When I've had appletrees I've always left the unusable windfalls for the wildlife ... blackbirds, redwings, fieldfares and even field mice and hedgehogs need them.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Yes that's true. You can't choose what you feed though so the slugs and other enemies will use them too. Unless they're diseased in some way as this may get back to the apple tree next year.
I've already mentioned the best things to do with weeds and how they can slip by. But in addition to that I use the 'little and often' rule of weeding. This years weeds from the veg plots I could fit into my two hands now they've dried out. I don't let them get hold and rob the plants of vital nutrients, this means they're easy to pull and have no bulk. You can either spend 70 minutes on one day weeding, 140 minutes every two weeks, or just 10 minutes every day. The latter is much better IMO.
It is garden size and weather dependent of course, but you get the idea. Prevention better than cure.
I throw them in an old riddle on bricks where they dry out to the point there is barely anything left then they go on the fire. This can be the woodburning stove, the chimenea or a once a year small garden fire. The results of that then get thrown on the compost pile. You could if you wanted cut the root and put the green top in the compost, incinerate the root, but it's fiddly, everyone is different.
I haven’t got much space for a compost bin, but I’ll i’ve managed to fit in a hotbin
@TheVanguard I do recommend watching a few Beanie videos on best to use a Hotbin, esp the ones about cleaning it out. Nobody I have found goes into so much detail.
@Fire thanks for the link, I’ll be sure to watch them thank you.
I weed a bit each day and don't mind putting the seedlings in the compost. I meant the tuberous or deep tap-rooted ones specifically. I guess the answer is: add nothing that reproduces by roots. For example, I once dug out a greenbrier tuber that was about 28" wide. Even I wasn't simple enough to consider putting that in the compost.
I'll have to get some insulation for my bin. I used closed storage bins previously and everything just got wet and stinky, so I thought air circulation was the missing factor. I'm still afraid to put my weeds in there, as many are tuberous or tap-rooted perennials. Does anyone have problems with those regrowing, even with good hot temps in your pile?
I’m not really a Dowding fan. He is over proselytising and doesn’t deal with real world problems most of us face, like bindweed.
I don’t add weeds to my bins.
If your bins and stinky I don’t think air circulation is the problem. You need more dry browns to even out the greens. And turn the whole more often. Closed bins will holding in the heat.
I’m back to digging out ground elder, the poison only took the leaves, the thick white juicy roots are still there, got a wheelbarrow full just in one afternoon, from a fraction of the bed! these really don’t go on our compost, or creeping buttercups or couch grass. apart from that, most things go on there. I don’t put tomato pips in there, fed up with them in the borders.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
I started my first compost bin a few weeks ago. What do you do if there isn't enough green material? I seem to have lots of dried stuff available (due to the weather) but the grass hasn't been growing, so I'm really lacking anything wet and green.
If I'm short of green I save the browns and add it gradually when I have enough green. Fruit and veg peelings etc from the kitchen count as greens even if they're not green in colour (citrus peel/pith, banana skins, potato and carrot peelings etc).
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Cabbage leaves, lettuce leaves, carrot tops, veg peelings of all sorts. And then it’s not long to go before the courgette, squash and bean plants are finished … so chop it up and layer all that into the compost bin … you’ll have to take stuff out and then layer it back with the green stuff.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
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Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Unless they're diseased in some way as this may get back to the apple tree next year.
This years weeds from the veg plots I could fit into my two hands now they've dried out.
I don't let them get hold and rob the plants of vital nutrients, this means they're easy to pull and have no bulk.
You can either spend 70 minutes on one day weeding, 140 minutes every two weeks, or just 10 minutes every day.
The latter is much better IMO.
It is garden size and weather dependent of course, but you get the idea.
Prevention better than cure.
I throw them in an old riddle on bricks where they dry out to the point there is barely anything left then they go on the fire. This can be the woodburning stove, the chimenea or a once a year small garden fire.
The results of that then get thrown on the compost pile.
You could if you wanted cut the root and put the green top in the compost, incinerate the root, but it's fiddly, everyone is different.
apart from that, most things go on there. I don’t put tomato pips in there, fed up with them in the borders.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.