What do I do with all the unwanted junk?

Basically I'm about to start sorting out this mess of a garden I have. Ideally I want it done for the summer for bbqs, sunbathing and the like.

At the moment I'm not too ambitious about having an award winning garden, I just want somewhere pleasant to sit outside.

Buuuut my gardens really overgrown with weed's and stuff. What do I do with all the weeds? Is there somewhere I'm supposed to take them? I can't even imagine how much there is going to be.

Sorry if this is a stupid question, I've never done anything like this before

 

[size=medium]Hello Clare and welcome to Gardeners Corner.
Where do you live ?
Most Councils run a garden refuse collection system. They provide a wheelie bin and have regular collections for it.
They also have recycling points where you can take your garden refuse if you can manage that.
Check with your Council. Our Council is very good and they compost the refuse and we can collect it for free.
If you have a discreet corner in your garden that you are not anxious to use straight away you could dump some of your grass and stuff there in a heap and let it compost down for next year.
I hope you manage to get a nice place organised for sitting out this year.
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My garden rubbish either goes.
In the compost bin
In the council recycle bin
Or to the tip.
Depending how much I have or what it is.
Most goes in the compost .
I shred it and it composts down in no time.
It's amazing how a great green pile can rot down to almost nothing.

 

I would put all the plant material in a compost heap - free resource once it has rotted down, and it will reduce to 20% of its original size - so even if the initial pile is large it will be a lot smaller by the time you are Sunbathing and BBQ-ing! - and it will be a free resource for next year to enrich your soil and set you on the road to your award winning garden

Try to keep any pernicious weeds' roots out of the compost heat - putting them in a bucket of water for several weeks will kill them, then they can go on the compsot heap (but unless you are digging you won't have any of them :thumb: ) and try to keep weed seeds out too, but realistically that usually isn't possible until your garden is under control and the weeds are not allowed to get big enough to make seeds, so I wouldn't worry about it in the first year

Our Council charges extra for a "Brown bin" into which you can put plant material. Or we can take plant material to the tip (for free)

A lot of councils used to have special offers in composting bins - haven;t seen the offers about recently, but you might be lucky with your council - the most common sort they do is a Black Dalek looking plastic tub, with a lid. But you could buy a snazzy one if you are "flush"

P.S> I may have been wrong about "no special offers at present" - just did a Google and this came up, bung in your postcode and see what it says - mine are offering Daleks for 14 quid each

http://www.getcomposting.com/

This may be handy too:
http://www.recyclenow.com/home_composting/

 

Thanks everyone for the advice, I never knew you could take garden waste to the tip.

I'm going to put whatever I can into compost, and the rest I guess I'm going to have to take to the tip.

Though judging by the weather here the last few weeks I'm not sure there's much point!

 

Was looking in a magazine in the doctor's surgery yesterday and spotted this website being suggested anyjunk.co.uk. To get prices, click on the size of your load and the location and you get a table of prices. Minimum seems to be about £66 but it includes "two people loading materials from anywhere on the premises, a thorough sweep-up, and all disposal and recycling fees" so it seems to me to be a pretty fair charge.

 

What a fantastic business idea. I really wish I'd thought of this. Apart from being paid to collect the rubbish, I bet they also sort it and sell a good proportion of it. Fair play to them.

 

Gimme a few acres of land that I can call a tip with planning permission and I bet I can make a damn good living out of the stuff people dump.

A pal of mine runs a removals business...Whenever he moves somebody he asks permission to clear anything left over.It's incredible what people leave in their homes,garages and sheds.
He stands a car boot every Sunday and makes a bomb....and all his stock is free...

 

Did you ever see the Antiques Roadshow where that woman and her son (Steptoe and Son lookalikes!) brought some things they'd found in their collections which turned out to be a diamond necklace and a diamond studded watch worth thousands? True!