Who puts weeds in their compost bin?

My compost bin is actually my green waste wheelie bin but with loads of holes drilled in it for ventilation. It means it gets warm enough in there to encourage anything that wants to grow to do so, but like in Spruce's case, no light means anything in there soon dies. That is of course except for the worms, woodlice, slugs, things with more legs than I can count, aliens (ok, probably not, but creatures I couldn't name) and spiders. Its like a bug metropolis in there. I actually enjoy opening the lid to add more stuff just to see all the activity in there.

 

What is strawberry weed? I did google it but the top results were for blends of an outlawed recreational herb flavoured with strawberry

 

I put everything on my compost heap. When I have time & inclination I put pernicious weed roots (Bindweed et al) in a bucket and cover with water for a fortnight, and then chuck the whole bucket on the compost heap. If the colour of the water is dark enough (i.e. there was enough plant material) I dilute the liquid and use it when hand watering things - there is goodness released in the steeping process (same as Nettle or Comfrey tea).

I tried to weed before plants get to flowering / seeding stage ... "try to" being the operative word!

My compost heap, in its rough rather than "really refined fine state" goes into the greenhouse borders in late Autumn (50:50 with rotted manure) and that is the "soil" for my greenhouse crops. The weed seed / roots etc. that want to grow have a go, but the temperature and dry surface in the greenhouse are a big deterrent to them, so (it seems to me) weeding is minimal and easy. The stuff that comes out of the borders at the end of the year, i.e. at the next "soil change", is lovely and fine - I use it to pot up Dahlias and Cannas for overwintering - so it then goes back into the beds when they get planted. Ditto Potatoes growing in bags/containers and so on.

I'm sure I ought to worry about it more ... but I've got too little time, too much weeding, and too big a compost heap to have the time to.

If it doubt, and you have time, drown it before putting it on the compost heap.

 

No weeds, and that includes Forget me Nots, Primula etc go in my compost. I'm struggling enough with these already without giving them a helping hand. They do go into the bags that I take to the tip though, so beware if you're buying commercial compost!!
I'm having a real pain with tomato seedlings germinating everywhere this year as I chuck all the duffers in the bin.
Found an avocado and a couple of mangos that had germinated when I emptied the Dalek composter a couple of weeks ago.

 

I think I may have been at cross-purposes, after reading other posts. I thought you meant the one the council collect, not a composting bin for the garden?

 

Everything here goes to the council to sort I've got two compost bins but until the thing with our adjacent land gets sorted (we currently rent it, long story...) I'm loathe to start composting just in case...

 

Weeds = Council.

Proper Garden Waste = Compost bin.

Simples.......

 

Hi, up until now I've been chucking everything in the dalek composters. Veg' waste from the house and everything from the garden. I've got lots of seedlings growing from the resulting compost so I am going to be a bit more particular about what I compost from now on. I might grow a couple of the seedlings on and see just what is growing.

Gazania

 

Last year I designated an area to empty seed pots in. If anything germinates there that looks interesting I prick it out and grow on. So far I have an unknown Salvia, a possible Lobelia, an Iris (I.chrysographs possibly) and probably several weeds!

 

I've been letting everything self-seeded grow-on in the herbaceous bed. Lots of the little seedlings looked interesting ... now they look like 99% Bindweed (from seed, so that's OK to remove), Forget-me-Nots (I wish they would be Get-Losts) and Sycamore seedlings.

After the Mast year, last year, I have an amazing crop of seedlings under a nice Purple form of Acer (big leaf one). I'm wondering if I should pot some up? They are all in the lawn, which makes it even more surprising that they have germinated ...

 

I love forget me nots. It's a shame some people see them as weeds. I can't seem to get mine going for some reason as I love the idea of having a carpet of blue flowers.

 

I only see them as weeds 'coz if you let them seed just the once they germinate with more than 100% viability and then strangle everything else :(

Its not as though my garden is on Grade I horticultural soil - far from it - but they are a menace here such that, pretty as they are, I cannot let even one go to seed as it will be a sea of murdering blue for the next 7 years or more :(