Compost question

[Masco&Bongo]

We've been reading Monty Don's The Complete Gardener (bought as a housewarming present)...

It reads like he doesn't use grass cuttings in his compost...

Is this right? I thought you could use grass cuttings, tea bags and veg peelings, newspaper, chopped up tree cuttings, weeds etc

Can anyone enlighten me?

Thanks

[Chickpea]

If your compost heap has mostly grass clippings (or other wet green materials) it will turn to slimy mush. You need something more fibrous mixed in to make good compost. Shredded paper will do but best of all is straw mixed with dung e.g. bedding from chickens, cows, horses, rabbits, whatever you can get.

[hedgewizard]

I mix my grass clippings up 50:50 with shredded paper, which just about any office, surgery or chemist will give you gratis. It composts down just fine, although it's probably not the most nutritious stuff in the world which is why MD doesn't use it. This doesn't worry me though since I've cut down on the lawn area so grass makes up less than 50% of my mix.

[Millymollymandy]

There is no problem putting it in your compost so long as you layer it with other materials.

[Wombat]

Yep, even the slimy mess isn't a problem, even though it takes longer to compost down and you can get some weed seed through ti is more nutrient dense than "well made" compost.

Nev

[Chickpea]

I think it depends on your attitude to compost. Do you want to make the very bestest compost in the world, to enter in your local show in the "Compost - one small bucket" category, or to sell on ebay perhaps? Or more seriously maybe you grow prize-winning dahlias or something and want to make the perfect tailor-made compost to a secret family recipe which results in better dahlias than anyone else. In that case you'd be prepared to pick and choose what goes on your heap, go out and buy in missing nutrients, and throw away compostable material that doesn't fit the recipe.

That's why you get those terrifying books about composting that make it sound a horribly complicated and risky and skilled thing to do.

Or do you just want to recycle the organic waste that comes from your garden and kitchen? Does it offend you to throw carrot peelings in the landfill when they could potentially be turned into something useful? Not A-grade perfect compost perhaps, but compost that your veggies will thank you for nevertheless. Well then just heave what you've got onto the heap and don't worry about it.

If your heap goes terribly slimy, well you can remedy that by adding paper or straw. It's better than putting grass clippings in landfill, in my opinion. I'd keep stuff like bindweed and couch grass and clubroot-infected brassicas out of the heap, but apart from that I'm not fussy what goes in.

[Boots]

I always let my grass clippings 'cook' outside the compost. They generate some huge heat when piled, so I tend to spread through animal pens to let them dry, rather than cook and add them as a carbon.

I would imagine though, that if your climate was mostly cool, then adding layers of grass cuttings would probably be massively useful?

[Millymollymandy]

When our grass is growing like crazy before the hot dry weather sets in, I lay it down on the paths in my veg patch to try to suppress the weeds. It can go slippery in wet weather but as it is mostly dry here it works really well. Eventually I have suppressed nearly everything (except bindweed) and the piles of grass clippings have flattened out and formed a good pan which stops most annual weeds from germinating.

We have an awful lot of grass, and although we've got many a compost bin even we can't compost it all in April/May when it's going great guns!

[hedgewizard]

Wait, wait! You two have glossed over some potential gold dust in your replies. Can I get this straight - Boots, you're saying that allowed to wilt and dry out in the open, it behaves more like a "brown" (high-carbon) material?

And MMM, you're saying that in dry weather it can be used as a weed-suppressor for paths? Doesn't it just blow away? And do you lift it coming into the winter or leave it be to rot down?

[Boots]

Well, hay and straw is made from dried grasses... or it's variants. So yeah, you cut it, dry it and it becomes a carbon. Just like dried leaves.

Mandy is using the methane effect to minimise growth on her paths. As the clippings decompose they heat up and 'burn' the weeds growing underneath.

This could be an answer for the guy/gal (can't remember... ) chasing John for fast acting organic weed killers. That, or boiling water works pretty quick on pretty much most of the hardiest weeds.

Only thing you really have to watch for when adding grass (fresh or dry) to your compost is that you are not loading it up with grass seed... Can create a bit of havoc.

[hedgewizard]

That thing with John was really just a couple of us checking if he understood that weedkillers are non-organic. He didn't, since he starts his container-growing thing off by treating the whole area with diquat (weedol).

This is good stuff - I'd try the paths thing myself except I've just bagged two tons of wood chips for £20! I'll file the grass-as-carbon thing away for when I need it - hadn't really thought about it like that. Cheers!

[Boots]

Woohoo! Well done on the wood chips! I avoided woodchips for years when living in North Queensland as they were really bad for harbouring ticks... and up there they were paralysis ticks, so that wasn't much fun.

When I bought here and found the entire house yard was covered in them, I thought "Oh, no!" but - touch wood - we have not had a single problem with them, so it must have been a climate thing, I hope. Ours are bark chips, maybe ironbark... not certain.

Long term, they have been fantastic, and as they break down really easily and make a huge difference to the soil. I need to top mine up a bit now. Some places are just tiny wee bits of chips in dark rich topsoil.

[Millymollymandy]

And MMM, you're saying that in dry weather it can be used as a weed-suppressor for paths? Doesn't it just blow away? And do you lift it coming into the winter or leave it be to rot down?

Well, when I started to put it down, it was before the really dry weather, when everything was growing fast especially the weeds on the pathways. The cut grass is moist and after it has been trampled on it settles down. Now that it has been mostly dry for ages it has flattened out and only really bindweed is finding its way through.

I did have to keep on adding extra grass quite a few times to achieve this.

It also means that I will get lots of grass growing there next year, so I'll repeat the same thing.

If I had loads of money I wouldn't be doing this, but I can't think what else I can do for $0!! Gravel or woodchips would only work if I had some sort of edging for the beds, which I don't. It's a huge area so would cost a fortune in timber.

[Masco&Bongo]

I don't want/need to make prize winning compost...

I want to use all my organic material for something useful!

So, I should just make sure that I add paper/straw to stop it becoming a huge slimy heap, and not worry too much about the grass cuttings?

Is it worth, every time we add grass cuttings, adding a layer of (wet?) newspaper? Should we do that anyway everytime we add stuff?

Shelley
x

[Chickpea]

I'd suck it and see. Just put in what you've got. Odds are it will turn out just fine. If it does go slimy, then add some paper to fix it. You could put shredded paper in anyway if you have some. I wouldn't go all anally retentive about it though.