Allotments 4 All

ok, i'm very new to this and planning for my plot that i am getting in a few weeks so this may seem like a very silly question to those of you more experienced...

I have read that (obviously) you don't put perennial/ flowering weeds on your compost heap BUT no-one tells you what you're meant to do with them! ???

What do I do with the weeds? I will be clearing the plot over the winter so i will have plenty i'm sure!

any help appreciated..

Jo

I deal with tenacious weeds by keeping them seperate from the compost and then burning them. You tend to find that bonfires are allowed on allotments but generally restricted to certain days and times. The ash goes back on the plot.

That's what we do as well - burn them.

Can be nice in the evening alog with a nice cold beer!

thanks! thats what i thought would be the answer but i wasn't sure - it just doesn't mention it in any books!

I have also heard that you can put these kind of weeds in a 'hot' compost...as it can reach 70oC its supposed to kill them off.

Is this true??

As long as they aren't flowering, I put them in a pile and let the slugs eat them instead of my lovely plants! They seem to go for them after they've wilted a bit.

When I'm feeling a bit tidier, I bin mine (don't have enough for burning), along with any slugs and snails I've found that day.

I leave brambles to dry out after I've cut them back and then scatter the dry, prickly sticks on bare earth to keep the cats off.  :o

Hi legless. I bin mine at the moment too, but I'm going to try using them in a water butt this year - they'll rot down so presumably? can't re-grow and the water could become liquid manure.  Likely to be pretty stinky, but I'll do it in the lottie, not the garden! If this is a really stupid idea please somebody tell me now!  If they haven't produced seeds, presumably you could also lay them out on a non-soil surface and they would shrivel up, and when completely dead be added to the compost heap.

Id suggest the same as Ceri, rot them down in waterthen add the end result to the compost heap.

It is either this or drying them out and killing them that way. However it is a job to know how long to leave them, many perenial taproots (especialy the bigger ones) can survive a long time in the open air, and of course if they get wet or contact the soil they will revive again.

No Id go for the soaking method.

I should talk really, my perennial weed roots get bagged up and taken to the tip!. Naughty me eh? Just havent quite gotten around to setting up the above method.

Just remembered another thing I read/heard - put them in black bin bags, tie them shut and leave them in the sun to cook/rot. Then add to compost.

Anyone tried that?

The only thing I take home to bin are bindweed and couchgrass, all the rest I put on the compost which never really gets hot.

I have found no difference in the area in the veggie plot I tried the compost on and the area I did not, the amount of weeds seemed just the same.