When we acquired our third plot it came with a high blackberry hedge that hides the metal fence boundary. We keep it to deter casual visitors, to fill blackberry and apple crumbles and for the bird life, particularly the sparrows that like to chatter away to themselves amid its shelter. We also discovered that weeds and turf sods piled up there broke back down into soil faster than on a conventional heap.
But the hedge was also a 'quick and dirty' solution for less biodegradable material.
Clang! My border spade hit something. Botheration. Temporary postponement of the digging out of a new, hedge-sheltered bed. Grass, twigs and even bramble cuttings will eventually break down. Metal does not fit so easily into these categories.
The proper destination for any old iron, broken panes of glass, empty growbags, discarded plastic and other such detritus, is the skip. Our skip is by the brown bins waiting for the skip lorry. It is already full to overflowing.
I am pleased to say that after some digging I did manage to extricate the offending objects. Now I just need to concern myself with the white roots of couch grass, the yellow roots of stinging nettles and the invasive habits of the Russian Vine which festoons the bramble hedge with small white summer flowers.
Some things do not easily rot.
http://www.startuk.org/recycle.aspx may give you some ideas on where to recycle. As for the "Russian vine", the advice is "stump killing weed killer" which is not good if you are organic. Apparently controllable and better climbers (clematis armandis or jasmin officinale) obliterate" views better than the invsaive Vine which is still advertised by RHS inspite of the difficulty of getting rid of its roots. Thanks for alerting me to its perils.
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