I’m always harping on about the importance of compost and making your own "black gold" but what should you do with the chunky material that can’t be added to the compost heap?

Soft, greenwood cuttings will rot down in the compost heap just fine but woody prunings, twigs and larger branches should be dealt with differently.

The first step in transforming woody material from annoying garden waste to useful garden resource is to put it through a shredder or chipper.

It’s probably quite unlikely that your garden produces enough woody waste to merit purchasing one of these machines but the hire shops around town will be able to hook you up with one for a day or two.

The resulting waste can then be used on paths or as a mulch around shrubs and trees but do not incorporate it into the soil.

It drives me round the bend when I turn up at a clients house and a well meaning individual (most often, but not restricted to, tree surgeons) has dug chipped wood into the soil because “it’s a great soil improver”. Wrong.

In fact it has the opposite effect. When worked into the soil, fresh woody materials will rob the soil of nutrients, selfishly taking more out of the soil than they give back.

This is down to the action of soil microbes produced by the decomposing material which ‘lock up’ essential nutrients preventing plant roots from accessing them.

Instead, chippings should be kept aside for use as a mulch. It’s best practice to leave the material to age for a few months to allow allelochemicals (compounds produced by certain plants to inhibit growth of others) in the plant tissue to break down before being used around other plantings.

By comparison, garden compost is a great soil improver while a mulch is used to form a protective layer over soil to retain soil moisture and suppress weeds - a job that woody waste performs quite well.

However, my personal and professional preference is to use either garden compost or fine, well rotted bark as a mulch.

They take longer to make and need replenishing more often than woody mulches but the benefits are greater.

As these two break down, they improve soil fertility and structure boosting the head count of good soil flora and fauna and turning your soil into the rich, dark growing medium most plants will thank you for. Woody mulches will break down eventually but due to them being high in carbon and low in nitrogen, it can take up to four years. And neither me or my plants are quite that patient.

Happy gardening.