So you’ve just spent a cool spring morning pulling up fresh, nitrogen-rich weeds in your garden and yard. Should you head for the green waste can on the side yard, or toss the weeds into your compost pile?
The issue of whether or not to add weeds to a compost pile comes up frequently. I’m not being coy when I say that there’s honestly no right or wrong answer. It’s more a question of timing as well as the type of weed you have in your hand.
I can only tell you why you might and why you might not, and what I do with my weeds. I do add weeds to my hot compost pile, but most of the ones I put in there have not gone to seed. I try to pull the weeds up before they have any seed heads, and it’s all good as far as I’m concerned (I’m determined to have their short, weedy lives have some meaning).
If one or two weeds with seeds get in there, I don’t stress about it because, for the most part, hot piles fry the little seeds to death before they can rear their ugly heads again. That said, I won’t throw any weeds into my cold pile that have gone to seed. That’s just asking for trouble.
Keep in mind that some weeds propagate themselves from their rootstocks or even from pieces of root. One way to prevent this type of weed from procreating is to pull the weed and lay it on the open ground in the sun. This lets the roots dry out completely until they’re all dried out—that is, quite dead. At this point when it’s thrown onto the compost pile, it’s as a brown instead of a green.
Fine Gardening Recommended Products
Plant Covers Freeze Protection 10 ft x 30 ft Floating Row Cover 0.9oz/yd²
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Lightweight and Breathable MATERIAL Good for protecting Plant: the plant frost cover material is 0.74 oz/sq non-woven polypropylene fabric, which is lightweight, breathable, and durable. The plant blanket frost protection allows sunlight reach the plants, perfect for protecting plants from the damage of freeze or frost. Wide Application In your Garden Work. The plant row cover not only can work as a barrier against frost, but also can be a great tool for germination and good for rapid seedling growth. By using the fabric plant covers over your plant, you can start the plant earlier in the spring and extending the growing season of your plants. How to Use the Plant Covers: you can cover the plant covers for freeze over your the plants loosely directly and then secure the plant frost blanket with soil, stones or staples. You can also support the floating row covers with a hoop, make enough room for plants to breath and grow. You could also cut the plant covers into different sizes for different purposes.
Bonide Captain Jack's Neem Oil, 32 oz Ready-to-Use Spray, Multi-Purpose Fungicide, Insecticide and Miticide for Organic Gardening
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MULTI-PURPOSE BUG KILLER—Bonide Neem Oil is a perfect pest control solution for any garden dealing with mites, flies, mildew, and more. This product is a three-in-one fungicide, miticide, and insecticide. READY TO USE—This product is conveniently ready to use when it arrives. The spray nozzle makes this product easy to deploy and can even be used up to the day of harvest. KILLS ALL STAGES OF INSECTS—Bonide's 3-in-1 Neem Oil is great because it kills the egg, larvae, and adult stages of insects while also preventing the fungal attack of plant tissues. DORMANT SPRAY—In addition to being useful for ridding your garden of insects and other pests, this Neem oil makes a great dormant spray to help protect your plants throughout all seasons. ORGANIC GARDENING—Derived from the Neem seed, our product is great for use on roses, flowers, vegetables, fruits, herbs, indoor houseplants, trees and shrubs. It's approved for organic gardening.
Corona® Multi-Purpose Metal Mini Garden Shovel
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Longer Service Life: The blade of this round small shovel is made of carbon steel, which can effectively improve the hardness by high temperature quenching, and the surface has anti-rust coating to avoid rusting. In the process of use when encountering hard objects will not bend and deformation.
Sturdy Structure: The small garden shovel with D-handle, ergonomically designed grip can increase the grip of the hand when using, the handle is made of strong fiberglass, will not bend and break under heavy pressure. Quick Digging: Well-made digging shovel has a sharp blade, and the round shovel head is designed to easily penetrate the soil and cut quickly while digging to enhance your work efficiency.
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