Marcus Alonso

I finally got around to baling some of those weeds recently. First I built a hand-powered baler. Then I learned how to use it. The fitst bales didn't come out well, but I persisted and the latter bales improved a lot. It's extremely strenuous work because the weeds must be broken down to fit in the baler due to their length. I wouldn't recommend it. I plan on adding coffee grounds and water to speed up decomposition. And maybe planting something in them like people do with straw bale gardening. I've attached pictures of the baler, pile and bales.

Thanks for the great suggestions everyone. I'm especially intrigued by the biochar idea. I think maybe I'll try both the biochar and some bales. I have enough material to probably fill a dozen 50 gallon garbage cans compressed. The pile I have now is only a fraction of what I need to process and it would probably fill 3 or 4 cans. I would need a whole lot of kitchen scraps/wet material to mix with these prolific weeds. I have also tried shredding them, but the fibers wrap around the blades of my wimpy electric shredder and jam it.

Also, thanks for reminding me about the fire danger of bales. I'll keep them away from any structures.

Hello,

This is my first post and I'm a total rookie when it comes to gardening. I have a lot of large, dry, fibrous weeds on my property that I'd like to break down to put the organic matter back into my soil, if I can call it that, it's pretty devoid of life. I've tried making a large pile and waiting for natural processes to take over, but it hasn't really worked. The weeds have a lot of structure and don't compress. They dry out quickly. I've tried cutting them up, but it's laborious and hasn't helped much. The pile is more compact but remains dry. I've noticed straw bales retain moisture well and I assume break down rapidly. This, despite straw drying quickly when not compressed into bails. I'm thinking of bailing the weeds and soaking the bails to get them to break down faster. I'm low-tech and would likely use a garbage can and some twine. So, the weeds wouldn't be as compressed as hay baled by machines. The weeds also have a lot of seeds. I'm not worried about spreading them. Nature already does that extremely well already. Does anyone have experience with this or recommendations? All feedback is appreciated.

Thanks