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I've spent the last two weekends cutting back plants in my garden and have a large pile of trimmings of things like hops, sedum and dead annuals. I've only got a black plastic compost bin and mainly add kitchen waste and shredded paper and egg boxes. Any tips on how to get the trimmings to rot down quickly. I have got an ancient garden shredder. Is it worth shredding stuff that's dead and pretty thin already? Compost sites talk about "green" and "brown". Which do they count as?

This is my slant on he subject

http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Data/Composting/Composting.htm

Shredding will help ...

I don't bother with "Proper Composting" any more - not that that is a recommendation. I just don't have the time, and I found it frustrating never having the mix of materials I needed, or enough supply of greens at the crucial time, to keep the heat up ...

So I just chuck it in the heap and let it compost. It take a year or two, but after that time my production rate is the same as it would be with hot composting.  I put X in and get Y out ...

I suspect I have weed seeds that might have been killed by, good, hot composting, but I'm saving a lot of time not turning & faffing ... or so I think :)

If you have bush that will hide bit of 'untidiness' you could put all those trimmings under that bush branches...straight on the soil as mulch and all that will disappear in no time..worms will sort it out and in turn you will return the growth back to the soil that has fed and produced all of it in first place..
You can carry on adding on top that mulch through out the year and eventually when it gets too much..either just rake and spread it about and saving the top most..least rotted stuff back where it all started.

Thanks, all helpful answers. As it started pouring before I had a chance to do any more, it'll have to wait until next weekend now!

Definately worth shredding woody material, splitting the stems will permit decay right through. A mixture of old woody material and a goodly amount of lusher material will "heat" in a bag or drum within hours. A good chance to re-work the contents of your composter and get the whple lot warmed up. AN OJD BLANKET OR SIMILAR WRAPPED AROUND WILL INSULATE AND SPEED THE REACTION.

I am with you kGarden.
I tried to do the compost thing by the "book" but found with my dry environment it just wont work.
About 4 years ago I had a fox problem with my free range chooks so they had to be kept inside during the day then. I decided to keep up their greens by putting it in one corner of their pen. When they started to spread it further I put bales of hay around to contain it all. That disintegrated after a while so I put shade cloth the walls and a foot high timber board at the front.
Every day they get an armful of greens plus a bucket full of dry grass (mulched by the lawn mower) cut from a neighbouring block and I keep it moist.
Each month I am now harvesting about 6 buckets of the best compost ever, fully fertilised and sweet smelling...nearly good enough to munch on.

Over the winter, I had a lot of woody stuff, trimmings of jerusalem artichokes, fruit bushes, shrubs, rosemary. I just chopped it all up with the spade and chucked it on the compost. The bin was chokka. But now, after a few weeks, it has all started to rot down and the bin is half full!!! I don't think you need to do anything special to get good compost, just let nature do its course. When I collect the compost, if there are still some woody bit, I just chuck them back in the bin, they disappear in the end. I don't stir it or anything; I just let it do its thing (yes I am a bit lazy!)

I chop everything up with secateurs. I'm a bit OCD about it, but it is also quite therapeutic for stiff hands. I have 2 daleks on the go, and a hotbin, but the latter only gets filled when I have enough to fill it all in one go - when the manure is delivered basically.

I turn it regularly and add piles of nettles as well as some of my own nitrogen ;) and I do find it rots down very quickly most of the year.

 . . . and this is my take on compost:

http://boatsnmowers.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Compost

grhhh, my hotbin has attracted a rat. It is kept on hard standing and never fed with anything other than uncooked plant material. That rat chewed a nice big hole through the side, where the space is for a hand. The door at the base was always kept fully closed and there were no gaps anywhere. They are NOT rat proof, not at all and to expect it to always be at a high temperature is also poppycock. I have strapped mesh on the sides but hey ho I am a 5 foot woman, nearer 70 than 60, so could only do what I could do

I will not get another one when this one falls apart. The straps at the bottom, to hold the door in place are far too hard for me to handle at my age. I love the principle but it is not a 100% well thought through design. It would be far far cheaper for me to buy council compost and just have a rough pile of nicely cut garden compost in a cheapo wooden contraption.