Hellebore leaves: no, I don't compost them.

Here's a slight mistake I made last week:

Without thinking, I flung an armful of Hellebore leaves on the compost bin, before remembering that I don't compost Hellebore leaves.

So I had to carefully pick them out again, and move them to the bonfire heap.

Why?

In my experience, they don't rot in any sort of satisfactory manner: the leaves are spiky, the stems are woody, and they ruin the texture of the compost.

It always seems a shame, to put what appears to be green stuff on the bonfire heap, but there is something about Hellebore leaves, rather like Horse Chestnut leaves: they just don't seem to want to rot properly.

Of course, this is quite a small composting operation, and I have no doubt that if you were to add them to a very large bin or pen, and if you didn't mind leaving it for a long time, they would eventually rot down.

But in this garden - in fact, in all of my gardens - I prefer to keep them away from my composting activities.

Ah, last week *sighs with nostalgia* when it was warm enough to get lots of work done..... 

 

 

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