My heaps don't heat up these days, chiefly cos they all belong to someone else and they either have their own ideas about what they want done or their garden doesn't produce enough stuff.
Mine seem to be mostly ragged robin, nigella, aquilegia and euphorbia all of which I like which is why they got to the seed stage at all. At least i won't need to buy many gap fillers next year!
The trick to avoiding problems with pernicious weeds surviving in the compost heap is to leave them to dry out and die before adding them. I do this with creeping buttercup, dandelions and the green parts of bindweed.
Anything containing bindweed roots or horsetail goes on a heap to be burned.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
I just pick the flower heads off dandelions whenever I see them. This seems to keep them under control - well enough for me anyway! But then I'm not the world's most particular gardener
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I chuck everything in mine except bindweed and ground elder and I've never had a real problem with seeds germinating.
Even dandelion and dock roots, Hosta?
yup. If there's enough heat , they die.
I've been doing it for about 30 years. If the roots still look anything like fresh, they go back in to Bin 1
True 'nuff.
My heaps don't heat up these days, chiefly cos they all belong to someone else and they either have their own ideas about what they want done or their garden doesn't produce enough stuff.
Mine seem to be mostly ragged robin, nigella, aquilegia and euphorbia all of which I like which is why they got to the seed stage at all. At least i won't need to buy many gap fillers next year!
The trick to avoiding problems with pernicious weeds surviving in the compost heap is to leave them to dry out and die before adding them. I do this with creeping buttercup, dandelions and the green parts of bindweed.
Anything containing bindweed roots or horsetail goes on a heap to be burned.
Somebody (probably Bob Flowerdew) is reputed to have left a dandelion root nailed to his shed door for two years. He then planted it, and it grew.
Creeping buttercup and bindweed shoots are a lot less resilient.
The less said about horsetail the better!
I just pick the flower heads off dandelions whenever I see them. This seems to keep them under control - well enough for me anyway! But then I'm not the world's most particular gardener