Why are you calling this stuff "hazardous Waste"? I have to admit I don't really know what garlic mustard is. It sounds to me like you are searching for the quickest way to compost it down. It also sounds like you found the open air piles to be quickest but are concerned about the seeds being exposed to light and able to germinate. I would suggest you stick with the open air pile and cover over it with some sort of mulch material to shade those seeds. Something like leaves, wood chips, or straw might be good. It also sounds like you may need a little more moisture. Compost needs only be as damp as a wrung out sponge. Other options for bins that may work much better for you would be a circle of wire fencing or hardware cloth. That lets air and moisture in while keeping things contained. Make sure to line the sides and top of your pile with mulch material to cover those seeds you don't want germinating. Don't discount hot compost all together. It doesn't have to require constant turning or much special attention. It really just requires a good balance of Nitrogen and carbon material along with the right amount of air/moisture. It doesn't not have to be turned unless the components were not mixed to begin with. Turning really just speeds up the process but a continuous pile can be quite hot in the active area and what is below is just aging as nature intended. I have never turned compost (other than the slight mixing that happens when you add to a bin or the turning that happens when you empty a bin to apply to the garden.) Here is a link that might be useful: My Bins

The one good thing about garlic mustard is that it's really easy to pull. Just grab the stem low down, and tug firmly but gently. No taproot, so I'll take it over dandelions any day, but it is a pain, in that it gets everywhere. The darn plant can hide itself under other plants, and the first thing you know of its presence is a bunch of white flowers in entirely the wrong place! Then down on your knees to figure out where the intruder is hiding... Claire - thanks for the recipe link. That gave me a smile. I'm definitely going to have to give it a try. Maybe if it's good, I'll start cultivating garlic mustard and set up a pesto farm. I'm sure the neighbors will be delighted!

Thanks guys. I was panicking. I am relieved that I found out about this GM before the seed pods expoded. I am so MAD at whoever sold me these things. Maybe the guy will have a stand again this year and I can discuss this with him. What I did is cut the GM plant off with snippers and leave about 4" of stem and then sparayed the cut tips with Round-Up. I know that one should spray the leaves but I was afraid the seeds would ripen while I was waiting for the Round-Up to travel to the roots. This method worked for some Ivy that was growing all over the house when I bought it. I did do some reading before posting but wanted to gain some insight into anyone's 'real life' experience with eradicating GM. Most of the info I read was from .edu sites giving advice like on burning whole fields of the stuff or geredener's blogs whining how they can't get rid of GM ever. I set the GW stems with the pods on the hot sidewalk for a half a day but they didn't wilt or anything. I then sprayed them with R-U and bagged them in plastic and put them in my regular garbage instead of the 'yard waste' bin that the city picks up, because they dump that in a place were it composts and residents go there and shovel what they need out of there. I don't want to see any one get any of those seeds that I read can be dormant for 5-6 years and then sprout. I was being paranoid about the hostas I bought from the same place. As you can see from my profile I am somewhat of a 'hostaholic' although I believe in the 10' rule. The hosta forum and the cottage garden forum are my 'home base' here. The HVX virus has run panic thoughout the hosta community. I know what to look for, and usually isolate any new hosta, even those bought from "reputable" sources as it has been pointed out in the hosta forum, that even Monrovia has been sending out infected hostas. Even so, one could slip through and wipe out everything. But with these I bought from this place I put them in place right away. So far they look healthy and I think they are fine. I was thinking if this guy sold garlic mustard ignorantly, that he may have not been aware of the HVX virus and sold infected hostas. I did spray Round-Up on everything else I bought when I bought these GM. I don't trust any of those plants now. I wasn't happy with the way they looked anyway. They looked cute and bushy when I bought them in their pots, but this year they ended up being VINES snaking through my garden. I was thinking about moving them to a better spot for vines but I am not taking any chances with after this GM debacle.I don't know what they are but they are GONE. Gone. Gone. On a side note, two other experiences I had as a newbie gardener back when I first bought my house; I bought some seeds and planted them in front of a trellis, they were *bindweed*. They never went up the trellis but tangled themselves up in all my rose bushes (Ouch! Getting it out.). Thank god they didn't get into my lawn. And I bought a can of "wildflower" mix (Yeah, I know. I know.....) that had *yarrow* in it. That yarrow sent out runners and I had it all over my lawn. It took YEARS to get it under control. Thanks again for the quick response. I feel so stupid for even buying garlic mustard in the first place. I am sure somehwere, someone is reading my post and snickering at my naivety.

Hi Folks, I just wanted to throw in my $.02 on the subject of controlling Japanese Knotweed. This past week I spent two days removing the knotweed from hill along the side of my driveway. The infestation had been growing for about two years and spreading rapidly. In my case, the hillside that was covered in knotweed also had some plants that I wanted to save- some sugar maples, four varieties of ferns, and some viburnum, so using a foliar spray was out of the question. Instead, I used the "cut stem application" as outlined in this document: http://www.pullman-wa.gov/content/WYSIWYG/Recreation/Japanese%20knotweed.pdf The document recommends cutting the canes between the first and second node and filling the "well" with concentrated herbicide (I chose plain Glyophosphate, you choose your own poison). The document claims this method is 95% effective. Another method involves injecting the plant with herbicide using an injection tool. The upside to this method is that you don't need to dispose of the cut canes. In all, it took me just about two days to clear the hillside. I cut enough canes to completely fill my 8' truck bed two times. I'll keep an eye on the area for the next year or so in case any survivors pop up. -Josh-