Kitchen Garden Forum

The way I look at it is like this, If you destroy as little as possible from your 'land space' or plot, compost everything and bring extra organic matter, such as manure or compost, that just seems perfect common sense. You are then entitled to take away tasty vegetables....

Due to being away from the allotment for a few weeks, holidays, decorating etc, the weeds had got high and started to seed, so me and my lovely wife, went weeding and pulled the lot up, as they had seeded, when they were pulled up the wee seedlings started to sprout, so I just hoed the tops off, so if that happens when I dig the compost back in, so what? big deal? we have this vision of neat lines of veg with nothing in between. The weeds have their place, just don't let it be a dominant place.

Recycle as much as you can, weed when you can, water when you can especially if you have managed to save rain water, be kind to the land, and surely................it will be kind to you.

Compo
(The boy is back!!)

Compo, thank you, you are saying more or less what I was trying to say until I was ruled out of order by you know who. What is a weed but a plant in the wrong place and the definition depends on what the gardener decides. There will never be a chemical that knows the difference betweeen a plant and a weed, many families are common to both. I know that I will never get rid of all my weeds so I have to live with that. I happened to look at my 'dirty' compost bin yesterday, there is a thick layer of black gold at the bottom so I shall get busy, put it through my steriliser and use it where it is most precious.
I also noticed that on the empty soil the rain has brought forth a green carpet of new weeds so that will have to be managed which could be very time-consuming, it is too early for them to be left over winter but the ordinary hoe won't cope with them and at the moment they threaten the late plantings of carrots and beet.
My local farmers are all into livestock and what manure they get goes into muckspreaders, and quite right too.

Thanks for all the advice everyone.
I`m going to try a "no dig policy" again next season,(lasagna method), using "all"my composts.
I grew Lady Balfour spuds this year,using the lasagna method,and the resulting crop is superb.

Thanks again,
Mark.

A few related musings.

There are a number of reasons a grower might prefer to use nutrient sources other than manure; importantly you can apply liquid or granular feed to a growing crop. Muck would make a right mess !

Even a showcase mixed organic farm isn't a closed system, or it would produce nothing. Sheepdrove organic farm over near Lambourn compost on a truly industrial scale, and if I remember rightly use the output of several racehorce stables, the grounds from a coffee factory and a fair bit of municipal green waste too. I saw lots of clover and tares; as near to
beautiful as a farm gets.

I really can't believe that the manure consumption on domestic gardens is in any way significant in the grand scheme of things.

Some interesting views on either side. I must say I tend to compost annual weeds in my home compost (it is usually around 45 degrees although as high as 60 degrees at times) The perennial weeds go into the green bin for recycling by the council (the commercial composters can sustain over the magic 65 degrees). But I was thinking what about burning these weeds with other non-toxic waste including leaves from rose bushes and box which may have fungal infection? he resultant ash can then go back into the garden

Two further observations
The only truly closed cycle that I can think of would be akin to what is done in space where all water and nutrients would have to be recycled.Here on earth there is no way to ensure that all the nutrients could be passed into the next crop.
However the idea of rotting down perennial weeds in water seems good but has anybody thought about killing off seeds and perennial roots by going all the way in drying them out or would heat sterilisation be necessary?
Allan

Space is not closed Allan, they bring back waste and shoot some of it out into outerspace. Not quite sure that they have a compost bin up there either!!!!

Compo

I've started drowning the nasty ones; the space needed to spread them out and dry them would take another allotment.

You wouldn't kill off seeds by drying them out.

I guess you can compost some weed, but I have to be very particular because our garden is terrorised with that horrible little weed, Oxalis, which looks rather like clover, but has horrible little nodules on the roots, and if you break the slightest one off, it regenerates itself again quicker than mice and rabbits breed. So when I weed, every little bit of that has to be put into a separate receptacle and put in the dustbin. Even after several years of trying to eliminate this in disciplined way, I haven't succeeded, so I'm pretty fussy now about which weeds get composted. As I prefer to grow my veggies organically, eliminating weeds by hand is therefore a rigorous activity.

I guess you can compost some weeds, but I have to be very particular because our garden is terrorised with that horrible little weed, Oxalis, which looks rather like clover, but has horrible little nodules on the roots, and if you break the slightest one off, it regenerates itself again quicker than mice and rabbits breed. So when I weed, every little bit of that has to be put into a separate receptacle and put in the dustbin. Even after several years of trying to eliminate this in disciplined way, I haven't succeeded, so I'm pretty fussy now about which weeds get composted. As I prefer to grow my veggies organically, eliminating weeds by hand is therefore a rigorous activity.