How to Dispose of Weeds

While composting kitchen and garden scraps is a great way to dispose of waste and create beneficial, nutrient-rich soil for your garden, not all scraps are created equal! Unless you want to fertilize your vegetable garden with weeds, you’d better find a better way to get rid of them. Here are a few tips to make sure your disposed weeds don’t come back to haunt you.

Instructions

1. Clip the weed tops before they fully go to seed or sprout flowers.

2. Mulch over the weeds with environmentally-friendly materials, such as newspaper, untreated bark or gravel.

3. Rake them into a black plastic bag. Leave this bag in the sun for several weeks to ensure that the weeds are completely dead and dehydrated. Then dispose of them in your garbage.

4. Burn the weeds in a large bonfire until they are completely incinerated.

5. If you are disposing of large weed limbs, wrap them thoroughly in a tarp before you relocate them to ensure that their seeds to not spread across the property.

Tips & Warnings

• Check local ordinances regarding weed disposal.

• Always cover any container filled with weeds before relocating it, as many weeds can spawn seeds that will infiltrate areas where the native plant species may be vulnerable.