Composting Dilemma

Everyone says, 'Don't put seeding weeds or perennial roots on the compost heap.', 'One year's seed is another year's seed' and so on. That's all very well. But when you take over an overgrown allotment in July it is all flowering annuals and rampant perennials. It goes against my grain to dump a huge quantity of organic matter so everything was composted and then I made valiant attempts to get the heaps up to the necessary temperature to kill weed seeds but could manage about 40C at the hottest - not hot enough. I now have a nice quantity of compost coming on but is it a time bomb?

I see my allotment neighbours carting off bags of 'waste', presumably to be dumped in landfill, including potato shaws (may perpetuate blight), annual weeds (may have seeds), perennial roots (may survive composting to emerge triffid-like next year). Well they may be right but my instinct is to hang on to all the organic matter you can get. Dealing with the consequences of seed-rich compost may be hard work but at least it should make me look after my plot so that I'm top of the weeding. I'll just settle down to my seven years' penance and get the pleasure of pain in good, old Scottish Calvinist style!


In the foreground is the tip of my weed mountain prior to building a heap.