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You walk through your kitchen on a Tuesday morning and you scrape the breakfast plates into the trash can. Coffee grounds. Eggshells. Banana peel. Apple core. A few wilted lettuce leaves. A quarter cup of leftover oatmeal. Two dollars worth of organic matter on its way to the landfill. Then on Saturday afternoon you drive to the garden center and you spend twenty-four dollars on a bag of Miracle-Gro plant food — fertilizer that contains less plant nutrition than what you just threw away.
You have heard the gardening blogs and the YouTube tips. "Bury banana peels under your roses for potassium." "Stick fish heads in the planting hole under your tomatoes — it is an old farmer's trick." "Drop coffee grounds straight into the bed around your peppers." "Bury whole eggs at the base of your plants for slow-release nitrogen." These methods all sound right. They sound traditional. Do they actually work?
In this video, Esther and I walk you through what really happens when you bury common kitchen scraps directly in your garden — and then we show you the real Pennsylvania Dutch composting method t
You walk through your kitchen on a Tuesday morning and you scrape the breakfast plates into the trash can. Coffee grounds. Eggshells. Banana peel. Apple core. A few wilted lettuce leaves. A quarter cup of leftover oatmeal. Two dollars worth of organic matter on its way to the landfill. Then on Saturday afternoon you drive to the garden center and you spend twenty-four dollars on a bag of Miracle-Gro plant food — fertilizer that contains less plant nutrition than what you just threw away.
You have heard the gardening blogs and the YouTube tips. "Bury banana peels under your roses for potassium." "Stick fish heads in the planting hole under your tomatoes — it is an old farmer's trick." "Drop coffee grounds straight into the bed around your peppers." "Bury whole eggs at the base of your plants for slow-release nitrogen." These methods all sound right. They sound traditional. Do they actually work?
In this video, Esther and I walk you through what really happens when you bury common kitchen scraps directly in your garden — and then we show you the real Pennsylvania Dutch composting method t
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00:00You walk through your kitchen on a Tuesday morning, and you scrape the breakfast plates into the trash can.
00:05Coffee grounds, eggshells, banana peel, apple core, a few wilted lettuce leaves, a quarter cup of leftover oatmeal,
00:14$2 worth of organic matter on its way to the landfill.
00:19Then on Saturday afternoon, you drive to the garden center, and you spend $24 on a bag of Miracle-Gro
00:26plant food.
00:27Fertilizer that contains less plant nutrition than what you just threw away.
00:33The average American household spends $150 to $300 per year on bagged fertilizers, soil amendments, and packaged compost.
00:45The same household throws away 400 to 600 pounds of organic kitchen waste per year,
00:53material that should have been feeding the garden for free.
00:56But here is the question that brings us to today's video.
01:00You have seen the gardening blogs and the YouTube tips.
01:04Bury banana peels under your roses for potassium.
01:07Stick fish heads in the planting hole under your tomatoes.
01:11It is an old farmer's trick.
01:14Drop coffee grounds straight into the bed around your peppers.
01:18Bury whole eggs at the base of your plants for slow-release nitrogen.
01:23These methods all sound right.
01:25They sound traditional.
01:27They sound like the way grandmother did it.
01:30Do they actually work?
01:31Esther and I have heard all of these methods over the years.
01:35Some came from neighbors.
01:37Some came from the Agricultural Extension Office.
01:40Some came from gardening magazines folks brought us at the produce stand.
01:45And we have tried most of them on our garden at one time or another.
01:49Some helped a little.
01:51Some did nothing at all.
01:53One actively hurt the plant we tried it on.
01:56Today I am going to walk you through what really happens when you bury common kitchen scraps directly in your
02:03garden.
02:04Then I am going to show you the real Pennsylvania Dutch composting method that turns those same scraps into the
02:12richest free fertilizer your soil can get.
02:16My name is Elias Yoder.
02:18I am Amish and I farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
02:22Esther runs the kitchen.
02:23I run the garden and the fields.
02:26Between the two of us, we produce about 500 pounds of kitchen and garden organic matter per year.
02:33And not a single ounce of it goes to the trash.
02:36It all goes back into the soil.
02:39But not by burying it under the plants.
02:41That is the part most folks get wrong.
02:44And that is what I want you to understand by the end of this video.
02:48Quick word before we go further.
02:51The old methods my family uses.
02:53There is more of it than fits in any one video.
02:56I gathered the whole of it into a book at EliasYoder.com.
03:01The book is the long version.
03:03If you want it, it is there.
03:05I will not bring it up again.
03:08Now, the truth about burying kitchen scraps.
03:11The most common kitchen scraps folks bury and what really happens to each one.
03:17Banana peels.
03:18The promise.
03:19High potassium feeds your roses and tomatoes.
03:23What really happens.
03:25Banana peels take six to nine months to break down in soil at typical garden temperatures.
03:31The potassium they contain is locked inside the peels' cellular structure
03:36and is not available to plant roots in any meaningful time frame.
03:41By the time the peel finally breaks down, the growing season is over.
03:46Folks who report,
03:47banana peels really worked for my roses,
03:50usually had healthy soil to begin with.
03:53The peel itself did almost nothing.
03:55The honest answer.
03:57Banana peels belong in the compost pile,
04:00not under the plant.
04:02Chop them small first to speed decomposition.
04:06Coffee grounds.
04:07The promise.
04:08Acidify the soil for blueberries.
04:11Repel slugs.
04:12Add nitrogen.
04:14What really happens, plainly.
04:16Fresh coffee grounds are surprisingly not very acidic.
04:20The acid mostly washes into your coffee cup, not the grounds.
04:25The pH of used grounds is around 6.5 to 6.8, which is neutral.
04:32So they will not meaningfully acidify your blueberry bed.
04:36They do contain about 2% nitrogen by dry weight, which is real and useful.
04:42But sprinkled on the soil surface in a thick layer,
04:45they form a water-repellent crust that can actually harm plants by preventing water penetration.
04:52They also can attract certain ants and contain caffeine residues that inhibit seed germination if used heavily.
05:01The honest answer.
05:03Coffee grounds are excellent compost material.
05:06Mix them into your compost pile where they balance the high-carbon browns.
05:11A light sprinkle around mature plants is fine.
05:15Thick layers cause problems.
05:18Eggshells.
05:19The promise.
05:21Calcium prevents blossom end rot in tomatoes.
05:25Sharp edges deter slugs.
05:27What really happens.
05:29Crushed eggshells take 1 to 2 years to break down in soil and release calcium.
05:35They do almost nothing for this season's tomatoes.
05:38The slug deterrent claim has been formally tested by agricultural researchers and shown to be ineffective.
05:47Slugs crawl right over crushed eggshells without slowing down.
05:52The honest answer.
05:54Eggshells do eventually add calcium to your soil over years of regular addition.
06:00The most useful thing to do with them is to dry them thoroughly, crush them to powder, a coffee grinder
06:08works perfectly, and add the powder to your compost pile.
06:12Powdered eggshells break down much faster than chunks.
06:17Fish heads and fish scraps.
06:19The promise.
06:21The old plant a fish under your corn trick from indigenous American tradition.
06:27High nitrogen, phosphorus, and oils feed the plant.
06:31Let me be honest about this one.
06:34The fish in the planting hole tradition is real, but it is indigenous American, specifically the three sisters companion planting
06:44tradition of the Wampanoag and other eastern woodland tribes.
06:48It is not a Pennsylvania Dutch or Amish tradition.
06:53Crediting it to the Amish or old farmers misrepresents whose tradition it actually is.
07:01What really happens when you try it?
07:04Whole fish heads buried under a plant break down very slowly and often go anaerobic in the absence of oxygen,
07:12which means they decompose in a way that produces foul odors, attracts vermin from yards around, and can actually stunt
07:21the plant by locking up soil nitrogen during the slow breakdown.
07:26Plants buried over fish heads often perform worse than plants in plain soil for the first two months.
07:33The three sisters tradition that worked used small fish, usually alewives, a small herring species, buried in sandy New England
07:43coastal soil with specific temperature conditions, and the corn that grew was a hardy traditional variety adapted to that exact
07:52method.
07:54Reproducing it in your backyard with grocery store catfish heads under hybrid tomatoes does not give you the same result.
08:02The honest answer.
08:04If you have fish scraps, compost them in a dedicated meat and bones compost pile away from the house.
08:12It will attract animals if not protected.
08:15For most gardeners, do not bury fish scraps directly under plants.
08:20Recent backyard experiments have confirmed what we already knew.
08:25The buried fish method produces inferior plants compared to plain soil.
08:31Whole eggs.
08:33The promise?
08:34Slow release everything.
08:36Eggs are a complete nutritional package.
08:40What really happens?
08:41A buried egg will sit intact for weeks while the plant above it gets nothing.
08:47Eventually, the shell weakens, the contents leak out into the soil, and either feed soil microbes, good, or go anaerobic,
08:57bad, depending on conditions.
09:00The honest answer.
09:02Do not bury whole eggs.
09:04Either compost them properly, with plenty of browns to balance, feed them to your chickens if you have them, or
09:11use them in the kitchen.
09:13Kitchen scraps, in general, vegetable peels, fruit cores, herb stems.
09:19The promise.
09:21Bury them directly, and they feed your plants.
09:25What really happens?
09:27Small scraps directly buried in the planting area do break down in two to four months,
09:32but during that breakdown, they often pull nitrogen out of the surrounding soil,
09:38a process called nitrogen drawdown, which can stunt nearby plants exactly when they need nitrogen most.
09:46The honest answer.
09:48Kitchen scraps belong in the compost pile first, not under the plant.
09:53Compost them for three to six months until they become finished compost.
09:57Then, add the finished compost to your beds.
10:02Before I walk through the real Amish method, let me pause for a moment.
10:06If this video helped you see one place your home may be wasting money, there is a lot more where
10:12this came from.
10:13Esther and I built our Amish home savings system for folks who want the rest of it.
10:19The link is in the description.
10:20Now, the real Pennsylvania Dutch method.
10:24The old Amish three-bin compost system.
10:28Every working Amish farm in Lancaster County has some version of this.
10:33Sometimes, it is three wooden bins built side by side along the barn wall.
10:39Sometimes, it is three concrete block enclosures behind the chicken house.
10:44Sometimes, it is three piles in the back corner of the kitchen garden marked with stakes.
10:51The form varies.
10:53The system is the same.
10:55The three bins.
10:57Bin one, the active pile.
11:00This is where new material goes every day.
11:04Kitchen scraps from Esther, garden waste from the working garden, bedding straw from the chicken coop,
11:10animal manure from the barn, fallen leaves in autumn, grass clippings from the pasture edges.
11:18Material is added in layers, lightly turned every week or two, kept moist but not wet.
11:26Bin two, the curing pile.
11:29When bin one is full, usually after two to three months, the entire contents are turned and transferred
11:36to bin two. Bin one is now empty and ready to start receiving fresh material again.
11:44Bin two sits and matures for the next two to three months.
11:49During this curing phase, the pile heats up internally to 130 to 150 degrees Fahrenheit,
11:57which kills weed seeds, pathogens, and most pest insects.
12:02The internal heat is the real chemistry of proper composting.
12:07Bin three, the finished compost.
12:11When bin two has finished curing, usually after another two to three months, it transfers to bin
12:18three as finished compost, the dark, crumbly, sweet-smelling material that goes into the garden
12:25as the foundation of soil fertility.
12:29This is what we add to the planting beds, what we mix into the planting holes for tomatoes and peppers,
12:35what we top dress the established perennials with.
12:39Six months from kitchen scrap to finished garden compost.
12:44That is the timeline of the real method.
12:48Nothing gets buried directly under plants.
12:52Everything goes through the bins first.
12:55The chemistry of why this works.
12:58Real composting is aerobic decomposition.
13:02Bacteria, fungi, and beneficial microorganisms breaking down organic matter in the presence of oxygen.
13:10The pile needs four things to work properly.
13:14Carbon, the browns.
13:17Dry leaves, straw, dried grass, shredded cardboard, wood shavings,
13:23sawdust from untreated wood, dried plant stalks, paper.
13:29These provide energy for the microorganisms.
13:33Nitrogen, the greens.
13:35Kitchen scraps, fresh grass clippings, garden waste, coffee grounds, fresh manure, green plant material.
13:44These provide protein for the microorganisms.
13:49The ratio.
13:50Three parts browns to one part greens by volume.
13:55This is the real number.
13:57Too much green and the pile turns to anaerobic slop that smells terrible and produces no useful compost.
14:06Too much brown and the pile sits there doing nothing for years.
14:11Water.
14:13Moisture like a wrung out sponge.
14:16Too dry and the microorganisms slow down.
14:20Too wet and the pile goes anaerobic.
14:23Oxygen.
14:25Regular turning every one to two weeks during active composting.
14:30This is what folks skip most often and it is what separates a working compost pile from a stinking trash
14:37heap.
14:38A pitchfork or a manure fork is the tool.
14:4320 minutes of turning every other week is the labor.
14:47When the chemistry is right, the pile heats up to 130 to 150 degrees within a week of starting.
14:55You can stick your hand into a properly working pile and feel the warmth radiating out.
15:02The heat is what kills pathogens and weed seeds.
15:06The heat is also what tells you the pile is alive and working.
15:11What goes in the bins and what stays out.
15:14Yes, put these in.
15:17Vegetable and fruit scraps of all kinds, peels, cores, stems, leaves.
15:24Coffee grounds and tea bags, remove the staples.
15:28Crushed eggshells, dry first, crush fine.
15:32Garden plant waste, pulled weeds before they go to seed, trimmings, fallen leaves.
15:40Grass clippings, in moderation, they pack down and go anaerobic in thick layers.
15:46Straw and hay from clean bedding.
15:49Animal manure from chickens, cows, horses, rabbits, sheep, goats.
15:56Never dog or cat manure, pathogens that survive composting.
16:01Wood ash from your wood stove, small amounts, provides potassium.
16:06Shredded paper and cardboard without colored ink or glossy coating.
16:12Sawdust from untreated wood.
16:15Keep these out.
16:17Meat, fish, and bones.
16:20Attract animals, slow to break down, can develop dangerous bacteria.
16:25Some experienced composters do compost meat in dedicated, enclosed bins, but for beginners, keep meat out.
16:35Dairy products.
16:36Milk, cheese, yogurt, butter.
16:39Same reason as meat.
16:42Oils, fats, and greasy food.
16:45Coat the materials and prevent decomposition.
16:48Pet manure, dog, cat, pathogens dangerous to humans.
16:55Diseased plant material, can spread disease through the finished compost.
17:00Weeds that have gone to seed, the seeds can survive composting if your pile does not get hot enough.
17:08Treated wood products, chemical preservatives.
17:12Citrus peels in large quantities, slow to break down, and can mess with pile pH if heavy.
17:19Charcoal from grills, lighter fluid residues.
17:24Glossy paper, colored cardboard, plastic coated paper, chemical inks and coatings.
17:31When the compost is ready, finished compost looks like dark, rich garden soil.
17:37It is crumbly, smells faintly sweet and earthy, never sour, never ammonia-like, and contains no recognizable original ingredients.
17:49You should not be able to identify an apple core or a coffee filter in finished compost.
17:56The Honest Timeline
17:58Hot composting
18:00Active turning, proper ratio, good moisture.
18:04Three to four months from raw scraps to finished compost.
18:08Cold composting, just piling it up and waiting, 12 to 18 months.
18:15Esther and I run the three-bin system at the working farm timeline.
18:20Six months from kitchen to garden with regular turning.
18:24A teaspoon of finished compost contains billions of beneficial soil microorganisms.
18:31Bacteria, fungi, mycorrhizae, nematodes, protozoa.
18:37Adding it to your garden does not just add nutrients.
18:41It adds the biological foundation of healthy soil.
18:45How to use finished compost in the garden.
18:49At planting time, mix one to two shovels of finished compost into each planting hole for tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers,
19:00melons, and other heavy feeders.
19:03For smaller plants like lettuce, herbs, and brassicas, a single handful mixed into the soil where the plant goes is
19:11plenty.
19:12As a top dressing, once a year, typically in spring, spread a one-inch layer of finished compost across the
19:21surface of each garden bed.
19:23Let it sit.
19:24Rain and earthworms will work it down into the soil naturally over the next two to three months.
19:31For perennial flowers, fruit trees, and berry bushes, top dress with a one to two-inch layer of compost in
19:40early spring and again in fall.
19:43Keep the compost a few inches away from the trunk or stem to prevent rot at the base.
19:49For seed starting, mix one part finished compost with one part garden soil and one part sand for a homemade
19:59seed starting mix that beats most commercial products.
20:04The Honest Math
20:05Esther's Kitchen produces about 300 pounds of organic scraps per year.
20:12Our garden and chickens produce another four to five hundred pounds of compostable material.
20:18Pulled weeds, garden trimmings, fall leaves, chicken bedding, small amounts of manure.
20:25Total annual organic input, about seven to eight hundred pounds.
20:32That seven hundred pounds of input produces about 350 to 400 pounds of finished compost per year.
20:40Roughly half the input weight due to moisture loss and decomposition.
20:46That is enough compost to top dress every garden bed annually, mix into every planting hole, and have some left
20:54over for new beds and fruit tree care.
20:58The commercial equivalent, bagged compost, runs about six to twelve dollars per cubic foot at the garden center.
21:05Four hundred pounds of finished compost is roughly eight cubic feet, which would cost between 48 and 96 dollars commercial.
21:14Plus the bagged fertilizers, soil amendments, and miracle products we no longer need to buy because the compost provides them.
21:23The Honest annual savings for a family that operates a real compost system.
21:29One hundred fifty to three hundred dollars in not bought fertilizers and soil amendments.
21:35Plus the value of the finished compost itself.
21:38Plus the trash bag savings from not throwing scraps in the garbage.
21:42Plus the disposal fees we never pay.
21:46Total honest value of a home compost operation.
21:50Two hundred to four hundred dollars per year for a household that takes it seriously.
21:56And here's the part the bagged fertilizer industry will never tell you.
22:01Compost from a well-managed pile is biologically superior to almost any commercial fertilizer.
22:08The living microorganisms, the balanced micronutrient profile, the slow-release organic nitrogen,
22:16the soil structure building organic matter, none of that comes in a plastic bag from the garden center.
22:23The bagged stuff feeds the plant for one season.
22:27The compost builds the soil for decades.
22:30There is no money in the lawn and garden chemical industry in teaching American families that the trash from their
22:38own kitchen,
22:38properly composted for six months, produces a better soil amendment than anything sold on the garden center shelves.
22:47There is a great deal of money in selling families 24-dollar bags of Miracle-Gro every spring, every spring,
22:56forever.
22:57So the simple old method sits quiet in the bins behind the barns of careful folks who never forgot.
23:04And most American gardeners spend hundreds of dollars per year on commercial fertilizer while throwing the real thing in the
23:13trash.
23:14You can be the one who remembers.
23:17So here is what I want you to do.
23:20This week, walk out to the back corner of your yard and pick a spot for your first compost pile.
23:27It does not need to be fancy.
23:30Three pallets nailed together into a U-shape will do for a beginner, or one pallet enclosure, or a circle
23:37of chicken wire.
23:38You can build the full three-bin system later as you scale up.
23:44This weekend, start adding material.
23:47Bring out the kitchen scraps from this week.
23:49Add a layer of dry leaves or straw on top, three parts brown to one part green.
23:56Water lightly.
23:58Add to the pile every day going forward.
24:01Once a week, turn the pile with a pitchfork or garden fork.
24:05Five minutes of turning, that is all.
24:08Make sure the pile feels like a wrung-out sponge.
24:12Add water if it is dry.
24:14Add browns if it is wet.
24:16By next spring, you will have your first batch of finished compost.
24:21Real dark, crumbly, sweet-smelling soil builder for whatever you want to plant.
24:27And you will have replaced one to three hundred dollars of commercial fertilizer for free.
24:33Tell me in the comments below, have you tried burying kitchen scraps directly in your garden,
24:40and what really happened?
24:41And if your grandmother or grandfather had her own composting method we did not cover,
24:47her favorite layering technique, her secret edition, her timeline, share the family memory.
24:53The old composting traditions varied region to region, and the family methods are exactly the kind of inherited knowledge that
25:02gets lost when nobody writes them down.
25:05I read every single one.
25:07Next time, since today we covered turning kitchen scraps into garden gold, I am going to walk you through the
25:15old Pennsylvania Dutch method of saving seeds from your own garden.
25:20How to harvest, dry, and store seeds from the best plants in your rows so you never have to buy
25:27seed packets again.
25:29It is the next step in becoming a truly self-sufficient gardener.
25:33Subscribe so you do not miss it.
25:36Until then, stop burying your kitchen scraps under your plants, start composting them properly,
25:42and remember that the real fertility of the soil comes from a pile in the back corner of the yard,
25:49not a plastic bag from the garden center.
25:52That is how the old folks gardened.
25:54That is how it is still done in any home that remembers.
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