I'm a bit of a compost freak but haven't made any leaf mould yet and this
year decided I would. I know that you put them in a bag for about a year. Is
there anything else I need to do? Also, will any leaves with black spot or
other fungal or viral problems, be ok in with other leaves as it's so hard
to separate everything in the garden especially when the leaves are wet.If
everything breaks down properly, will these just be killed off or not?
Liz

I think some people will advise you to keep the leaves that have been tainted
with black spot out of your compost. However, black spot is usually only a
real problem with weak plants. You'd be better off spending your time feeding
your plants and generally looking after their condition rather than worrying
about black spot (IMHO). Roses are the most likely plants to get it and even
spraying with fungicides is unlikely to eradicate it if plants are less than
completely healthy, though they are unlikely to die from being infected with
black spot alone. I'd also add that if you've already got leaves with black
spot on, the spores are already in your garden, and even if they aren't they
will probably find their way in from elsewhere anyway.

As far as killing off the fungal spores during composting is concerned, it's
unlikely to happen unless you have a large compost heap that heats up. The
same goes for roots of some weeds, weed seeds, etc. Personally I'd say compost
away, but as I said, others may differ in their views. I actually wonder
whether you can use anything from your garden and compost it safely as you have
black spot, and the spores will be all over the place. I'll be interested to
read any other views to see what they think of this.

All the best, and happy composting.

Dave.