RECYCLING YOUR WEEDS

Every garden grows weeds.

These “plants in the wrong place” absorb nutrients and water from you soil, valuable resources that you do not want to loose.

Most weeds can be composted in a normal home compost bin and it will be quite safe to use the compost in your garden without a forest of weeds coming up.

Annual weeds that quickly germinate in bare soil, like groundsel, chickweed and bittercress, will not grow again when you add them to your compost bin. The heat in the bin and being covered with kitchen and garden waste, especially lawn mowings, will quickly kill even the roots.
If the little weeds have set seed you will need to cover them with at least 20cm of grass mowings so that enough heat is generated in your compost bin to kill the seeds.

The roots of perennial weeds like dandelions, docks, nettles, buttercups and ground elder take 2 years to rot down in a home compost bin before they are dead. These roots should only be added to a New Zealand Box that is going to be left to rot down for at least 2 years. You can also have a plastic compost bin to which you add only perennial weeds, and maybe grass clippings. Once full you can let this rot down for 2 years to make good, weed-free compost.
The leafy parts and stems of perennial weeds rot down quickly and can be added to any compost bin.

Always cover weeds when you add them to your home compost bin. In the dark they cannot try to regrow.

You can make a liquid feed from your weeds.
This is a good way to deal with the roots of perennial weeds that should not be put in a home compost bin.
Put the roots, or the whole weeds, in a bucket, as large as you like. Cover them with water and weigh down the mass of weeds with a stone so that they are at least 10cm below the surface of the water.
Leave for one month.
The weeds will then be drowned and the slimy mess can safely be added to your compost bin. The liquid will be smelly but contain lots of nutrients, use it as a liquid feed, diluting it 5 : 1 with water.

So weeds are not all bad: they make good compost and a liquid feed.
You can even eat some of them. Go to spinach etc for recipes.