Composting nightmare

Ok,
Here's a new "garden mistakes" Thread.
A few weeks ago I was walking around the garden and noticed something sprouting that looked like some kind of a squash. Since The only thing I had planted that big in that garden last year was zucchini and yellow crookneck I assumed that they must somehow be coming up volunteer, but the more I thought about it the more confused I became. I get very severe winters and I have never seen these things volunteer before, especially since I never let any of them mature.
As time went on I began seeing tons of them popping up all over, then corn began sprouting everywhere, and soon the weed-looking things turned into tomatillos.
Well, after alot of concentration I finally solved the mystery! Last fall I left some things out too long and the frost got to them. My irritated sweet husband threw them in the compost pile and I forgot about them entirely.
Well, when the weather warmed up the pile began to smell of course, so he asked me what to do about it. I told him to just go ahead and till the whole pile into the garden and it would add organics for us.
Well, of course it did and since the seeds weren't tilled in before the ground warmed up they are doing marvelously. I now have a forest of who-knows-what corn, a medley of monstrous variations of all kinds of winter squash and a jungle of tomatillos that I'm trying to clear so that I can start planting the things that I want this year.
I have wonderful soil, but a whole new slant on weeds!
HELP!!! :)

Oh, Birdie, I'm giggling so hard I can't hardly type. I'm sooooo sorry - it sounds like something I'd do. (Actually my first thought was a bad take-off on the old horror movies - revenge of the vegetables or something.) Well, I'll be sure to take care to not do the same thing.

A similar thing happened to me, except the seeds were polkweed and other terrible southern weeds. The compost had been sitting for years and was very nicely cured, so I just added it in to a large part of the garden.

The weeds were unbelievable. The bad news was that I had already planted my garden when the weeds started coming up, so I had to get in there and weed by hand.

If you haven't planted the garden yet, till those things under. A couple good tillings should rid you of 99% of the weeds.

Dave

I have a confession to make: I like pokeweed. I have allowed one to grow in one of my beds because I love the purple berries! ;o)

Yes, Gardenwife, I like polkweed, too, but don't you dare tell Trish!!! We fight the stuff daily.

Today we pulled three 26 gallon trash cans full of them out of our gardens.

But...

I have several growing around the perimeter of the property that I allow to grow. Several are 6 feet tall now. ;-)

Dave

Oh my gosh!!!!

GW- you can come and have all you want.

Dave- you better get rid of those things.....else that guest bed in your office is calling your name (wink)

Trish

Shoot, I was hoping Trish wouldn't see this thread. She must have heard somebody say "polk" and had to come investigate.

Dave

Pokeweed- is it only a thug in the south? Someone gave me a small plant of it a couple of weeks ago and swears it's well behaved. I'm in the PNW. It's still in a pot waiting to find a home-I'm now rethinking where home is. I'm already battling petasites and marestail- can't take another.
Liz

Ok, what in the heck is poke-weed?
I went out and braved the "pumpkin patch" weeds today and mourned the loss of all those beautiful healthy things. I'm re-introducing them to the compost pile...this time without seeds in them. :)
I wish I could have put up a sign for free plants, but the road construction in front of my house has turned everything into a maze. Oh well, live and learn.
The good news (and bad) is that all those old veggies made wonderful soil for me. I pulled up the healthiest veggies I've ever grown! It was tempting to just leave the mess, but I know that I would never have been able to pick anything with all that wild winter squash roaming around.
Besides, the corn that came up was left-overs from some un-known variety that I bought at a farmers market and the tomatoes were children of early girl and roma. I'm going strictly with heirlooms this year so that if that happens again I'll welcome the volunteers. It's hard to commit plant-0-cide.
I narrowed it down to the three healthiest looking tomatillos and pulled the other 400 plants up. I was so brave! I kept forcing myself to remember how many tomatillos one plant produces.
Well, I'm off to re-plant my tomatoes, corn and squash. Happy gardening to all!
Birdie

Birdie, it's a southern "green" or a weed depending on who you talk to - Dave or Trish :)

Here's a thread with some recipes. Note the cautionary statement about how to prepare them and the time of year to collect and eat them, if you're tempted to try them: http://davesgarden.com/showthread/33340.html

And there's even a song about poke salad, called Poke Salad Annie. The words are listed in a link within that particular thread. Ask Justmelisa to hum a few bars for us.....

The deep purple berries make wonderful indelable ink, I learned this when I was 5 years old, I understand it is also poisonus.

i had to look up 'tomatillos', i'd never heard of them before, what do they taste like? Would i be able to grow them here in the uk?

lil

Lilith, Tomatillos kind of have a lemony flavor. I'm sure that you could grow them anywhere. They are irreplaceable in things like green salsa and chili verde. If you would like some seeds email me and I'll send some along with some recipes for you.
Does anyone want to send me some weed seeds? (poke-weeds)
Thanks, Birdie

i've sent you an email birdie, id love to try these tomatillos as i love mexican food. the supermarkets here in the uk are getting better at making mexican food available to us, but mostly its pre-packaged. you can buy tortillas and things like that as i love making fajitas, but they'd be even more authentic with some better ingredients! The only jalepenos ive seen come pickled in jars. We can get loads of authentic indian food and ingredients, but not mexican!

You'll have to let me know how to grow the tomatillos, as i wouldn't have a clue! do you grow them on cordons like tomatoes? i have to confess when you said tomatillos i thought it was a slang for tomatoes that i hadn't heard before! hehee you learn something every day on here!

lil