On 10/09/2014 09:32, Another John wrote:
In article ,
Martin Brown wrote:

On 09/09/2014 20:01, Another John wrote:
Hi
I'm doing a friend-of-a-friend's garden, which is quite big. Grass
mowings from a long time have been dumped in one spot at the bottom of
the garden, and -- of course -- this is now a bog: a 4 meter by 3 meter
bog which is up to a meter deep.

Is there anything at all that can be done with this pile?

Yes. Disturb it a bit to let some air in and water escape. It only goes
to anaerobic green slime if you are doing something fundamentally wrong.

Ideally make up three cubic pens about 2m on each side out of old
pallettes or whatever scrap wood is to hand.

Then throw some other prunings on top of the drier half of it and pile
the other stuff on top of it mixed with a it of fresh grasscut.

I find that with my compost heaps which are about 2x3m each it doesn't
much matter what I put on provided that I add at least 1-2 m^3 at a time
and do not compress it (this is important). It goes hot in a couple of
days and will then consume just about anything internally.

I have had my heap smouldering internally. It smells a bit funny from
short chain fatty acids when hot so don't put it to near habitation.

Thanks Martin --- looks like a job for the winter months (though not the
best time for composting). I haven't yet got any pallets, and there's a
massive pile of the stuff to deal with. And I have a load of other stuff
to do before trying to sort this mess out!

It is worth disturbing it with a fork now to allow it to drain and dry.
The trick to making good compost fast is getting the right balance of
air and moisture in it. If you have enough bulk at once you don't have
to bother so much about balancing the inputs. US sites obsess about the
N to C ratios but I have never found it to be a problem. You might find
it helps to get it started in the right direction to add a proprietory
compost starter culture to it like Garotta along with some fresh
ingredients. Otherwise you may not have enough good aerobic bacteria to
get the thing going properly after a long period of being slime.

Composting doesn't go fast in the cold winter months (although I have
once seen a very large pile of conifer strippings producing copious
steam and smoke on a frosty winters morning). It smelt strongly of oil
of winter green and was quite amazingly hot.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown