Our new house has quite a large lwan and the previous owners have just chucked the grass clippings into a corner. They're in a pile approx 2ft deep and over an area 10ft x 10ft and look to be fairly dry.

If I was to buy/make a wooden compost bin would I be able to use these or does the green material need to be fresh to compost ie will it have lost it's nutrient value by now. I understand that I'll need some browns to mix in as well but can get plenty of shredded paper from work, will this be suitable and if so what sort of mix ratio should I use.

Many Thanks

Jim

Thanks Chris, at the moment we don't have a single bed just lots of lawn! Garden needs a complete make over so am going to make a compost heap so by the time we've created the beds we should have a nice pile of compost to enrich them with.

"Chris Hogg" wrote ...


wrote:

Our new house has quite a large lwan and the previous owners have just
chucked the grass clippings into a corner. They're in a pile approx 2ft
deep and over an area 10ft x 10ft and look to be fairly dry.

If I was to buy/make a wooden compost bin would I be able to use these or
does the green material need to be fresh to compost ie will it have lost
it's nutrient value by now. I understand that I'll need some browns to mix
in as well but can get plenty of shredded paper from work, will this be
suitable and if so what sort of mix ratio should I use.

Many Thanks

Jim

No it doesn't need to be fresh to compost, but a heap of pure lawn
cuttings will get a bit slimy, soggy and airless in time. By all means
mix it with shredded paper or cardboard, although I can't tell you
what ratio to use. People can get very technical about compost heaps
and the ratios of stuff going onto them, but it really doesn't matter
that much.

But why go to that bother. Just spread it as it is onto your flower
beds as a roughly 2-inch thick mulch. Worms will quickly take it down
and it'll disappear in a month or two, and the soil quality will be
the better for it. It will also suppress weed germination, although
that's less of a problem in late summer and autumn compared to spring
and early summer when everything grows like fury. I never put grass
cuttings onto my compost heap; always straight onto the flower beds. I
have more than enough stuff for the compost, without grass cuttings.


The only problem I can see with that Chris is that Jim does not know if the
previous owners used weedkillers etc..weed and feed etc. so using it as a
mulch might just kill off all the border plants.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

On 20/08/2014 12:13, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Wed, 20 Aug 2014 02:55:56 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

Our new house has quite a large lwan and the previous owners have just chucked the grass clippings into a corner. They're in a pile approx 2ft deep and over an area 10ft x 10ft and look to be fairly dry.

If I was to buy/make a wooden compost bin would I be able to use these or does the green material need to be fresh to compost ie will it have lost it's nutrient value by now. I understand that I'll need some browns to mix in as well but can get plenty of shredded paper from work, will this be suitable and if so what sort of mix ratio should I use.

Many Thanks

Jim

No it doesn't need to be fresh to compost, but a heap of pure lawn
cuttings will get a bit slimy, soggy and airless in time. By all means

This only seems to be true if the lawn size is too small and you add it
bit by bit with compaction. I find that using roughly pallette sized
cubic compost heaps 3x in rotation that it doesn't much matter what you
put on provided that you add at least a cubic metre in one go and do not
compact it. The heap goes hot in under 24 hours and you can dispose of
quite chunky pieces of wood pruning in it. I have had mine hot enough to
start smouldering once or twice. It will smell funny of short chain
fatty acids so you don't want it too near your house.

mix it with shredded paper or cardboard, although I can't tell you
what ratio to use. People can get very technical about compost heaps
and the ratios of stuff going onto them, but it really doesn't matter
that much.

Americans tend to obsess over N-C ratios, but in my experience for a
large garden it really doesn't make a lot of difference provided you
don't compact the heap. I only turn mine if I absolutely have to.

Mostly I throw anything not completely rotted to friable loam into the
base of the next heap.

But why go to that bother. Just spread it as it is onto your flower
beds as a roughly 2-inch thick mulch. Worms will quickly take it down
and it'll disappear in a month or two, and the soil quality will be
the better for it. It will also suppress weed germination, although
that's less of a problem in late summer and autumn compared to spring
and early summer when everything grows like fury. I never put grass
cuttings onto my compost heap; always straight onto the flower beds. I
have more than enough stuff for the compost, without grass cuttings.

I compost a lot more than I am supposed to put in my green bin and then
use that for making leaf mould. YMMV.

Regards,
Martin Brown

PS my idea of a large lawn is ~1/3 acre.

Good morning, all

On Wed, 20 Aug 2014 02:55:56 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:
Our new house has quite a large lwan and the previous owners have just
chucked the grass clippings into a corner. They're in a pile approx
2ft deep and over an area 10ft x 10ft and look to be fairly dry.

Dry material is in general a source of “carbon�, which you have to add
to your compost anyway. The other component is “nitrogen�. Both come in
different forms and flavours, that is why we tend to replace the
chemistry by “dry� (brown) and “green� (not brown).

If I was to buy/make a wooden compost bin would I be able to use these
or does the green material need to be fresh to compost ie will it have
lost it's nutrient value by now. I understand that I'll need some
browns to mix in as well but can get plenty of shredded paper from
work, will this be suitable and if so what sort of mix ratio should I
use.

You can use calculated ratios to keep your compost in balance or just do
and wait... Too much green stuff in connection with what they call
“weather� nowadays makes your compost rot with fungi. Too much dry stuff
keeps your heap from composting, meaning that it does not do anything.

In the first case, you need to spread out all the material under the
furiously hot summer-sun to make it dry. Afterwards create a new pile
with more dry material added.

If the compost does not move at all, you must add green stuff and water
it, possibly regularly.., but that case is rare.

Using fresh grass clippings on the garden-beds is tricky. It can replace
a proper mulching if you add dry material, e.g. dry leafs. Otherwise it
may just rot. You can deminish the layer of grass to prevent it from
rotting, but in that case it does not have the wanted effect.

Dry grass clippings, on the other hand, are great in the way that Chriss
describes. You can create layers of up to 20cm on the beds. Or you can
cover your compost heap with it, to make most of the rain water
drain off instead of entering the heap and to protect some of the hard
working wildlife in it.

Cheerio,

Michael

Many Thanks

Jim



--
Location: Lower Normandy (Orne), France
GnuPG/OpenPGP 4096R/3216CF02 2013-11-15 [expires: 2015-11-15]
sub 4096R/2751C550 2013-11-15 [expires: 2015-11-15]

On Thu, 21 Aug 2014 09:33:32 +0200, Michael Uplawski
wrote:

Good morning, all

On Wed, 20 Aug 2014 02:55:56 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:
Our new house has quite a large lwan and the previous owners have just
chucked the grass clippings into a corner. They're in a pile approx
2ft deep and over an area 10ft x 10ft and look to be fairly dry.

Dry material is in general a source of “carbon”, which you have to add
to your compost anyway. The other component is “nitrogen”. Both come in
different forms and flavours, that is why we tend to replace the
chemistry by “dry” (brown) and “green” (not brown).

If I was to buy/make a wooden compost bin would I be able to use these
or does the green material need to be fresh to compost ie will it have
lost it's nutrient value by now. I understand that I'll need some
browns to mix in as well but can get plenty of shredded paper from
work, will this be suitable and if so what sort of mix ratio should I
use.

You can use calculated ratios to keep your compost in balance or just do
and wait... Too much green stuff in connection with what they call
“weather” nowadays makes your compost rot with fungi. Too much dry stuff
keeps your heap from composting, meaning that it does not do anything.

In the first case, you need to spread out all the material under the
furiously hot summer-sun to make it dry. Afterwards create a new pile
with more dry material added.

If the compost does not move at all, you must add green stuff and water
it

And of course many people use pee as the water.

Urinate on the compost heap to save the planet says the National Trust
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/ear...nal-Trust.html

On Thu, 21 Aug 2014 10:40:43 +0100,
Judith in England wrote:
And of course many people use pee as the water.

Urinate on the compost heap to save the planet says the National Trust

The effect of urine is almost zero. The insecurity comes from the fact
that the European Commission does not yet have a norm to define what
urine is and I venture that there are some varieties.

As regards the planet. It does not give a [whatever you give in these
cases] about what you do. Save ourselves, already. ;-)

Cheerio,

Michael


--
Location: Lower Normandy (Orne), France
GnuPG/OpenPGP 4096R/3216CF02 2013-11-15 [expires: 2015-11-15]
sub 4096R/2751C550 2013-11-15 [expires: 2015-11-15]