I do not shred the soft green waste which goes on the compost heap. We do shred the woody stuff, but that goes on the paths and as mulch on the shade beds.
Never managed to get our lawn mower to cut up green stuff either. It either just runs over it or the stuff gets wrapped round the blades.
Never had any trouble to getting even bulky stuff to break down, but ours is a huge open heap rather than one of those plastic bin things.

Thanks Owdboggy. As you can see from my photo I have two open wooden compost bins to the left of the picture.

Pretty much what we have. We have a three bin set up. In. for new stuff, Pending, for the first time the heap is turned over and Out, for the stuff which is ready for use. Usually stays in the last one for a couple of years before using.

Oh and should add that I have three shredders and not one of them will handle soft green material that well. They just clog up.

I also have three open wooden bins and the same IPO system as Owdboggy. Occasionally (maybe 2, 3 times a year) I stick a fork in the 'In' and 'Pending' bins and lift the stuff to get some more air in.

Green waste from kitchen is chopped into pieces, put in a small kitchen compost pot and when full carried to outdoor compost bin.

Soft garden waste (leaves, stems, etc.) are put in a plastic bucket, cut into smaller pieces with shears, or secateurs before adding to bin.

I also put in compost bins shredded paper, small pieces of brown card board and small amounts of grass clippings (only at a time when weather is dry so that grass dries out quickly).

Someone said to me: "Think about worms - it's hard for small mouths to eat big chunks of food." The easier you make it for worms, the quicker you get what you want.

This makes me feel very idle.
Have to confess I never shred it. I have four plastic bins, one for kitchen waste and three for garden waste.Stuff breaks down eventually. Would love boxes like Owdboggy's but one bin was a council one and two were given to me.
The other one was left by the council in front of a house that had been empty for years and it was just blowing about in the front yard,so I though it would be a kindness to give it a home...We do shred the beech hedge clippings sometimes though instead of going to the tip but it takes a very long time.
A tip I found useful is to put the occasional couple of spadefuls of soil over the contents every so often.

Dear oh dear, Monty strikes again... red rag to a bull for me... having once watched him planting a rose in a hole he'd dug in an area obviously full of bindweed roots which he made no reference to at all, nor did he attempt to remove any, immediately followed by his Heath Robinson attempt at a 'rustic' wigwam support using old branches off trees up which a hybrid clematis was supposed to climb (never in a million years, the wood was far too thick for it to wrap round), I'm afraid I threw the tv remote across the room with some interesting language and have never watched him since. Typical Monty to suggest shredding stuff for the heap but not giving you the exact 'how' of it.

Anyway, rant more or less over - I never shredded anything for the heap unless it wouldn't fit in the pile, when I'd snip it with secateurs into smaller sections, but I did turn it regularly, got my sons to pee in a bottle in the mornings and threw that on there weekly for the nitrogen content, and I did cover it. As for using a mower to shred stuff with, it works on dead leaves on lawns IF you have a hover or rotary mower, but does not work with most cylinder mowers. Bet he never mentioned that, did he... well he wouldn't, he's probably got a big sit and ride mower... I can't see the point of shredding leaves on lawns in this way anyway, it makes them the very devil to get up afterwards if you want to black bag them to make leafmould.

We've done it this way Bamboo and it's worked quite well up to now with a cylinder mower.. perhaps it depends on the model of mower you have. Most of the debris got picked up in the grass box.
It remains to be seen whether our new mower will do it as well.

for leaveson grass do you mean Steragram?

When we had several compost bins I was always getting nagged if I didn't cut woody stuff up to about six inch lengths. Small cuttings do rot down quicker though so I just got on with it. On other bigger stuff we used a lawnmower (an Alko I think) which was very good but I know that not all mowers can cope.The only other recourse is to cut it up by hand though the soft green stuff will be ok as is.It does need aerating regularly.

We also used to add shredded paper, torn up envelopes (not window ones), kitchen waste and anything else that we knew would rot down. Got some good compost too.

I have a bucket of Couch Grass Roots. After reading all this am going to spread them on the path to dry off, then cut them up with the shears, and sweep up for the compost bin.

I wouldn't. Couch grass can grow even from a tiny bit of root. Get rid of it some other way.

You could always eat the couch roots. They sell them for food in parts of Italy.

Sure I remember them being good medicine for something...But don't put them in the compost, they will grow from little pieces. The tea can be used as a kidney and liver detox - one way to get your own back on the stuff!

Yes Bamboo, leaves on the grass. Not tried anything more substantial.

Gosh, I didn't know you could eat couch grass roots... wonder how they use them as food, something else to look up for me...

Give us the recipe if you find out Bamboo!

Have now decided my Couch Grass roots are going in the recycle bin.

Hmm, can't find much on using couch grass roots in cooking, but it has a long history of herbal use - its apparently approved in Germany as an effective treatment for urinary tract infection. The roots have sometimes been ground and added to flour just to eke out flour supplies, and the roots and very young green shoots can be eaten raw. The link below was probably the most sensible one I could find - with some of the links, it was immediately obvious why one of its other names is 'quack' grass...

http://herbs-treatandtaste.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/couch-grass-annoying-weed-with-saving.html

That's interesting. And right at the end of the article it says an infusion of it will make a good plant food too.

Bamboo- I will add urine, cover and turn it regularly - didn't mean to upset you by mentioning Monty- sorry!!

No need to apologise, having a rant occasionally is a welcome sign of life, lol!

I used to put everything in 'Dalek' type compost bins with no particular prep, and no turning, and stuff just didn't rot down. I would read about people making compost in a few months and wonder why mine needed three years!

I now chop everything up small if possible, and more importantly turn the heaps regularly. I've built a three bin system out of old wooden pallets. Still in the first year of use, so no hard results yet, but stuff seems to be breaking down well.

I use my rotary mower to chop stuff up. If it's just leaves I rake them onto one side of the lawn, mow the clear side to get the grass short, rake them back onto the mown side and then chop. The mower picks them up pretty well, and I have 90% leaf for making leaf mould. I don't worry about the small amount of grass added.

There's a strip of ground near the heaps which has nothing growing on it. I tend to dump more substantial clippings there and then use the mower to chop them. I do, however, remove anything too woody first for the bonfire.

Dry material doesn't get chopped up much. Dry leaves, for example, tend to get 'hoovered' straight into the mower bin without much contact from the blades. If material is wetter, and therefore heavier, it seems to get chopped more finely.