How can I make a healthy compose pile with all of my yard clipping's?

Question

I would like to recycle all of my yard waste and make it into a healthy compose pile for future gardening instead of making a pile for the trash man to pick up..Are there any helpful hints out there?

Answer 1

Depending on the amount of organic waste material you have , there are a number of methods . The easiest , for large amounts is to just pile all grass clippings , raked leaves, vegatable peelings, etc , into a pile .

Next spring , when gardening time comes , take all of the coarse outer , unrotted material off the pile , and use the compost from the bottom of the pile . The material that you took off the top , is the beginning of a new pile .

Another way is to use a fork to turn the entire pile every two weeks . That way , the whole amount becomes compost . But it takes time and work .

In either case , wet down the outer surface quite well , if there isn't much rain . Try to avoid so much water that it washes away some of the nutrients . There shouldn't be a stream running from the pile .     Good gardening .

Answer 2

Throw them on a pile along with other organic material. It's not too difficult.

Answer 3

Grass clippings alone need to be supplemented with something like straw or tree leaves.

You need to keep the pile moist to avoid overheating, and turn it several times with a fork.

If you put some sod into the pile, sod that contains earthworms, the earthworms can do most of the turning work, and they would prefer if you don't turn it.

The pile will be healthiest if it is moderately well drained as well as being kept moist.

There are composters made like a garbage barrel  like 100 - 200 litres one tosses stuff into them and each week roll the barrel in the driveway to do the turning. They have vent holes in the bottom.

Still one needs to use some leaves some grass, and best have some sod with worms.

After these composters are filled up, one dumps them out leaving only 1/4 full and lets the compost dumped out sit around in the back of the yard for a while.. often a month, while the composter fills up again.

These composters are suitable for only a small yard. If one would fill one in a single cutting of the lawn they are impractical and one wants to go to just a pile.

One can use grass clippings as a mulch in a garden, suppresses weeds and feeds the plants, composts itself perfectly. One puts the mulch in about 10 to 20 cm thick, depending on how tall the crops are. One can put this mulch on garden areas to be used to receive transplanted plants later.

But, be cautious of grass clippings that carry herbicides.

Answer 4

Just keep the pile moist and turn it over from week to week.

You'll have good dirt in about 2 months.

Answer 5

Search for compost; you'll find lots of resources.  

Basically, make pile or a bin, throw your veggie scraps on, some leaves or paper, and let it go to work, turning every now and then.

Great free & knowlegable resources on gardenweb.com

Start with the basic FAQ:  http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/soil/...

Here's a link to the main forum:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/soil...

If you like what you find here, look for the book "Let it Rot!: The Gardener's Guide to Composting"

Enjoy!