Thanks, fingers crossed. I threw a couple of clods into my compost bin as some say add soil to it but when it came to turning the compost and taking out some almost ready stuff the clods were still fairly intact so that didn’t work.
If the grass was well scalped before lifting , that helps. It would need to be in a separate plie or bin from the compost bin. I lifted all of my grass a year ago, and it's in one of the bins, plus some in another crate, and some was used to infill gaps in borders, or in behind large shrubs etc. I haven't looked at it for months, but I don't expect it to have broken down. If it's in a bed or border at around 8 to 12 inches in depth, it will rot down there too. I use turves in the base of larger pots too. It won't rot over the course of the season the plants are in them though, but it can usually be used in various spots without the grass re appearing.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I have just used the top soil made from the turfs lifted from the garden here. The mound was made 2 years ago from all sorts of weed infested stuff. Covered over with black plastic, the stuff has broken down into nice, friable, still clay soil. There will still be celandines in it no doubt, but everything else seems to have gone. Been doing this with turf for the last 30 years and never had any trouble making them into decent soil. Completely covered and essentially DRY, seems to work for me.
I didn’t understand the need for it to be dry, thought it needed wetness like compost, but it makes sense. I’ll do that now. Good to hear @Palustris and good idea about plant pot trick @Fairygirl
Be interested to hear if anyone has any successful ways to break it down permanently.
I throw all my weeds, couch grass, dandelions etc into my compost heaps, they sometimes get warm but not always, once they are full I cover them to exclude light and let them sit for a year, I don't find any of the weeds survive that.
I find bashing large rooted weeds, like docks and dandelions, with a hammer or back of an axe, destroys them. If it's not too much of a faff, would boiling couch roots do the same?
The dryness is to dessicate the roots of anything like couch. The turfs are not decomposing in the same way as compost. The idea is for the fibrous roots in them to lose their cohesion and for the soil to break away. The roots do rot away, but slowly once they are free from the soil. Not easy to explain really, but as I have said, we have managed it at various times over the last 25 years or so.
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I lifted all of my grass a year ago, and it's in one of the bins, plus some in another crate, and some was used to infill gaps in borders, or in behind large shrubs etc. I haven't looked at it for months, but I don't expect it to have broken down.
If it's in a bed or border at around 8 to 12 inches in depth, it will rot down there too.
I use turves in the base of larger pots too. It won't rot over the course of the season the plants are in them though, but it can usually be used in various spots without the grass re appearing.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...