Hi All,

This is my first post. I am a veery novice gardener and have just moved to a new flat that had a long, shady overgrown garden. I've cleared a lot of the garden and cut back a lot of bushes, and cleared the moss from the path. Rather than take this all to the tip I've decided to try to compst it.

I have cut it all down and piled in in a 2m square block held together by chicken wire in a sheltered place (Under a very large camelia/rhodedendron?? tree) where it will get some evening sun.

My questions a

Should I add horse manure (I have a horse) to help it decompose?

Also, I'd like to add food scraps to it. How much food to garden waste ratio should I aim for?

And finally, there are a lot of slugs and snails in my shady garden. Are they any help to the compost heap?

Many thanks in advance for you hekp