Topic: Dug-up couch-grass - what to do with it?

[hellohelenhere]

... without chucking away half of my top soil?

I going to use no-dig layering techniques, but as half of my garden is solid couch grass, decided to pull it up first. I'm prising off the turf with a fork, shaking/bashing off some of the soil, and heaping up the couch grass in a mound while I decide what to do with it.
It takes a lot of the soil out with it, as it's all in amongst the roots. I don't want to lose half my topsoil... so what's the best solution?

Could I -
- compost it in a black plastic bag for a year or two?
- burn it, and then dig the ash back in?
- pound it and sieve it to get the maximum amount of soil back, and then throw the couch grass debris in the green waste bin for council collection?
- other?

Tips gratefully received!
cheers
x H

[star]

Your first option is good hun, if you have room to store it for a long time. Makes good organic matter to add back in to your beds :D

[Lauren S]

Leave it all turned upside down and let the weather do the work for you. Hope it dries out then bag it and bin it... minus the soil  ;D

[tonybloke]

the roots can be drowned, if left long enouigh under water they become a nutrient rich liquid feed!! ;)

[hellohelenhere]

Oh, great ideas, thanks guys! I was a bit worried that everybody would say 'put it in triple strength bin bags, paint a skull and crossbones on it, and have it taken away and burned, ASAP'.
Glad to hear I don't need to be quite that drastic... :D

[hellohelenhere]

The good news is, it's such a thick mat of couch-grass that there aren't many other weeds, just the odd dandelion. Excellent. :)

[twinkletoes]

...atta girl H.  Glass half full 'nall that............... 
twinkletoes

[caroline7758]

Given the wet summers we've had, I'm thinking of turning one of my water butts into a couch-soaking butt. Maybe I should, because sod's law would then mean that we have a dry summer! ;D

[artichoke]

I have put countless masses of couch grass, buttercup etc into plastic bags for a year or 2 to rot down, and get some pleasure out of making use of them. Am currently trying to drown some in a bucket for a change. Wherever you pile these heavy sacks they also do serious damage to the turf beneath them, another bonus, especially if you cover a sea of sacks with tarpaulin weighted firmly down with bricks, logs, branches etc.

I have also watched lots of people piling their couch grass etc up into heaps and walls, and they never dry out and die - they become luxuriously grassy banks and a nightmare to deal with for the next tenant (these people usually give up after all that exhausting earth piling).

[redimp]

I bag mine for a year then stick it on the compost heap for another - great compost - I do have a backlog of about 3 years though so it should all get even longer than that.

[ceres]

I have an 'evil' compost bin that gwets the couch grass, brambles, netles etc.  I just leave it longer than 'good' stuff.  It makes great compost.  Need to keep the bin covered though or it just grows back!

[Kea]

I bag mine up in rubble bags. I've just used one from about 2 years ago to improve a patch of soil where I'm planting a victoria plum...it had turned into a nice rich compost.

[caroline7758]

I put some of mine in a plastic dalek but it was very dry when I checked it, so guess I should water it now and again.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I put it in my compost bins; it never lasts till the following spring. If you've got a real thick mat of it, you can pile it up and cover it with black plastic. Alternatively, cover it where it is, but dig the plastic in a spade's depth all the way round so the roots can't just run out and grow shoots in the light.