Question
Hello: I have few questions you might be able to answer for me.I live in western Canada near the U.S. border.
1) Can I just bury banana peels,apple cores,orange peels,etc in my garden,and the worms will take care of the job? Or do I have to chop everything up?  
2) I have a problem with red ant hills on my lawn.Can you recommend an ecologically safe way to deal with them?
3) Finally,what is the best way to remove unwanted grass in flower beds in preparation for tilling? I have been lazy the last few years,and haven't planted anything in these unused beds,which now have thick grass growth.
Thanks!

Answer
Hello up there, Oh Canadian gardener.  Pleased to meet you.  Let's get down to business:

1. What you really want to know is, Can you bury your organic garbage directly into the soil without composting it in some special other part of the property.  And the answer is, haha, Garbage in garbage out.  Which means, There's a tradeoff.

Burying banana peels is Nature's way of doing this.  Eventually, these will turn to 'dust', improving the Soil that surrounds them.  Just like compost.  But slower.  Much, much slower.  And if you don't bury them deep enough, you may end up feeding the neighborhood rats and raccoons.

In either case (soil or compost pile), decomposition goes quicker as the pieces get smaller.  And that goes for anything.  Not just banana peels.

2. Last I counted, there were upwards of a dozen species of Ants that are classified as insect pests in the U.S.  Some sting (or bites, I have not had the pleasure...).  I would guess you are talking about one of two: Red Imported Fire Ants (Solenopsis invicta) or Southern Fire Ants (Solenopsis xyloni).

The Clean Air Gardening website posts a page about getting rid of Fire Ants:

www.cleanairgardening.com/groworganic.html

They recommend a product called Conserve.  They also reference a Texas A&M program called the Texas Two Step:

www.cleanairgardening.com/fireants.html

First you feed each mound an organic insecticide, like Greenlight Fire Ant Killer with Spinosad (which is a state of the art IPM insect killer).  You follow up with a Orange Guard Fire Ant Killer, or you can pour boiling water down the Ant Hill (which may not kill all the Ants).

3. Finally, I would strongly recommend you NOT till that beautiful undisturbed plot.  No-Till is cutting edge these days.  Earthworm funnels stay intact after years of development; underground fungal hyphae stay connected; the soil structure is preserved.  Instead, cut the overgrowth down to the bone (compost the clippings) and OVERPLANT with a cover crop (which you can cut down at the end of the summer and let decompose where it lands).

Let me know if you need more details on any of the above.