I have done something rather stupid. I have let goose grass grow up around the compost bins and run to seed, and now some of the seeds have ripened and fallen into two of the bins. I meant to clear it away before it got to the point of seeding, but failed to get round to it, and now I'll be spreading goose grass seeds with every barrow load of compost, just as I was starting to reduce the quantity that comes up each year in the back garden.
I suppose I let it get that far because tidying up around the compost bins is not very interesting, compared to working on the borders. And because there were always urgent things that needed doing in the beds, weeds that were about to seed, or plants I'd bought languishing in their pots and looking sicklier with every passing day, that needed planting out. And also because the compost bins are currently so difficult to get to.
They stand in a neat row, between the polytunnel (needs reskinning if we're going to grow anything in it, currently used as a wood store) and the bonfire site. During the wet spring a pile of damp material for the bonfire began to build up, that didn't look as though it would burn very easily. Also, once the first crop of lettuces were planted in the next door field, we only felt able to have a bonfire on a day when there was an easterly wind, so that soot from our fire wouldn't fall on the lettuces. Once the heatwave set in, the heap of things to burn (by then grown to gargantuan proportions) and the surrounding area rapidly dried out to the point where the Systems Administrator didn't dare set a match to it, in case polytunnel, hedges, fruit cage and the nearest shed went up in flames as well. So by now we have most of the year's output of woody prunings piled up in front of the compost bins. They are not totally inaccessible, and I have been wriggling my way in there with buckets of leafy trimmings from the garden, and the contents of the kitchen green waste caddy, to add them to the compost heap, but it has been slightly a case of out of sight, out of mind, when it came to the goose grass.
Well, I shall have my comeuppance now. All I can think of to do is to leave the bins unturned for now, and glyphosate off the goose grass seedlings as they emerge. That is not a very good solution, since I wanted to use the compost this winter. The affected bins hold relatively mature compost, and my normal routine would be to spread it on the beds at the end of this growing season, then move the contents of the other two bins into those I'd just emptied. Stirring compost around a few times during decomposition mixes in air, and breaks up any solid lumps of the same kind of material that might be too woody to rot properly, or very soft green waste that's gone slimy. In principal, material arrives in the left hand bin, and is turned and moved along the row, until it ends up at the right hand end as mulch ready to go on the borders. With two of the bins now contaminated with cleavers, the system is threatening to grind to a halt. Alternatively, I could use the compost as usual and be very vigilant with the weeding next year.
The bins may have failed in the short run to produce good quality soil improver, but have proved unexpectedly successful as propagation tools. The third bin from the left threw up numerous stems of a damp loving plant, Persicaria virginiana 'Painter's Palette', which I have had growing near the front of the bog bed for years. It has dark coloured variegated leaves, red stems and small white flowers, and makes an agreeable clump, with the purple flowers of Thalictrum rising above it. I have never noticed it set seed, and have not dug up and thrown away any roots. All I did last year was cut it down in autumn, and throw the prunings into the compost, where they succeeded in rooting. Given that they were not in compost, merely surrounded with other green waste collected at around the same time, and that they were never watered, that is quite an achievement. In fact, it makes me think that under some circumstance Persicaria virginiana could be a rather terrifying weed. I potted up four of the largest clumps, but had to admit to myself that I would never find a use for all of them.
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