Five Lazy Ways to Compost – Part 5 – Mulched Raised Beds

We’ve finally reached part 5 in the series of lazy ways to compost. I’m not quite sure whether to cheer from the rooftops, or to feel all sad and nostalgic. At any rate, here it is. Better thought of as a way to grow vegetables, the mulched raised bed – the one lazy way to compost which I can say for sure works because I’ve done it!

Most people have heard of a raised bed gardening. You may even have heard of the idea of mulching your raised bed. If you’ve read about mulching raised beds you just might have come across the controversy of using weed-seed infested straw for mulching. What I’m talking about here goes one step beyond, into dangerous territory maybe (wink). Maybe composting in a straw mulched raised bed counts as an extreme sport or something. Throw caution to the wind, get giddy with the risk of it. It actually works.

I’m not going to go into the pros, cons, and details of mulching with straw here. Basically, here’s how composting under mulch works. When your garden bed, raised or otherwise, is mulched with straw you can take your chopped up vegetable scraps outside and tuck them under the straw, between the dirt and mulch. It’s a way to use nature’s outdoor wormery.

Your raised bed can also take otherwise useless garden waste off your hands to act as mulch. I’ve used chopped up autumn leaves and grass clippings instead of straw before. Just be aware that any remaining pesticides in the mulch will be going straight into your growing fruits or veggies. Also, weed seeds are not destroyed by this method of composting because there won’t be enough heat. I’ve not found that to be a problem, even when I composted weeds from my garden in under the mulch and used straw purchased at a garden center. The trick is to have enough mulch, but, I digress, let’s talk about raised bed mulch gardening another time.

So, what do you think of this one? Had you heard of it? Do you mulch your garden beds and/or do raised bed gardening? It’s been fun writing about composting and I hope you have learned something.

Are you ready to get started? Which method works for you?

Another Bountiful Raised Bed by LindaN and Straw Mulch by JoePhoto are reproduced under a creative commons licence from FlickR.
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Related posts:

1. Five Lazy Ways to Compost – Part 1 – Tumbling
2. Five Lazy Ways to Compost – Part 4 – Dalek
3. Five Lazy Ways to Compost – Part 3 – Bokashi