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Re: Help!!!! for newbie gardener, and compost pile advice

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html


Cousin Ricky wrote:

>Kevin B. O'Brien wrote:
>>
>>  If you just pile
>> fresh grass clippings into the bin you will get a fermenting mess
>> that stinks to high heaven.
>
>I concur.  But if you let some of the grass dry out for a few days
>before you add it, you'll have some instant "brown stuff" to go with the
>fresh grass.

There are two basic things to worry about in composting: the green/brown
balance and the moisture content. Grass clippings are a green which when
fresh have a high moisture content (near 90%). When dry they are still a
green, but a dry green, like alfalfa meal. Once rained on a few times they
become progressively more brown as the nitrogen in them is lost.

What makes fresh grass clippings get slimy is that the high moisture causes
the pile to seal itself against air flow; it then goes anaerobic, gets
smelly, etc and becomes a curse rather than a blessing.

Grass clippings are my main green in composting, and I have no trouble
building hot weedseed-killing piles. The key is to build a pile in the three
foot cube size or larger (three foot cube = 27 cubic feet [3x3x3] or a cubic
yard) and to turn it during the hot phase two or three times so that all the
material is exposed to temps of 130 or more for at least three days...

This is a good workout and I also agree with those who suggest that in a Sq
ft system with the loose soil and the close spacing of crops weeds are easy
enough to control; an obvious virtue of raised beds is that you have less
far to bend down, to exercise your dominion over the weeds...:-)

I collect fall leaves in a storage area and layer grass clippings thinly
into my piles during the spring and summer, adding an inch or two of grass
followed by 2-3 inches of loose leaves; once the pile is topped off it
becomes a 'batch' and gets turned twice more, after which the worms have
their way with it for a few months to a year...

It is best to get the clippings as quickly as possible after bagging;
clippings that have been sitting in bags for a while can be pretty
odoriferous, in my experience...

Good gardening and composting,

Frank Teuton


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