"David Cleland" wrote in message
...


Just a quick question

I am going to try and start a compost bin - can you put grass cuttings
in
there ?

David

Yes - if you want, but it is better to mix the grass with leaves and
other
compostible materials - otherwise you can finish with a nasty slimy mess
(as I
know from personal experience). Since our council started providing green
recycling bins, I now prefer to let them compost my grass cuttings.



Our council does not do that - so it would be best to keep grass to a
minimum to get the best results ?

Grass is a great source of compost and in some gardens it provides most of
the organic matter.
It also heats up really really well and so can get a new heap cooking at a
great rate.
As already pointed out, the only problem is to stop it going slimy.
I know two ways to do that and it is worth doing both.
1) mix it with drier stuff (I have even heard of people using straw and
buying bales of it specifically for that purpose;
I have also heard of newspapers being used); the best I have used have been
shreddings; it is worth synchronising a bout of shredding with a fresh pile
of grass collection but it can be hard to generate enough shreddings to make
this work long term.
2) turn it regularly (say every 4 weeks). This means thoroughly turning it
over with a fork/or moving it to a new spot.

I also have seen people using the clippings fresh as a mulch. It looks ugly
but is cheap and good for the soil.
If you do not take care of the clippings in a compost heap they do indeed go
slimy and you end up with gunk that stinks (anaerobic decomposition giving
sulphides) and is very hard to manage.

Des





David