Garden Clearance with a Skip: What Size and What Goes In

Garden waste is one of the commonest reasons to hire a skip - but it's also one of the easiest to get wrong on sizing. Green waste looks huge stacked against a fence but compacts dramatically once it's in the skip. Here's how to size a garden clearance skip properly and make sure everything you're tipping in is legal.

Sizing a garden clearance

Small jobs - a mini (2yd) is plenty

Examples of jobs that comfortably fit in a mini:

• Trimming hedges along a 30ft boundary
• Clearing weeds and ivy from a border
• Pruning a single apple or plum tree
• Removing a single raised bed

A mini holds about 30 shovel-loads of material - enough for most garden tidies.

Mid-sized jobs - go midi (4yd)

• Clearing an overgrown 20ft × 20ft back garden that hasn't been touched for two or three years
• Felling a single medium-sized tree (chipped)
• Removing a small patio (concrete slabs)
• Clearing a shed and its contents plus garden overgrowth

Full overhauls - maxi (8yd)

• Complete garden strip, ready for relandscaping
• Mixed soil, turf and bulky green waste together
• Removing large areas of patio or decking
• Multiple mature trees or large root balls

For any job involving significant soil or turf, lean toward the maxi - soil is heavy and you'll hit the mini's weight limit long before you fill it visually.

What garden waste is allowed in a skip?

Most organic garden waste can go in a standard skip:

• Grass cuttings, leaves, weeds - fine
• Hedge trimmings, branches, twigs - fine (break long branches down to fit)
• Soil, turf, topsoil - fine, but heavy
• Old compost - fine
• Stones, gravel, brick rubble from garden structures - fine
• Pots, planters, broken concrete slabs - fine
• Untreated wood (fence panels, old decking, dead tree trunks) - fine

What garden items CAN'T go in

• Pesticides, herbicides, weedkillers - hazardous waste, separate disposal
• Treated fence posts with tar or creosote - hazardous, separate disposal
• Empty chemical drums - hazardous
• Gas bottles from patio heaters or BBQs - return to supplier (never into a skip)
• Japanese knotweed - controlled invasive plant, specialist disposal required by law
• Garden ponds and their contents - fish shouldn't be disposed of in waste; liner material is fine but check for chemicals first
• Old garden sheds with asbestos roofs - asbestos is absolutely prohibited, see our banned list

Japanese knotweed - don't put it in a skip

If you spot the characteristic hollow green-red stem and heart-shaped leaves, stop. Japanese knotweed is a controlled plant under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Disposing of it in a normal skip can spread it to new sites and is an environmental offence. It needs burial at least 5 metres deep at a licensed landfill, or specialist incineration.

A legitimate local skip depot will refuse to collect any load containing knotweed. If you have it on site, contact a specialist knotweed contractor first.

Loading a garden skip efficiently

1. Heavy stuff at the bottom - rubble from old paving, removed concrete, root balls.
2. Cut it up - long branches waste space. Break anything over 3ft.
3. Bag the leaves and grass cuttings - loose green waste blows around during transport. Bagged waste packs better too.
4. Soil last - pours into remaining gaps.

A properly loaded 4-yard midi can fit the equivalent of 60 wheelie-bin-loads of compacted garden waste. Loaded badly, you'll fit 25.

Local depot for your garden clearance

Enter your postcode on the homepage for live pricing from your nearest depot. Our York, Skipton and Harrogate teams handle more garden work than anywhere - we know the sizing drill.