Kitchen Garden Forum

I've always found that putting weeds dug up from the veg garden on to my compost heap results in an even bigger weed crop when the compost is used the next year. (Presumably because they don't rot and "die" properly). But, hurrah, our local Council, for £12 a year, provides a garden waste recycling bin, emptied twice a month!. I still have a compost heap, but all weeds go off in a lorry - and I've halved the cost by sharing it with my neighbour!
John N

Having learnt from bitter experience I am now extremely careful about what weeds I put in my compost heap. I NEVER put oxyalis in (the little trefoil type weed) as its little root nodules seem to regenerate, no matter how small, and I also never put in Alkanet (the large leafy weed with blue flower which resembles a foxglove when a seedling) as the smallest piece of stalk regenerates. Bindweed also goes straight into my dustbin. As my compost heap is in a shady position it takes longer than normal to rot down, so now I never risk putting anything in which won't degenerate completely by the time I want to dig it out.

I think soon your council may be providing that bin for free, John, as happens in many areas now.

Yes, I did think it pretty mean of John's council to be charging to collect something they're going to sell (and meet their recycling targets with).

Alan

Our green bins are free and bag and bin all the perennial weeds on my plot. The rest are composted and judging by the heat in the "dalek" bins, I think the weed seeds may well be cooked.

We were given the choice between a garden waste recycling bin or a compost bin. We chose the latter . A girl from the council phoned up to check that was what we really wanted - she sounded quite surprised!
The only problem is that other householders can put all kinds of cardboard in their garden waste bins and we sometimes have a surplus of cardboard and have to drive to the tip. I do put quite a lot in our compost bin but it gets excessive at times.
I'm a bit hit and miss with composting weeds. I try to be good and not put anything in that's seeded and I'm lucky enough not to have pernicious perennial weeds except ground elder, which is safe to compost if it's just the green bit. I get around the weed problem by generally mixing the compost around the roots of plants when I'm planting them out, then covering with soil, so any weed seeds in the compost are too deeply buried to germinate.
The rougher compost made in the big bins that gets spread on the ground doesn't get anything risky put into it.

Hi all,
I`m sure i read somewhere that if you put your weeds into barrells of water for no less than 6 months,all the seeds,etc,etc will be dead,and the resulting slurrey at the bottom of the barrells is safe to introduce to the land.Meantime,you can be using the barrelled water as a feed as the weeds are rotting,and simply "top up"the water in the barrells to continue the process.

Regards,
Mark.

You did read it somewhere, on here, last year.

I tried this method and unless you have no sense of smell I certainly wouldn't risk it. I had a water butt which I added the weeds too but there was no chance of taking any water out as they floated and jammed up the top half.
There was a crust on the top which had it's own microclimate with things living in there that made my blood run cold. Having spent some time wondering what to do with it, I ended up pushing it over and running like hell. I didn't go back for a week and you could still smell it. Never again...

It killed the weeds though.

I laughed out loud at your antics Chantal! :lol: :D

The recent heavy rain has also taught me another lesson about weeding. On several occasions between showers I popped out into the garden, pulled up a few weeds and left them in little heaps as the rain started again, intending to dispose of them later.
To my dismay I've found that 80% of them have had soil splashed all over their roots and the damned things have rerooted themselves again. Next time I'll do the job properly and dispose of them immediately after pulling them up.

Primrose - leave a seed tray out in the garden handy. As you go down the path pull a few weeds and drop them in, and as you go back down the path pull a few and drop them in.Don't empty it until it's full a week later and you get a real sense of satisfaction of having achieved something without really noticing you were doing it.
On the Weed/compost debate. Don't put in nettle roots, bindweed roots, dock or dandelion roots, unless you want to see them merrily growng out of the sides of your compost containers. I put them in the green bin collected by the council. They heat them up to very high temperatures on their heaps and kill all weeds, so I do it with a clear conscience.I put all other weeds in the compost bin. If you want to be sure there are no weeds you can lay it out on black plastic in the spring and hoe off the sprouting weeds before using it. You can do this for manure too.

I usually dig a deep trench about 30 inches deep into which I put all the contents of the compost bins on my plot into the trench and cover teh top six inches with plot soil, this then becomes the site for either runners or broad beans.

A knowing plot holder (you know the type) berated told me that it was ridiculous to dig it that deep, I explained why and she walked away shaking her head. Next day her old man was digging same depth of trench on their plot........nowt so queer as folk eh?

The weeds dont seem to crop as violently on these trench sites, but thre you go, what do I know?

Compo

jane E
What size seed trays do you use for your weeds?,it would be more like a skip I needed this past week on the lottie, I could have wept when I came back from a weeks holiday to see the plot covered in weeds,I think they brought all their friends with them while my back was turned.
Bren