[brownp]

Hi
I recently took over an allotment. The plot was a mixture of grass and weeds. I took advice and skimmed the top of the ground off rather than digging the weeds in. This has left a big pile of soil and vegetation. Am I better off putting this in the composter that I am about to make from pallets - or cover in plastic to rot down?
thanks
Phil

[pushrod]

As there will be loads of dormant and quite persistent seeds in there my preference would be to cover in plastic 

[Lardman]

It unlikely you've going to get a heap hot enough to kill off any weed seeds and you'll certainly not kill the perennial weeds. Although excluding light will help with the weaker ones.

Im not sure Id gone about clearing that way - how much of the top soil did you skim off ? Have you gone deep enough to remove the roots of things like dandelions and docs or have you just cut their heads off?

[brownp]

Hi
I used a turf cutter - so about an inch deep. As you say, I will have cut the top off dandelions etc. I was intending to now dig them out . My aim was to prepare beds for digging without digging the weeds in.

[Lardman]

Ahh you've just take then turf off ? Thought you might have scrapped off the the first 6inches of top soil with a JCB 

Stack the turf out of the way for 6months, cover with something to exclude the light you should end up with decent loam. I personally wouldn't waste compost bin space with it.

Much of what you have removed could probably have been turned in, but it is definitely easier to remove the ones that couldn't from soil rather than a mass of grass root 

[peterjf]

i would place your turfs in a compost heap , use it as the base to place the composting materials on top of , let the worms ect do their job ,