Some people put weeds into a dustbin of water and leave them to die down there, then add to soil or compost once there is no danger of rooting or seeding etc.
I leave the majority of my windfall apples on the ground, or collect into a pile by the wild area, but a handful every now and then go into the composter.
The ones on the ground are loved by the wildlife and do eventually rot although there can be an apple sauce situation if very wet over winter.
tree surgeons removed a large sycamore from our road side yesterday (not our tree and it was rotten) so I begged all the log wood and this pile of mulch. It's all gone in my compost bins and is up to 55°c this morning. Temps will drop quickly but it's has a very high leaf content and is the finest chip size I've managed to beg so should break down nicely as I add my greens to it.
We get wood chip like this left at our allotments and it's wonderful stuff. Breaks down to peat like consistency, fibrous, dark. Can't have too much of it.
@Lyn I've got so much ground elder that if I threw it all away I would have no soil left! The roots, leaves and soil do rot down well in time so I store mine in old animal feed bags, so they can't escape and cover them with an old black silage bag to help speed things up a bit. I do religiously remove all flowers from ground elder so it can't spread by seed as well and the roots can then be returned to the soil when thoroughly rotted. I tend to use it on areas that have had GE already, rather than clean areas though, just as an extra precaution!
The tree mulch is up to 65°c today, it's covered in many layers of cardboard to retain heat and moisture. Have a load of green material to start adding to the heap and mixing in
so the wood mulch has got very hot indeed and is breaking down great, today though was brown bin day so I've begged a load of green material and I cut our grass (the rain has transformed it into a jungle in a matter of days) and 2 wheel barrows of wind fall apples and I mowed the meadow so it's all gone in the bins mixed in with the wood mulch. Exciting stuff it was hovering at 65°c but with some nitrogen rich stuff going on I'm expecting mega thermal activity in the next few days
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