Browns. If its the big chunks, they won't break down very quickly, but they will break down eventually.

I like to maintain 2 compost bins when possible. One I consider "long term" and I put woody stuff in there, with the occasional addition of bagged lawn clippings. I break up branches etc.

Faster composting stuff I put in the other bin. I switch every couple of years. By that time most of the woody stuff is pretty well broken down.

However where I am now we have virtually no lawn, it grows VERY slowly, and we leave the clippings to feed the grass, so I have just the one compost heap. We don't have a lot of woody stuff to add to it - there are very few trees in the desert. So what little woody stuff there is is not enough to unbalance the compost heap. If it doesn't rot all the way down right away, it gets sifted out when I remove some compost and tossed back into the top of the bin.

Turning the heap and monitoring temp will help break stuff down faster.

I dump a lot of the large bark in my pepper patch in the garden every Winter.

Josh

Oh heck yah, if its at least nickel size I'd use it for mulch rather than composting it! Maybe even smaller.

I didn't even think of that. Just answered the exact question, LOL!