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This is my first fall composting. As I was cleaning up my garden of spent annuals and pulled out some overlyabundant perennials (namely monarda and coreopsis), I found that I was unable to shred these in my leaf shredder because they are too coarse. This spring and summer, I had gotten into the habit of shredding everything to speed up the composting time. Of course any compost that I produce now wont be needed until spring.
I am wondering if I should hand chop these stems or just put them in whole? Will they have enough time to break down by spring in I don't cut them into smaller pieces? Most of the stems are between a half inch and an inch around. These stems are probably just hard enough for the shredder to consider them as small twigs. I actually think that I have enough of these to fill an entire Biostack. I just filled another Biostack today with leaves from my neighbor's yard, and the leaves haven't begun to turn yet in Virginia.
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