Good morning, all

On Wed, 20 Aug 2014 02:55:56 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:
Our new house has quite a large lwan and the previous owners have just
chucked the grass clippings into a corner. They're in a pile approx
2ft deep and over an area 10ft x 10ft and look to be fairly dry.

Dry material is in general a source of “carbon”, which you have to add
to your compost anyway. The other component is “nitrogen”. Both come in
different forms and flavours, that is why we tend to replace the
chemistry by “dry” (brown) and “green” (not brown).

If I was to buy/make a wooden compost bin would I be able to use these
or does the green material need to be fresh to compost ie will it have
lost it's nutrient value by now. I understand that I'll need some
browns to mix in as well but can get plenty of shredded paper from
work, will this be suitable and if so what sort of mix ratio should I
use.

You can use calculated ratios to keep your compost in balance or just do
and wait... Too much green stuff in connection with what they call
“weather” nowadays makes your compost rot with fungi. Too much dry stuff
keeps your heap from composting, meaning that it does not do anything.

In the first case, you need to spread out all the material under the
furiously hot summer-sun to make it dry. Afterwards create a new pile
with more dry material added.

If the compost does not move at all, you must add green stuff and water
it, possibly regularly.., but that case is rare.

Using fresh grass clippings on the garden-beds is tricky. It can replace
a proper mulching if you add dry material, e.g. dry leafs. Otherwise it
may just rot. You can deminish the layer of grass to prevent it from
rotting, but in that case it does not have the wanted effect.

Dry grass clippings, on the other hand, are great in the way that Chriss
describes. You can create layers of up to 20cm on the beds. Or you can
cover your compost heap with it, to make most of the rain water
drain off instead of entering the heap and to protect some of the hard
working wildlife in it.

Cheerio,

Michael

Many Thanks

Jim



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Location: Lower Normandy (Orne), France
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