In article ,
(swroot) writes:
| Nick Maclaren wrote:
|
| Very, very few weeds will survive in a compost heap, though a fair
| number will survive at the edges, and many of the tougher ripe seeds
| will still be viable after composting. I compost lots of ground elder
| and both kinds of bindweed, and they all just vanish.
|
| I don't yet trust my composting skills :-)
| Aren't you supposed to eat the Ground Elder?

You can.

| If I can't do that, or it's something with seeds, then the weeds are
| stored in a lidded bin/in the garage until I remember I'll be passing
| the tip, at which point I add them to the 'green waste' compacter. In
| this county green waste is either roughly composted, then spread on
| fields farmed using glyphosate (they don't have to worry about problem
| weeds) or processed using anaerobic digestion.
|
| You can do that yourself, very easily, though the smell isn't attar
| of roses :-)
|
| Do tell... I thought it's very difficult to maintain the correct
| bacterial fauna, conditions, etc?

Don't believe a word of it! It is dead easy. Composting is the
most natural thing you do in gardening, and pretty well all ways
of doing it are idiot resistant (nothing is foolproof, not even
falling off a ladder). Wormeries are the trickiest methods.

The problem with anaerobic digestion is (a) getting it to work fast
and (b) getting it not to smell. If you are just interested in
using it to kill weeds and start them rotting, then just put the
weeds in a large bucket, butt or plastic bag, and keep them wet.
Nature will do the rest. Your family or neighbours may work you
over when the smell reaches them, but that is not a problem with
the effectiveness of the process!


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Nick Maclaren wrote:

In article ,
(swroot) writes:
| Nick Maclaren wrote:
|
| Very, very few weeds will survive in a compost heap, though a fair
| number will survive at the edges, and many of the tougher ripe seeds
| will still be viable after composting. I compost lots of ground elder
| and both kinds of bindweed, and they all just vanish.
|
| I don't yet trust my composting skills :-)
| Aren't you supposed to eat the Ground Elder?

You can.

Have you tried it? If so, what does it taste like (*don't* tell me
'chicken')...

| If I can't do that, or it's something with seeds, then the weeds are
| stored in a lidded bin/in the garage until I remember I'll be passing
| the tip, at which point I add them to the 'green waste' compacter. In
| this county green waste is either roughly composted, then spread on
| fields farmed using glyphosate (they don't have to worry about problem
| weeds) or processed using anaerobic digestion.
|
| You can do that yourself, very easily, though the smell isn't attar
| of roses :-)
|
| Do tell... I thought it's very difficult to maintain the correct
| bacterial fauna, conditions, etc?

Don't believe a word of it! It is dead easy. Composting is the
most natural thing you do in gardening, and pretty well all ways
of doing it are idiot resistant (nothing is foolproof, not even
falling off a ladder). Wormeries are the trickiest methods.

Speaking of compost, I spent a half hour on Sunday emptying one of my
Daleks with a fork, mixing the compostables and adding lime and stuff,
then refilling it. And this morning the compost is composting, too hot
to touch! Brilliant!


The problem with anaerobic digestion is (a) getting it to work fast
and (b) getting it not to smell. If you are just interested in
using it to kill weeds and start them rotting, then just put the
weeds in a large bucket, butt or plastic bag, and keep them wet.
Nature will do the rest. Your family or neighbours may work you
over when the smell reaches them, but that is not a problem with
the effectiveness of the process!

Ah. I was expecting complicated instructions regarding pH maintenance
and stuff... I can rot weeds in a bucket, no problem :-)

regards
sarah




--
"Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view,
is silence about truth." Aldous Huxley

In article ,
swroot wrote:

| Aren't you supposed to eat the Ground Elder?

You can.

Have you tried it? If so, what does it taste like (*don't* tell me
'chicken')...

Yes, but only raw. It is vaguely like something between brassica and
spinach. It would probably be similar cooked.

Ah. I was expecting complicated instructions regarding pH maintenance
and stuff... I can rot weeds in a bucket, no problem :-)

You don't get that sort of thing from me! After 36 years at the bleeding
edge of computing, I know the advantages of low technology ....


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

ned wrote:
swroot wrote:
Pinot Grigio wrote:

What do you do with what I call dirty weeds. You know the type
that if they go on the compost heap, they just wait to multiply
and spread elsewhere when the compost goes back on the garden.
I have usually put a small bag of such weeds in with the weekly
rubbish collection but probably won't be able to do that soon with
a change in rubbish collections. I also read that buried weeds
don't break down when buried in landfill sites.

Every council 'tip' that I have 'done business with' has a green
garden waste skip. If your normal refuse collection won't take it -
and ours won't, there is nothing to prevent you taking it to the
'tip'. Our 'local' tip is nine miles away and I'm happy to make that
journey. 'Did it twice last Thursday.

Strewth, that's a long way to barrow your garden waste - assuming you have a
barrow of course.

--
William Tasso

Nick Maclaren wrote:

In article ,
swroot wrote:

| Aren't you supposed to eat the Ground Elder?

You can.

Have you tried it? If so, what does it taste like (*don't* tell me
'chicken')...

Yes, but only raw. It is vaguely like something between brassica and
spinach. It would probably be similar cooked.

That does sound edible. I must look for some.

Ah. I was expecting complicated instructions regarding pH maintenance
and stuff... I can rot weeds in a bucket, no problem :-)

You don't get that sort of thing from me! After 36 years at the bleeding
edge of computing, I know the advantages of low technology ....

it works :-)

regards
sarah


--
"Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view,
is silence about truth." Aldous Huxley

William Tasso wrote:
ned wrote:
swroot wrote:
Pinot Grigio wrote:

What do you do with what I call dirty weeds. You know the type
that if they go on the compost heap, they just wait to multiply
and spread elsewhere when the compost goes back on the garden.
I have usually put a small bag of such weeds in with the weekly
rubbish collection but probably won't be able to do that soon
with a change in rubbish collections. I also read that buried
weeds don't break down when buried in landfill sites.

Every council 'tip' that I have 'done business with' has a green
garden waste skip. If your normal refuse collection won't take it -
and ours won't, there is nothing to prevent you taking it to the
'tip'. Our 'local' tip is nine miles away and I'm happy to make
that journey. 'Did it twice last Thursday.

Strewth, that's a long way to barrow your garden waste - assuming
you have a barrow of course.

:-)
Ah. Its a big plot that we are still trying to reclaim from the wild.
Some we shred. Some we burn. And some, well its just too big and bulky
to dispose of ourselves.
So the options are,
Bung it in someone elses ditch - perish the thought.
Hire a skip.
Or take it to the tip.
Barrow? Yep. Two. 'Did say it was a big plot. ;-)

--
ned

In article ,
says...
In article , ned
writes
swroot wrote:
Pinot Grigio wrote:

What do you do with what I call dirty weeds. You know the type
that if they go on the compost heap, they just wait to multiply
and spread elsewhere when the compost goes back on the garden.
I have usually put a small bag of such weeds in with the weekly
rubbish collection but probably won't be able to do that soon with
a change in rubbish collections. I also read that buried weeds
don't break down when buried in landfill sites.

Every council 'tip' that I have 'done business with' has a green
garden waste skip. If your normal refuse collection won't take it -
and ours won't, there is nothing to prevent you taking it to the
'tip'. Our 'local' tip is nine miles away and I'm happy to make that
journey. 'Did it twice last Thursday.

--
The tip on the Isle of Wight is nothing less than superb. A couple of
years ago the marshalling area was rebuilt. Reverse your car to any one
of about 8 or 9 skips with notices on them. 'Metal', 'Paper', 'General
Waste', 'Wood' etc etc. Carry on pass these skips, which incidentally
are below you so you drop the stuff in as opposed to lifting it up over,
and you come to an area for green waste where they have a massive
shredder!! They use a JCB with a bucket to load the stuff and it chucks
the shredded stuff up into an open barn to a heap 20 - 25ft high!!
Steams well!! And opposite this are other skips for hard core. Been
using this latter facility a lot as no one wanted the hard core around
my area. I was even offered some this afternoon by a neighbour ;-{.


*RANT*

We have a lovely "green" area in the local Blaby tip.

The *whole* tip is rather well laid out and caters to the recyler.

My last trip there involved no garden waste, but was computer stuff,
steel, plastics, glass, paper, batteries, timber and rubble. The *only*
item that went onto *general* waste was a broken computer montior that
would have been lots of work to split up into the bits (So I'm cursed
for the 500 years it will take for the plastics and glass to break
down). Even the circuit boards from an old PC had a bin and I was happy
to rip them into it and put the case into general metals. Old skirting
board has a place in 'Used Timber'. That is an impressive level of
recycling with a tiny bit of effort.

So when I was last emptying green stuff that was too bulky to compost at
home etc so I took it to the major concern, do people fail to 'bother'
noticing the "NO PLASTIC BAGS IN THE GREEN WASTE!!" sign. Then there's
the sign next to it... "IF THERE IS PLASTIC IS A GREEN LOAD IT WILL HAVE
TO BECOME LANDFILL!". I'll assume they can cope with a minimal amount of
plastics such as plant tags, but on a busy spring morning when there are
lines of cars queueig up to ensure that their excess clippings go to
composting, what kind of idiot dumps half a dozen heavy duty black sacks
on the pile? And then, what moron ignores the signs and thinks that
since someone else did it it must be OK?

If they're just here to *dispose* of their hedge clippings and don't
care about the big recycling push why don't they back the car into one
of the 40 slots for general waste instrad of *queueing* for the green
waste only section? What right do two or three people per hour have to
sabotage the efforts of the other 80-100 who tried to do the right
thing?

Can I please be armed with a large branch next time I see a ****wit
polluting my local park's compost?

Warwick