What shouldn't go in your compost bin?

Finger's crossed I've rid of our ground elder after 3 years. Luckily it's in a small area and I found it early so it didn't spread very far.

Finger's crossed I've rid of our ground elder after 3 years. Luckily it's in a small area and I found it early so it didn't spread very far.

It was a forest when I came here. I'd never seen it before. I new as soon as I started in with the fork that the mass of roots wasn't good.

The garden is too big for me really. I spent all day today on one border. Digging it out, feeding the roses and adding manure. I was going to plant in my hardy annuals but run out of time.

I have several dialeks and I've recently filled up one mainly with weed roots. Lots of couch, docks, dandelions, nettles and buttercups but nothing anywhere near flowering. I didn't think it would be of interest to rodents but last time I put some in I noticed a mouse had been gnawing a dock root. It will likely be some time before it is compost but I'm not in a hurry for it. when I eventually come to ue it, I will probably spread it thinly so if any roots are still alive, they can be picked out and put back in with new stuff.

I wonder how many of us have ground elder?

It regrows from just a tiny broken root.
I went to wisley a few years back and they had a trial bed where they were trying to eradicate by removing all lands and using weed killer. I didn't go back last year so I don't know what happened to it.

I would be too worried to put it in the compost. I have one bed I weeded today, it has a few leaves of it every time I look there. The issue is that the roots are coming through an old drystone wall. So I can never dig the roots out.

I have two questions to ask regarding this thread
1/ is the green johanna hot composer as good or better than the Hotbin Composter
2/ would a paraffin weed burner be hot enough to kill off the roots of ground elder and couch grass, as it is pressurised it pushes out quite a high temperature

Spec, Re 1 - you might be better asking that on the Hotbins thread as there are comments on there about both bins https://gardenandgossip.org/showthread.p...48&page=10 although nothing about "green johanna the hot composer".

Thanks Veggie reading that, is like music to me ears

I have two questions to ask regarding this thread
1/ is the green johanna hot composer as good or better than the Hotbin Composter
2/ would a paraffin weed burner be hot enough to kill off the roots of ground elder and couch grass, as it is pressurised it pushes out quite a high temperature

I've never used a weed burner but I don't believe it would be worth doing. The amount of roots that I dig up from a border is pretty large. They are very thicvk and I can easily fill a when barrow in half an hour. Maybe if my border were smaller and I got to them every week but I can't hand dig the whole garden weekly. It grows back quite fast.

Why don't you get a bigger wheelbarrow