African Melon Pits? | The Survival Gardener

I haven’t heard of “peace gardens” before, but it sounds like the melon pit method I describe in Compost Everything.

Etienne Louw comments on my Terra Preta video:

“Over here in Africa we do “peace gardens”. We dig a hole 3 feet deep and dump newspaper cardboard and veggie scraps in the hole and keep covering it with the removed soil as we go along until we have a small heap. We also till it over along the way to get it mixed up. After a bit of time (about a month) we plant on the heap, very productive.”

Veggies and cardboard. I bet that rots down nicely as well as brings in the worms.

I like to add meat, bones and ashes as well.

Often good ideas end up coming around again and again in different places. I got the melon pit idea from Gardening When it Counts, where Steve Solomon mentions hearing about how the Indians would fill up refuse pits and plant on them.

You can see me make one here:

It works. “Peace garden” sounds more pleasant, though.

If you bury a pet – or one of your enemies – you could also call it the “Rest in Peace” garden.

Share this post!