"hob" wrote in message
. ..

"John Wheeler" wrote in message
...
I suspect it's anaerobic, because of lack of oxygen. How does it smell
when
you turn it?

Sweet and a little moldy -

Thanx for the input - some more background -
I had the smell the previous year where too much "just grass" made it
"heavy" and sealed it. So I kept if from packing down when I put the
mower's
bagfuls in, and I mixed in some of the previous year's dried shredded leaf
I
had kept in bags for mulch, etc (my mower shreds dried leaves into bits
about half the size of a dime) to keep it form packing.
And being in the garden cloth seems to keep it from getting soggy.

It was mixed with a pitchfork about once a month.

Frequent turning helps bring in oxygen and mixing up the
ingredients. Layering by itself does little. Adding fertilizer that you
pay for is mostly wasting money.

FWIW - I got that fertilizer thing from the extension service's bulletin
on
making compost bins, and from the garden show.

Fertilizer should only be added if you know your compost pile has a very
high carbon to nitrogen ratio. With the amount of grass you're using,
surely you have enough nitrogen. Be careful with water. Too much can make
it very difficult for your pile to get oxygen and it will go anaerobic. I'd
add a little at a time to see if it makes the pile heat up. I keep my piles
on the dry side and they do great. I've never added fertilizer. My "green"
(i.e., high nitrogen) material comes from household kitchen waste and lots
(15 pounds a day) of coffee grounds from Starbucks. I get more coffee
grounds than I can compost, so I just add the extra directly to the yard.
Smells good.

John Henry Wheeler
Washington, DC
USDA Zone 7