What do you do with your dandelion plants you've pulled

[Darwin.]

I've only been growing veg for 3 years now and am a complete novice so I know almost nothing about it.

[alldigging]

Put them in a bag and leave them for a year or so.

[Thelma Sanders]

The lad in the garden centre said I can't mix them in with compost for planting veg or they'd burn the roots

It certainly can get composted if mixed in with other stuff, or used as mulch as already said.
I find if I fill up a dalek there's always some usable stuff in the bottom half of it by the next spring
I just put what isn't ready back in the bottom to continue the process.

[lettucegrow!]

I give them to my chooks, they love them. Did I read somewhere there are a natural wormer? Or have I made that up :/

[rustylady]

The lad in the garden centre said I can't mix them in with compost for planting veg or they'd burn the roots.

I had a very small garden at my last house and I nprmally put some grass in along with my veg waste. I never got to use it though because I was only there for two and a half years. I was told that every year your supposed to turn what's in your composter so the fresher stuff is on the bottom and the old stuff on top and that it would take years before you could actually use any compost from it.

I think you joined the Forum just at the right time Darwin. That lad at the garden centre is just trying to get you to spend money.

True, you can't or shouldn't mix fresh grass cuttings with Multipurpose compost for sowing seeds, but if you have an acre of ground you don't want to be buying MCP to plant veggies. They should be fine in the earth that you have, and you can improve that over time with the addition of home made compost.

[SarzWix]

I have a compost bin specifically for perennial weed roots;it's a darlek shape but has no door/hatch on the front and a very tight fitting lid, so no light gets in, and I have it sitting on old lino so it isn't touching the soil. I'm hopeful that after a couple of years in there most of it will be rotted down... Alternatively, some roots can be drowned to death in a deep bucket of water and would then be safe to compost.

[SarzWix]

And, totally agree with Rusty Lady and others; grass is great for mulching potato beds, and also composts well if it's mixed with dry stuff in layers, such as shredded paper. You can also buy stuff to mix with it like 'Complete Rot for Grass' from Wiggly Wigglers

[rabbit]

Drowning in water is not a bad idea, maybe salt water would really finish them off? Could rinse them before composting. Otherwise I'll sneak them into the rubbish bin.



darwin, I also have a lot of grass cuttings, they just go in a pile here but I'll be compsting them properly as well I can this year. The red worms LOVE it so I dont think it can be too acidic. I mulched a couple of plots with some very well rotting grass clippings in the autmn and boy was it hard work.

[taff]

Ah but my cats, and my neighbours cats are cold blooded killers and I think it would be a very sad frightened little creature. We had rabbits when I was a child though.

Ours was anything but. He was a male rabbit, every cat in the neighbourhood was scared of him.


I usually stick mine in a small bucket type thing especially for roots and grass roots, all the rubbish weeds and let it rot down over a year. Or i put them in a barrel of water to rot in there and make plant feed.

[Two_Sheds]

So I've been round and attacked the dandelions with a speedy weeder. It pulls out some of the roots

They'll regrow I'm afraid, unless you get the whole root out.

They go to my guinea pigs, they love dandies. If there are too many for the pigs, I put them in my bottles of comfrey tea, or in black sacks to rot down like leaf mould.

[marchogaeth]

They go to my guinea pigs, they love dandies. If there are too many for the pigs, I put them in my bottles of comfrey tea, or in black sacks to rot down like leaf mould.

Leaves to the bearded dragons and then roots and surplus leaves in coal sacks with all the other perennials, self closed by tipping upside down and then left to rot. Useful for holding down sheets of cardboard mulch.

[VirginVegGrower]

Darwin, get some chickens in that one acre and mix clippings with bedding/poop. Compost for your greenhouse, etc. feed the dandelions to the chickens - we do.

[VirginVegGrower]

I give them to my chooks, they love them. Did I read somewhere there are a natural wormer? Or have I made that up :/

Think it's not a wormer but a digestive cleanser, like oregano.

[rabbit]

They'll regrow I'm afraid, unless you get the whole root out.

They go to my guinea pigs, they love dandies. If there are too many for the pigs, I put them in my bottles of comfrey tea, or in black sacks to rot down like leaf mould.

That may well be but I'm thinking of it more as a repression than eradication. I don't see how it can be less beneficial than hoeing, appart from the nice little pellet of soil that comes out with it. Bagging it for a year then should kill them?

[zazen999]

I got a green cone from freecycle and put that at the lottie; it never gets emptied out as the worms carry it all through the bottom into the surrounding soil; so all my perennial weeds go in there. As do any blighted foliage.

http://www.originalorganics.co.uk/ca...-food-digester