Composting in place?

[jomoncon]

I have 2 beds that have field peas tight now. The peas are about at the end of their production. I'm planning on planting bulb onions in these beds come January. I thought I might just cut the peas down & pull up the plants & let it lie there for the next several months until it's time to plant the onion seedlings.

But now, I'm starting to worry about leaving the vegetation in the beds since it might be an overwintering area for bugs, especially stink & leaf-footed bugs. I'm starting to see a few stink bug adults on plants & they're probably looking forward to mating & laying eggs.

Should I let the pea debris just stay in the beds, or clean them up & put them in the compost bins?

 

[canesisters]

Instead of leaving them lay, bury them. I grew my garden this year in/on my compost pile. It did GREAT! This weekend I'm planning to cut down the left over plants and all the weeds, dig out the center, pile the 'green' stuff, and then bury under all the spread-out compost that it all grew in. I'll be adding more on top over the next few months - leaves, grass, and of course manure.
Compost is an ever-growing living thing. It's never 'time to compost'. You're composting all the time.

 

[Smart Red]

I would cut off the pea plant tops and add them to the compost pile. I would NOT remove the pea roots as nitrogen is held in nodules along the roots. Over winter the roots will rot down leaving the nitrogen. I don't pull pea or bean plants, I just cut them off at ground level and remove the tops.

 

[GreeneGarden]

Hauling organic matter to a bin for composting is too much extra work. Plus you lose too much nitrogen from bin composting through evaporation of ammonia. Many organic gardeners / farmers just till in the organic matter. It definitely prevents the wrong kind of insects from using it to propagate and prevents evaporation of ammonia. It also feeds a broader variety of microbiology than bin composting which is mostly bacterial. Diversity is always good. Sometimes if I am in a hurry for it to decompose, I will spray it with honey water before I till it under.

 

[digitS']

Here is what I do:

Compost-in-Place (link) . . . with some caveats.

BTW: that's millet behind the bok choy in that one picture.

Steve