Leaves and grass clippings are easy to recycle compared to that collection of organic stuff that accumulates throughout the growing season. What do you do with weeds that you pulled, with trigs that fall off the trees after a storm, and with the prunings from hedge trimming? Again in the fall when you pull those dead annuals, and maybe a tomato plant or two, what do you do with that kind of organic stuff? One option is to put all that “stuff” into a storage bin -- we used to call them “compost bins”, but yardeners don’t have to make compost, they just need a place to store that organic stuff and let it rot at its own pace. The storage bin simply becomes a place to keep the pile from becoming unsightly. See “Simple Composting” for steps in setting up a storage area where you will just leave organic waste to take care of itself.
If you have only a modest amount of this organic stuff to handle, then the storage bin and a pair of prunters are really all the tools you need. Sticks and woody stalks will decompose naturally, but they tend bulk up the storage area too quickly. The trick then is to cut the sticks and twigs into one to two inch pieces before storing them. If you have a fairly large property that generates more extraneous organic waste than one or two “storage bins” can handle, then you might want to consider looking into buying a shredder to reduce the material before you store it. See Choosing A Shredder for information about what to consider before making such a purchase. Shredders are particularly valuable if you have a lot of trees that generate more than a little collection of limbs and sticks.
