On 4/19/2008 5:03 PM, MaryL wrote:
"rivergarden" wrote in message
...
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?

It makes good compost, but there is one problem (in addition to making sure
it does not contain poison ivy, which someone else mentioned). That is,
even the tiniest stem of ivy will often root. That means you could find
lots of little ivy plants -- which can be difficult to eradicate -- if you
use it for compost and there are any stems or roots left.

That's why I send ivy trimmings to the county's composting project
instead of composting them myself. My compost pile is too small to get
hot enough to kill ivy cuttings. The county's compost gets good and
hot, killing anything that is alive.

For the same reason, I don't compost weeds that have gone to seed.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening pages at http://www.rossde.com/garden/