Thursday, March 8, 2012

Winter Composting Efforts.


Each fall I sow my lawn with annual rye grass seed in order to have a good supply of "greens" for my compost pile through the winter. This year was no exception. I bought a ten pound bag of grass seed for this on two separate occasions, for a total of twenty pounds of grass seed from two different batches. I sowed the seed on October 18th and watered it in. As you can see from the picture below, the seed didn't germinate very well. In previous years this area would be a solid lush green color. Not this year.


I suspect that this warm winter that we've been enjoying has affected the germination of the winter grass seed and the growth of the grass as well. My lawn got patchy enough to mow one time and that was in December. My usual locations for obtaining grass clippings are all the same way. It just didn't grow. Consequently, my compost pile didn't get the greens that it needed to cook properly through the winter. I went to turning it about every ten days instead of every three days, but there was no significant change in the appearance of it. It didn't even produce steam when I turned it on cool mornings.


Finally some lawns grew enough so that they were mowed and I was able to gather some bags of clippings and blend their contents into my compost pile.


Yesterday I mixed in six lawn bags of grass clippings, each about 3/4 full, with my compost. Finally the compost should resume cooking like it is supposed to, and I'll go back to turning the pile every three days. The nitrogen materials really make a difference. I have read many times that in a case such as this, you can just mix in some nitrogen fertilizer as a susbtitute for the greens. I tried that a couple of years ago and it didn't work for me. The only thing it did was use up a four pound bag of dried blood organic fertilizer that could have been better used elsewhere in the spring.

I just thought I would share this information with my composting friends out there in case it might help someone else.

Thanks for visiting and seeing what's going on with my compost area.

Have a great vegetable gardening day!
Veggie PAK

8 comments:

  1. Hi! I am new in gardening and wanted to ask, when you move your lawn, do you leave some grass clipping on as natural fertilizer? I have read that is good for lawn to leave some to feed it. Or you use all of them in compost? My compost is mostly brown :( I too need more greens.

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    1. I have been bagging my clippings since I started composting a few years ago. I don't fertilize my lawn or water it, and it is as green as the lawns of my neighbors who have chemical lawn service companies to service their lawns. The clippings contain nitrogen, which makes things turn green, but that same nitrogen feeds the composting process. I'd rather use it for the compost process. If you add grass clippings to your compost and have it in a pile, turn it over a few times and you'll see the composting process speed up. When I have sufficient green material, I like to turn my compost every three days. That not only mixes it up well, it also gets oxygen to the microbes that are actually doing the work of composting.

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  2. I always admire people who make composting more of a process than just some place to pile excess waste.

    I am definitely one of those latter people! I just throw stuff in and hope it will cook in time for spring. But if it doesn't, I just let it sit for longer. Maybe some day I will be more proactive about it like you!

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    1. Composting can be perceived as fun if you enjoy doing something and actually get to see it working. That's how I see it. Fun!

      If you have a loose compost pile (not in a plastic container) you would see progress with it by just turning it when you happen to think of it. It doesn't have to be a routine if you have other pressing things to deal with. I'm retired, so I'm able to turn mine whenever I feel like it. It was different when I was going to work every day. Anyway, if your pile is loose, I suggest using a three pronged hay fork with a long handle to turn your compost. The leverage of the long handle will make you never to want to use a digging fork to turn your compost again. The compost as fertilizer is great, but I do it more for the beneficial microbes that end up getting distributed in the garden. They fight soil born pests and diseases.

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  3. Grass clippings are the only way my piles ever get hot but like you I never have enough but here it is because a lot of it goes to the ducks.
    I am more like Prairie Cat. I pile it up and it eventually composts. I have been trying to remember to turn it some but I definitely don't turn it enough.

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    1. If I had those ducks and chickens I would absolutely put all the used bedding materials on the compost pile. Their droppings would promote the composting process. That would make GREAT compost!

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  4. wow now that is a compost bin--we only have two large rubbermaid containers full.
    Peace and Raw Health,
    E

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  5. You live in Virginia and it is already so hot there that you could mow six bags of grass clippings? What's happening to this climate? Very scary.

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