[swaine]

I've got a new plot of land ( 35' x 6') to cultivate. Its been cultivated before and the soil is light and friable. So far so good.

But... there are a lot of heavy duty weeds in there, mainly couch grass and dandelions. Its quite easy to dig them out because of the light soil, but I'll soon have a large pile of these weeds. probably about 30 barrowloads or so.
Whats the best way to "compost" them?

I can't burn them. Is it best just to leave them in a pile to eventually rot down? or is it a case of once you've got a pile of this type of weed, you're stuck with it?

Any advice out there?

[Kleftiwallah]

Pile 'em up, cover 'em up and forget about 'em.  Exclude all light and moisture and eventually they will croak.     Cheers,     Tony.

[moose]

I have a water butt for those type of weeds, chuck them in cover and leave for six months. The liquid can be used and the weeds go on the compost. I would not however get 30 barrow loads into one waterbutt!

[snowdrops]

You could put them in some black plastic bags,tie the tops & stack in an out of the way spot for a year.They should be well & truly dead by then.

[gavinjconway]

and very rotten and smelly.. easier to just pile them up and they will die - eventually!!

[Yorkie]

I find that couch and dandelions do not compost properly as the heap does not get hot enough.  I put them in my green wheelie bin at home.

[sunshineband]

We have a collection from our site of this kind of 'indestructable', and it all goes ino the hot composter that the council runs.

Jolly useful too

[daybreak]

like you I have a new allotment and a huge pile of weeds that can't be burnt, fortunatly who ever had the allotment before me had started to dig a rather large pond, totally in the wrong place for me so I've moved the rockery stone, removed the liner and chucked all the weeds in. The weeds filled the hole to ground level so just  recovered it with the pond liner and will top up with soil as the weeds rot down.

[gavinjconway]

You say you cant burn them... what reason?

[Growster...]

I find that couch and dandelions do not compost properly as the heap does not get hot enough.  I put them in my green wheelie bin at home.

That really is the problem here, because these weeds will hang on for a long time with the slightest encouragement!

Luckily, we have a communal 'heap' on an abandoned plot, where we can get rid of such items, but the council don't clear it like they used to...

[bigben]

Last year I dug out and bagged up loads of bindweed. The plan was to take the bags home and bin them but it did not happen - the bind weed grew out of the bags quite happily. If you cannot burn them then bag them up but then cover the bags if you plan on leaving them. I think couch grass will be less of a problem.

[Headgardener22]

Like Kleftiwallah I would suggest you just cover them up, exclude light and water and they should die.

Have you the space to make this a separate compost heap so that you can leave it for a couple of years? I've found that even with a relatively cold compost heap these weeds will go away after three years.

[Yorkie]

Like Kleftiwallah I would suggest you just cover them up, exclude light and water and they should die.

Have you the space to make this a separate compost heap so that you can leave it for a couple of years? I've found that even with a relatively cold compost heap these weeds will go away after three years.

That would possibly have worked on my plot if I'd had the space - but I only had a half plot and I managed to fill quite a few green wheelie bins with the weeds from my efforts!  It takes a lot of space to dedicate compost bins for a 3-year stretch.

[mumofstig]

In my experience, they do not 'go away' in a compost heap............the blasted things make roots that go down and escape from the bottom 

Bag it up and either put it out for the dustmen, one bag at a time so they don't notice
or take it to the local tip

[Headgardener22]

I suppose it all depends upon the allotment. My compost bins are well away from the vegetable beds, with a couple of apple trees between. So I have space that I have to mow which stops the weeds working into the vegetables. I have also got space for three pretty big compost bins so I tend to leave compost for several years.