I spent last week attacking the front garden and now have a big pile
of shredded shrubs, a mixture of evergreen and deciduous with a couple
of small conifers thrown in. At the same time I've laid a new laurel
hedge, and I want to spread the shredded material around the laurels
to act as a weed suppressent. is this a good idea?

Last winter I did something similar and shredded a lot of beech and
hazel which I put around some new beds and that worked really well -
not a weed poking through all summer. But that was bare wood shredded
before it was in leaf. I'm not so sure about putting the latest batch
to the same purpose, as it's mainly green stuff, in case it does any
damage to the laurels as it starts to rot down. Is there any danger of
this?

Thanks,

Robert