In article ,
rivergarden wrote:

This is my first ever post about my first ever garden and I have to
begin by confessing I know next to nothing about gardening. Conversely
my partner and I have just moved into a home by the Thames with a
beautiful mature garden attached so many stupid questions to come. My
first is this. I have just cleared out a load of ivy which has
obviously been growing for some time and contained, between the stems,
a large amount of semi rotted twigs - a builders bag full to be
precise. Whats the best use for this? I dont want to just burn it as it
looks like it contains a lot of nutrients. Should I compost it?

Any thing once alive is good for compost. Anything that went through a
digestive system is better. Generally. I'd look hard at poisonous
plants and trash them. Do not burn poison Ivy a given.

Bill who would ask the previous owners for a garden heads-up if not talk
with neighbors.

You must get a few books dealing with gardening and then make some
mistakes.

................... Below a DVD......

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Practice-G...ouse/dp/B0010X
5JBG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1208633807&sr=1-1

Review

When thinking about your garden, says British horticulturist Penelope
Hobhouse at the end of her video series The Art & Practice of Gardening,
treat design principles like grammar. Learn it, forget it, and do your
own thing. And your garden will work.
In 13 visits to gardens in England, Ireland and America, Ms. Hobhouse
reviews such topics as learning from nature, growing roses, combining
flowers for effect and particularly creating structural features. She
emphasizes the bones of a garden; the placement of trees, hedges,
topiaries, arbors, stones and steps as architectural elements around
which the rest of the garden should be planned. She is certain that
there is a right way and a wrong way in garden designing. At the top of
her list of right ways is Henry David Thoreau's advice, simplify,
simplify.

--
Garden in shade zone 5 S Jersey USA