How much Grass?

How much grass is to much grass? On Monday they are going to mow the lawn at work again thus I may have a bunch of grass clippings at my disposal again if I want them. Since I got the last bag I haven't really added much to my pile other than a few days worth of coffee grounds and some kitchen scrapes. Is it to soon to added another 30-40 lbs of grass clippings?

I would suggest that you take them home and spread the grass clippings out to dry, like making hay.

Then you can store them until you need them and they should not get all stinky.

That is what I would do and it seems to work for me.

In a short while you will not be able to get as much as the grass will slow its growth.

Even if you have to keep them quite a while, fall will come with all the brown leaves.
I always have too many fall leaves and I pile them up until when the green stuff grows again in the spring.

Luckily grass can be either a green (fresh) or a brown (dried) ingredient to your compost pile.

I prefer the 1 green to 20 brown ratio for a good compost. Use your green when you have it as long as you have lots of brown to add as well, even newspaper torn into strips is a good brown ingredient.

Keep a pile of grass nearby to dry out and use as a brown when needed between your ability to gather brown fall leaves.

There's nothing like your own compost.

quiltbea wrote:Luckily grass can be either a green (fresh) or a brown (dried) ingredient to your compost pile.

I prefer the 1 green to 20 brown ratio for a good compost. Use your green when you have it as long as you have lots of brown to add as well, even newspaper torn into strips is a good brown ingredient.

Keep a pile of grass nearby to dry out and use as a brown when needed between your ability to gather brown fall leaves.

There's nothing like your own compost.

Stupid question but how do you dry it out without it all being blown away???? Seriously with the wind we get in SD anything lighter than a small Volvo get blown all over the state and back.

On the other hand 20:1 ratio means my numbers are WAY!!! off and I need to find a couple of sources of brown material stat.

I know some folks might question my ratio, but I can only go by what our Master Gardener from the Univ instructed in our seminar last year (and his compost was marvelous) and also my own compost from last year. Even tho I didn't get to turn it all winter, there was lush compost in the bottom of the pile.

As for keeping the grasses from blowing away, I use some pieces of chicken wire I had leftover from my first year doing SFG (wire cages that didn't work out because they snagged all my cheesecloth terribly so now I use wire clothes hangers tented over the squares).

Anything you have handy like bits of wire fencing or plastic fencing will work. I just lay mine on the ground beside my composter and cover it and its handy when its dried. Anything that lets the sun thru to dry it.

I also use the dried grasses as mulch around my plants in the beds. Its ideal. I cut it up with a scissors and place it around the base of my plants.

Edited to add: If you think about it, Mother Nature is mostly browns from leaves and dead plants and she makes a lovely carpet of naturally rich compost so that wild trees, plants and bushes thrive.

scmelik wrote:
Stupid question but how do you dry it out without it all being blown away???? Seriously with the wind we get in SD anything lighter than a small Volvo get blown all over the state and back.

On the other hand 20:1 ratio means my numbers are WAY!!! off and I need to find a couple of sources of brown material stat.

Make a pile. What you'll probably find is the stuff on top will dry the most and stuff on bottom might remain moist for a fairly long time. Therefore, you'll probably find that it's not very practical to lay it all out and dry everything at once.

I guess you could also create another bin to hold the grass.

By the way, green newly-cut grass as a mulch works. Its only when the greens are buried in the soil that it depletes the soil of nutrients, not when its drying on top.

Rake up newly-cut untreated lawn grasses and pile them around your crops as a mulch.

scmelik wrote: Seriously with the wind we get in SD anything lighter than a small Volvo get blown all over the state and back.

SO TRUE!!!!! You kill me, scmelik!

scmelik wrote: Seriously with the wind we get in SD anything lighter than a small Volvo get blown all over the state and back.

Neat description. It's a good job I wasn't drinking coffee when I read that or it'ld have been decorating my keyboard.

I blagged a couple of bags of clippings this week and am shredding paper and scraping round for leafmold until I can get some chopped straw from a horse feed merchant.

quiltbea on Fri 10 Jun - 4:02

Luckily grass can be either a green (fresh) or a brown (dried) ingredient to your compost pile.

I haven't read it anywhere, quiltbea, but I am inclined to think that dried grass is a green as the grass still contains chlorophyll. When I thought about it, all the dead leaves in fall etc have lost their c....... so they are definately a brown.

I think I may have expressed an original thought (even if I am wrong, lol) without "reading it somewhere".

PS I haven't mastered this "Quote" thingy yet.

scmelik wrote:Seriously with the wind we get in SD anything lighter than a small Volvo get blown all over the state and back.

You are killing me!! Thanks for the first laugh of the morning!

kele....
I think when the grass is brown, there's no chlorophyll left in it. I could be wrong, but I'm sure I read somewhere that dry grass is a brown. That's how I treat it.

When I dry my grass it is still green.