death to COUCH grass, advice please

Hello allotmenteers, can you help? around 3/4 of my 1/2 plot is covered in the blinkin' stuff.

I'm not sure what i'm supposed to do with it once i've dug it up - i mean there's going to be a huge great big pile of it, where should it go?  :?

I was thinking to cover it up with some blackout material for a year or so and kill it off, but i don't know where! Any advice greatly appreciated.

i'd love to, i hate the stuff. Seems a bit of a waste though - there's surely loads of nutrients in it?

ah thanks but ( i should have stated in first post) i'm vehemently anti-any kind of chemicals. Each to their own i know, and it'd prob be much easier if i did, but i love hard work (ahem)

I think we're missing the point that billiejo wants to know what to do with it AFTER it's been dug up.

This advice from Trillium in 2007...

Quote from: "Ray"

Can you drown couch grass? - Just wondered if there might be some good from all this rain?

Yes, in a bucket of water and weighed down. Leave for a few months to mush down and it makes a rich liquid fertilizer. See Bob Flowerdew's No Work Garden book, pg 47. Don't bother leaving it on any ground surface as the dratted stuff will simply turn its roots downward and start afresh. Have had it happen with couch, bindweed and dandelion until I started the bucket method. Good way to recycle unwanteds  

You may need a big bucket though!

bring it home and put in brown bin?

These days, I tend to put mine in a friend's garden waste wheelie bin, or take it to the tip (green waste).

Originally I piled it into a huge pile but it never seemed to rot down, and is now covered with couch grass itself.  I may get round to tackling it this season if I run out of other things to do.

The bucket suggestion is a good idea, but not really practical if you have that much of the stuff - you do want some space left on the plot to grow veg, after all  :?

I burn mine too, tried composting the stuff but it always starts shooting away

Thick black rubble sacks with the tops folded over to keep light out. If you've really got masses of it a green dalek devoted to it might be better, they are really light proof.