weed digesters

With the arrival of warmer weather, every plant springs up including weeds like thistles. The previous owners told us to get on top of these by going around spraying them. The farm fences were maintained by ample doses of monsanto stuff. We are not interested in 'certified' organic or anything fundamentalist, but we don't particularly want to use chemical stuff if there is an alternative that is less damaging and more useful. After all, with phosphorus peaking, it will not be long before we cannot afford Roundup anyway.



Weeds are telling us what the soil is lacking and nature is trying to fix that deficiency. Thistles for example appear where copper is lacking. So, what can we do? The conventional way of going to the shop and buying weed killer and copper is not an option for resource constrained households like ours.
Instead, we go out to the paddock with a breadknife and a bucket and collect the thistles. Then we fill the containers and pour water. In a couple of months the dreaded thistles will all disintegrate into liquid fertiliser full of copper. We dilute it to about one to ten and spread it.



In the days of energy descent, we have to use whatever we have to hand including weeds. We have got three bins now but we may need a few more of these weed digesters to fully make use of these abundant resources.