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All I have is grass and coffee!
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Posted by
kpev7hard 7 (
My Page) on
Thu, Jul 21, 11 at 10:36
| I have a little compost bin in my back yard. I try to keep a good mix of brown/green in there, but this time of year I am really lacking in the brown department. I have a ton of grass clippings from my yard and coffee grounds from starbucks, but very few leaves or other brown stuff. So my question is, does this make for ok compost? I assume it will just make a mixture that is higher in nitrogen, although it does seem to be taking forever to break down (also very dry here lately so the pile isn't as moist as it probably should be). I would say my pile right now is 95% grass/coffee and 5% leaves, that's all I have available to me until fall. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: All I have is grass and coffee!
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| Do you have any paper you can shred? I shred junk mail, financial records (except EOY) etc and add to the compost when I'm low on greens. Newspaper will also work. |
RE: All I have is grass and coffee!
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| try drying the grass on a tarp before adding anymore to the pile = brown |
Here is a link that might be useful: composting grass clippings
RE: All I have is grass and coffee!
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| i don't have a paper shredder at home, can i just tear the paper up? i'm sure my infant daughter would love that! i didn't know that dried grass clippings are considered brown. i haven't turned the pile in some time and the last load of grass that was heaped on the pile has dried, i mixed that into the pile, along with three huge bags of coffee grounds from starbucks yesterday. |
RE: All I have is grass and coffee!
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| I agree with the shredded or torn paper or newspaper, also if you have coffee filters and paper towels or napkins. Toilet paper or paper towel rolls too, torn up cereal boxes, sugar bags, other boxes. I was also thinking that drying grass clippings first would work. I am not sure if grass clippings that are dry are browns but they are certainly less wet, and it's that wetness that can make a pile slimy and awful. |
RE: All I have is grass and coffee!
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You have material that is fairly high in Nitrogen and you do need Carbons to balance that. Paper and cardboard are one source, wood chips would be another.
Your grass clippings and coffee grounds would be digested but in the process would smell quite bad since fresh grass clippings piled up tend to be too wet and go to anaerobic quite easily. |
RE: All I have is grass and coffee!
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| I saw an ad on craigslist for free cross shredded paper at "Sir Speedy" - I picked up several bags - wow!! This stuff "melts" into the wet greens and the pile is HOT hot hot a couple days later. Maybe check around if you have that sort of store nearby, or put up a "wanted" ad for this stuff - I bet there is somebody who wants to get rid of it. |
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