Hello! New to composting and just moved to a new area as well. Have been doing a lot of yard work and was wondering if this type of plant material would compost, and if so, if it would take a very long time. I don’t live in an area that has a lot of disposal options for yard waste, and I’m trying to avoid just throwing it out with the weekly garbage. Using it in our bonfires could be an option, but I’m concerned it would take a long time for the plant material to dry out/die, and some of what is in there is nightshade, which I don’t know if that is safe to burn. Would appreciate any advice 🙂
by liaswanson
9 Comments
Someday …
It will compost but the smaller you chop it down, the faster it will.
The leaves will compost quickly, in like a week or two. The branches will take a long time. I have a small electric wood chipper for exactly this kind of job, works great.
You need browns like leafs, saw dust/shavings brown bags, shredded cardboard
Those tree branches and/or saplings will take a very long time to break down completely if you don’t chop them up somehow.
(I run my lawnmover over ’em a few times until they’re more manageable.)
If you have access to a chipper that would be ideaI, but they’ll still take a while to beak down. I normally strip the leaves and twigs off to compost and let the branches dry out and use them to make charcoal (which you can add to your compost pile to make biochar)
I get a lot of this. Personally I compost the leaves and put the branches in my city’s weekly yard waste removal.
I would burn the sticks first. Or wood chip em
Sticks are not the enemy of compost as long as you don’t put them in. Wood has its own “clean up” crew. If you put them together they will get to eventually but if you keep them separate with what benefits each prioritized then they will compost much faster.
Personally, I use the sticks to create various bug habitats throughout my yard.