In article ,
Martin Brown wrote:
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.

No, it's not quite like that. "Too much" depends critically on how
lush and wet the clippings are - it is only a problem when they
compact into an anaerobic block and turn into silage. You can add
a cubic foot of really soggy grass and have a (minor, temporary)
problem, or an arbitrary amount of drier grass and have none.

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 don't even need the temperature. I run a cold heap, and 1/2"
thick privet prunings rot down quite happily - in a year or two.
It really is quite hard to make a complete failure of composting,
given that the solution to almost all problems is to rectify the
compaction or dampness problem and try again!


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.