I have neglected my garden this year and when I went to work in it, to get ready to plant rye grass in the fall, I found it is an impossible jungle of very large weeds. So I got busy with a shovel and now I have a large pile of weeds from only a few square feet of earth, and I want a quick way to reduce it, seeds, roots and all, so that it will be available to the rye as nutrients. (As you know, if I spade in the rye in the spring, when it first grows, it will not grow again, being an annual; and so I can plant my regular garden favorite vegetables without worrying too much about weeds.)

I don't want to double dig and bury the weeds deeply this fall. Too much hard work. It's a pretty big garden.

Composting would be just too slow, and burning too destructive. I don't use chemical fertilizers.

So I was wondering if I used quicklime on the pile. It's calcium oxide, so when you add water it gets very hot and would kill the roots and seeds. And it reduces to slaked lime (calcium hydroxide CaOH2) which is pretty harmless, especially when spread around and covered with a little soil. And if I watch the pH, testing from time to time, it should be positively beneficial -- as long as I don't grow potatoes!

Or am I forgetting something?

Anyone ever do this?

Babs...my gardening expert here tells me that he would go with the dolamite lime instead, would just need more frequent watering.

Would take twice as long but would be safer for the soil.

I think Giz and her gardening expert are talking about using dolomitic lime (as opposed to slaked lime) on the garden itself. Babs is talking about using quicklime to destroy the pile of debris from the old crop, and then using the slaked lime on the garden as fertilizer (to sweeten acid soil). I'm no authority but I think this is a case of misunderstanding the question???

Yes, you're right, Frankvan sweetie. There's a strong exothermic reaction when you add water to quicklime, and that would reduce the weeds to slurry so they wouldn't just re-grow right away as they would if I just turned them over. Only double-digging would prevent that. (As you know, double digging involves piling up the sod from the first digging, then digging a further layer of soil, then laying the first layer of sod green-side-down in the trench so created, and putting the loose dirt over the sod. )

But I'm not aware dolomitic lime reacts exothermically. I've never used it. Does it?

I'm only familiar with dolomite as a flux used in the steel industry, and dolomitic lime in use as a fertilizer. Exothermic, endothermic, or even tempered ? I've already exhausted my knowledge of chemistry; sorry.

I'm sorry, I must have misinterpreted it when I asked MY gardening expert

Don't be sorry, I can't find out if dolomite is exothermic when you pile water on it. My neighvor has some, I'll check.