There are certain things that don’t belong in the garden compost including branches, hedge trimmings, anything coniferous and weeds. Okay, so weeds usually do end up in the back yard compost. At this time of year we have such huge quantities of hedge trimmings and branches that we have holding bins for storage and as soon as the garbage guy picks up our yard waste, we refill the bin.

Last year, I did all my hedge trimming during the sunny days of September and left it all in an enormous pile. Lesson learned: very bad idea! All those leaves and branches get mouldy and start to rot, and the pile gets full of dirt and slugs. This year I am cutting down the front hedges gradually, only enough to fill the bin every two weeks.