I am ashamed to say often my weeds get to the flowering stage, plus I have a good amount of bindweed, ground elder, couch grass etc.
My composting technique leave something to be desired and my intended bonfire normally turns into a soggy mass which refused to light
I had the idea of getting a "soaking" tank going where I could throw the offenders and allow them to decay, and hopefully make some "compost tea" type stuff at the same time
What does everyone think
Would it work?
All the best
Sue
Hi,
On my plot, if any of the weeds get to the flower, seed stage of their life i burn them. Weed seeds can lay dormant in the soil for many years. I got hold of a 205 litre steel drum, it's great for keeping rubbish in on the plot. Cover the barrel with a piece of plastic sheet or a piece of sheet wood to keep the rain out. When it's time to light the fire it's all nice and dry. Any chance you can get your hands on one of these? A soaking tank is a good idea, best to soak the weeds in some kind of net bag or sack for easy removal. I'm the same as you, can never get the compost heap right. The trouble with mine is too much green waste and not enough brown. Left for long enough weed roots will die and become harmless.
Good luck
Forgot to add. Don't put your nose in the tank when the weeds are rotting down :o ;D
I put some stinging nettles to soak but found them growing out the top when the level of the water dropped.
Id be inclined to make sure the pH of the water was so extreme it woudl kill anything bunged in it, such as nettle root - I wonder if a half a pound of compost initiator woudl do the trick. Or possibly a big dollop of wood ash ? Both would make it very alkaline, which would be useful.
Where is there an industrial chemist when you need one................
Pull the weeds up, shake all the soil off, and leave them to bake in the sun until they're crispy, then stick them on the compost heap and it's job done. It's shaking the soil off that's key. Bunging them all on the compost straight away will work for everything if you've shaken all the soil off, but a good baking in the sun teaches the others a good lesson. The only thing I've ever had survive in my compost heap is docks and potatoes and I don't even bother to turn it, I'm just careful about not putting any soil on there.
I find dock seeds survive the compost heap very well indeed and as a result, all my containers which contain home-made compost have a pink and green carpet of baby docks, which I pull up periodically, to make room for the next lot of baby docks to come up! ::)
I say drown them! Mind you, can they survive submersion?? :o
docks can't survive full immersion, and are a good source of phosphorous ;)