In message , Dave_R.
writes
On the topic of compost, does anyone have a good suggestion as to how
to deal with a lot of grass cuttings? I'm told (& have seen) that if I
put too much grass on the compost heap I end up with a dark, soggy,
smelly mass. What is the best suggestion for diluting the grass?

For certain values of "too much" this must be true, but I have no
problems at all adding roughly 1-2m^3 of grass clippings to mine every
week. It immediately starts rotting and reaches a peak temperature of
70-80C internally after a couple of days (slightly funny stale smell of
short chain fatty acids). It then slumps and I turn it over to mix in
and finish the top dry bit. It has mostly all gone by the time I next
cut the grass.

Obviously I do mix in hedge cuttings when I have them since the heap at
these sort of temperatures will consume quite thick hedge prunings too.
You can encourage it to go faster early in the season with a proprietary
accelerator like Garotta (cut with cheaper ammonium sulphate). I suspect
you may only need to do this step when establishing a new heap though.

I remember having trouble in a house with a 20' square lawn, but in my
present fairly large garden I have never had a problem.

Regards,
--
Martin Brown