves, stems and beans)
Nutshell
Crushed egg shells (contains minerals and promotes aeration)
Quail eggs
Apple (kernel with seeds)
Dried tree leaves (they decompose faster if they are crushed)
pine needles
Algae and kelp
Aquarium plants
Dry grass
Cut grass
Cotton waste
Felt (waste)
Fabrics made from natural materials (wool, cotton)
Old soil
Dirt from the soles of shoes and boots
Wood shavings
pencil shavings
Tree bark
Newsprint
Matches (paper or wood)
Wooden toothpicks
Hair after cutting
Hair after shaving with an electric razor
Trimmed nails
Pet hair
Animal fur
Horsehair
Fish skin
Fish bones
Fish waste
Shrimp (shell)
Crayfish (shell)
Crab (shell)
Bird droppings
Cow dung
Horse manure
Pig manure
Goat manure
Chicken droppings
Rabbit droppings
Paper napkins
Paper towels
Brown paper bags
Cardboard cereal boxes
Cotton swabs (cotton swabs, cardboard, but not plastic swabs)
Old gardening gloves
Unpaid bills (payments)
Theater tickets
Receipts from purchases of groceries and other goods
Congratulation envelopes and cards
Leather products (shredded)
Leather wallets
Wool socks
Bird cage trash
Garbage from a guinea pig cage
Brewery waste
Blood from meat and fish products
Milk (in small quantities)
Missing yogurt
Soy milk
Dairy waste
Bones (crushed)
Wood ash
Fish meal
Phosphorite flour
Bone meal
Dolomite flour
Limestone
Granite dust
Grapefruit (rinds)
Citrus waste
Molasses (leftovers)
Gelatin (jelly)
Old cocoa powder
Soap (waste)
Potato peelings
Winter rye
Grapes (waste)
Waste from wine production
The wine has gone bad
Corn cobs (takes a long time to decompose)
Houseplants (healthy)
Beetroot (waste)
Wheat straw
Cattail, reed, reed
Peat moss (sphagnum)
Flower petals
Rhubarb stems
Pumpkin seeds
Tobacco (waste)
Flower arrangements (withered bouquets)
Wedding bouquets
Cover crops (green manure crops that produce a large amount of green mass)
Rapeseed meal
Onion (husk)
Watermelon rinds
Fruit salads (leftovers)
Date pits
Olive pits
Old or spoiled seeds
Liquid from canned vegetables
Liquid from canned fruit
Spoiled canned fruits and vegetables
Old beer
Peanuts (husk)
Old cookies
Banana (peel)
Artichoke (leaves)
Lettuce (leaves)
Coconut fiber
Moss from last year's hanging baskets
Dead bees and flies
Compost is not finished soil, but a loose addition to the soil to help it retain moisture and nutrients.
Adding compost improves the texture of problem soil and stimulates the growth of microorganisms, plants and maintains soil health.
Why buy expensive humus when you can easily create your own?
You can start composting at any time of the year, but the pile will turn into compost faster if you start in warm weather.
"Alternative fertilizers" - food waste
Let's talk today about so-called “alternative” fertilizers. They are also organic fertilizers, of the highest quality and completely free.
Alternative fertilizers include, first of all, all kitchen waste: eggshells, potato peelings, onion peels, citrus peels, drunken tea, coffee grounds, etc. And the volume of this organic waste in almost every family is very large.
Suffice it to recall the garbage bags half filled with various food wastes that we put into trash bins every day. All of them improve the condition and structure of the soil and do not contain danger in the form of fungi, harmful insects, chemical poisons, etc.
Let's start the conversation with eggshells. Everyone knows that it is a source of calcium and neutralizes high acidity of the soil.
Calcium itself plays a vital role in plant life. Characteristic signs of a lack of calcium in the soil are a weak root system in plants, and a shortened root system in trees, similar to stumps.
For vegetable crops, a lack of calcium results in a slowdown in the growth of vegetative organs, usually the succulent stem turns into a tree-like one. Plants are easily susceptible to temperature fluctuations and die. And the most important indicator of a lack of calcium in the soil is its increased acidity.
Meanwhile, eggshells contain up to 94% calcium carbonate (calcium carbonate) and 1.4% magnesium and are an excellent material for liming soils. The shell also contains elements such as iron, zinc, copper, cobalt, iodine, selenium, molybdenum, chromium, fluorine and others, so necessary for the active growth and development of plants.
A family of 3 people consumes up to 100 eggs per month, the shells of which most often end up in trash bins. In this way, each family can accumulate up to 10 kg of valuable fertilizer in a year.
You just need to collect the shells carefully, putting them in a cardboard box, so that the remaining protein does not decompose, emitting an unpleasant odor. There it will dry in 3-4 days, then it must be kneaded and stored in paper bags, protecting it from moisture. It is not worth collecting shells in plastic bags, because... Moisture from the air will condense in them, causing the protein to swell and rot.
Most often, gardeners simply scatter eggshells as a local fertilizer over the surface of the site, but this brings very little benefit to the plants, because The birds immediately peck it with great pleasure.
The shell is especially useful on heavy clayey acidic soils, since, among other things, it improves their structure well. Crushed shells are also good for a compost heap.
Before adding to the soil, dried eggshells must be thoroughly crushed, since the shells as a whole decompose in the soil very slowly.
Some countries have long used processed eggshell flour as a calcium mineral fertilizer for plants and to neutralize acidic soils. But it is quite possible to make such flour at home. It is only necessary to take into account that for better absorption of calcium by plants, fine grinding of the shells is very important.
The required grinding is achieved by grinding the shells in a coffee grinder or mortar and sifting the resulting flour through a sieve with 0.1 mm holes. Flour obtained from eggshells is applied to the soil in the fall or before planting vegetables, scattering it before loosening.
When adding such flour, you must remember that it decomposes very slowly. Therefore, you cannot add it a lot and often; you need to know when to stop. The rate for adding eggshell flour to a depth of 5-7 cm is 1 kg per 40 sq.m.
It is very effective to add calcium flour along with onion peels when planting seedlings (tomatoes, eggplants and others) at the rate of a quarter teaspoon per bush. But potatoes do not need eggshell flour, as they grow wonderfully in acidic soils. Of the fruit and berry crops, the most calcium-hungry plants are garden strawberries, raspberries, cherries, apple trees, pears, plums, etc.
Of course, it is clear that adding shell flour alone to the soil is not much of a substitute for liming the soil. But its systematic use will help improve soil fertility.
And on the inside of the shell there is a thin layer of protein film. Therefore, in the summer you can make liquid fertilizer from the shells for feeding. To do this, the crushed shells must be placed in a glass jar, filled with water and closed with a lid. After 12-15 days, the water will become cloudy and acquire an unpleasant odor. This means that the nutritious infusion is ready. Before use for fertilizing, it is diluted with water in a ratio of 1:3.
During the winter you can stock up on more dried potato peelings. After all, most Russians never get tired of potato dishes. And if you consider that even with the best quality tubers, approximately a fifth of the potatoes end up as waste, then the amount of the latter accumulates over the winter is very, very decent.
These cleanings are dried on a radiator or frozen on the balcony. And in the spring, in the garden they are poured into barrels and filled with water. And when they get wet, they mix everything. In a garden bed, “mashed potatoes” mixed with soil will appeal to worms and billions of soil bacteria.
This infusion of potato peelings is an excellent feed for cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins, and all cabbage crops. Only tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and other plants of the nightshade family should not be fed with tuber peelings: by nature, they have many common diseases.
Due to the fact that pathogens of late blight, black scab and some other diseases can persist on potato peelings, it is advisable to first scald them with boiling water before using them.
And spent tea and coffee can be added to the holes when planting seedlings in the ground or simply mixed with soil and buried. They serve as good food for worms there.
But before storing spent tea or coffee, they must be thoroughly dried, otherwise they will become moldy. You can prepare any tea: black, green, small, large, whole leaves, even tea bags can be used in a similar way.
And one more cleaning will help to cope with pests - these are orange and tangerine peels collected throughout the winter. They are used against aphids, thrips, spider mites, etc.
To prepare an infusion from these wastes, you need to pass 1 kg of crusts through a meat grinder and add water in a three-liter jar. Close the lid tightly and leave in a dark place for five days. Then strain and squeeze well, pour into bottles, and seal tightly. And if you use dry peels, you must first soak them and then grind them.
For spraying, take 100 ml of infusion and 40 g of laundry soap per 10 liters of water, treat the plants with this infusion at least 5-6 times with an interval of 5-7 days. This treatment with orange peel infusion replaces weekly treatments with pesticides against aphids and spider mites.
And a few more words about one “alternative” kitchen fertilizer - “meat” water. This is the water remaining after washing fresh meat for food. Two liters of meat water can be obtained by washing 1 kg of fresh meat. In this case, there is no need to strive to obtain a highly concentrated liquid; a slight cloudiness of the water from the washed meat is enough.
The beneficial qualities of such water increase significantly if it is kept for 10-12 days. You can infuse this water on the balcony, in a plastic bottle with a not very tight lid, into which it is advisable to first pour a handful of humus.
Since humus, which should not be sterilized, always contains many microorganisms, during this time the bacteria will have time to decompose the protein into simpler molecules. This is an excellent fertilizer for feeding not only seedlings.
Of course, to feed all the plants in the garden, washing 3-4 kg of fresh meat will not be enough “meat” water. But it is quite capable of supporting your plants during difficult stages of development. And besides, it doesn't cost a single penny.
I know that some of my friends who have cars take their kitchen waste to their summer cottage, pouring it onto a compost heap. But most summer residents prefer to throw kitchen waste in the trash, without thinking about the benefits it can bring them and the possible savings of money if some effort is made to preserve it until spring.
V. G. Shafransky
I’ll call this method “waste into income.”
First about the advantages of this method:
1. No material investments
2. Labor costs are minimal
3. All you need is a shovel and a bucket
Now let's move directly to work .
We choose a bush or tree that needs to increase soil nutrition. Actually, any pet in the garden needs this.
We retreat from the trunk of a bush or tree so as not to damage the root system and so that the branches do not interfere. For example, in an adult apple tree I step back from the trunk by about a meter.
And we dig a hole as wide and deep as the bayonet of a shovel:
As you can see, here I stepped back from the trunk of the bush about twenty centimeters. My model in this case is a honeysuckle bush (honeysuckle goes into hibernation early, which is why the bush looks so unsightly).
For the display, I prepared half a bucket of carrion.
Pour the carrion into the hole:
And right in the hole we chop with a shovel:
We make three or four such holes around the trunk of a bush or tree:
We put the dug soil next to it.
We fill the holes gradually.
As soon as kitchen waste appears, I throw it there.
As soon as she collected bad fruits or weeded the beds, she threw the plant remains into the pits.
Slops are also poured into pits.
As soon as the holes are filled, they must be filled with the excavated soil. A mound may be forming. Not scary! As it rots and during the winter, the plant waste will freeze and settle. And by spring the earth will be level.
You can make such holes or trenches anywhere in the garden. And not only around already planted bushes or trees. This can be done at the intended location for planting a tree or shrub. But, of course, this must be done in advance so that the plant waste has time to rot and turn into compost.
You don't have to worry about your lawn. There is a smooth lawn around my mature apple trees. And no one realizes that sometimes I feed the apple trees this way. I carefully remove the turf, take out the soil onto the oilcloth, do everything described above, sprinkle it with earth, and put the removed turf back. And I scatter the excess soil, if there is any, in the garden or use it for another purpose. For example, for indoor flowers.
I start preparing such pits at any time of the year, as long as the soil allows it. That is from early spring to late autumn. But I most often do this in the summer and early autumn, because it’s not very pleasant to stomp around in boots on squishy soil and freeze. And also because at this time there is especially a lot of plant waste: carrion, tops from garden crops. All this can become excellent compost right under the tree.
This way you can prepare trench beds.
But it's better to cook them late summer or autumn for the future sowing season.
To do this, I dig a trench as deep as a spade bayonet. I know a summer resident who digs with two bayonets. In my opinion, this is unnecessary work. But, apparently, it’s more convenient for him.
The width of the trench depends on how wide the bed I want to make. Length, respectively, too.
I put the dug soil (there won’t be much of it) nearby.
I put kitchen waste, plant debris, mowed grass, and weeded weeds (which have not yet been fertilized) into the trench. If I want to make the garden bed warmer, I add hay, sawdust, and fallen leaves. It's kind of biofuel.
Of course, I put all of the above in place not at once, but over a period of time. It happens that it takes a month to “stuff” the beds.
In the same way, I chop with a shovel and mix the contents of the trench during the “stuffing” process, pour out the slop or spill with water, if necessary.
As soon as the trench bed is filled with plant debris and other things, I lay the same dug soil on top. That is, the principle is the same as for the pit.
The bed will appear higher, but over the winter, of course, the inside contents will fall off.
Such beds will be warmer than regular beds, because they are quickly warmed up by the sun and decaying plant “garbage”.
It is best to sow on such beds cucumbers, zucchini, zucchini, squash, pumpkins.
If the top layer of soil is at least 15 centimeters, then I also sow dill, lettuce, and radishes.
It is better to sow other crops (especially carrots, garlic, beets) in this bed after one season, or better yet after two. Not all crops like rotting plant “garbage”.
The frequency is as follows:
* in the 1st year I sow cucumbers, zucchini, zucchini, squash or pumpkin,
* in the 2nd year - peas, beans or other legumes, cabbage (I no longer “fill” the trench beds with anything)
* in the 3rd year - other crops (naturally, I don’t fill the trench beds with anything)
By the way, the “waste to income” method is perfect for those who doesn't have the opportunity or doesn't want to prepare compost heaps or pits.
You don’t have to look for a special place for a compost heap in your summer cottage or garden. And you can easily dispose of all plant waste by preparing trench beds or planting holes.
In addition, there is no need to waste time transferring compost from a compost heap or pit to beds or under fruit trees and shrubs. The compost there, one might say, is already “laid down” itself, as evidenced by the swarming in such pits or trenches.