grass cuttings

can anyone tell me if grass cuttings are any good for compast asi habve access to huge pilesof it and can i use it alone or do ineed to add anything else to it to use it also i noticed on the tv how well the anilmals are doing on the australian golf courses since they started useing nitrogen on the grass the animals eating the grass are now in very good condition all round it seems i know our tarmers use it but anyone know how to use it properly and where to gat it from cheers

Best source of Nitrogen for grass cuttings is male human urine.

The more different plant material there is in compost the better it is, but grass properly rotted down is better than nothing. Not easy to get to rot properly as it tends to go anaerobic and instead of decomposing, it turns into slime. The way to overcome this is either to turn the heap frequently or make air holes in it by pushing a bar down into the heap and waggling it about to make ahole.

many thanks for that, can i buy nitrogen for the allotment do you think its anygood useing to it

You cant buy nitrogen as such-but all plant foods contain levels of nitrogen as do animal manures-plants convert the nitrogen in to growth so a high nitrogen feed will promote green leaves but at the expense of flowers -it is all about the correct balance and what you are trying to grow- it depends on how you feed the soil and the plants

thank you sotongeoff, have you any idea which is the best way to feed an allottment and any makes you can recomend

4711 wrote (see)

... i noticed on the tv how well the animals are doing on the australian golf courses since they started using nitrogen ...

The program about the kangaroos on the golf course was brilliant, wasn't it.

It's best (essential) to make compost from materials that contain both nitrogen and carbon.

Generally, stuff that looks green is nitrogen-rich; and brown material is carbon-rich. Newspapers, cardboard and wood are carbon-rich.

It's a good idea to mix shredded newspaper or cardboard with grass cuttings.

Cheers Gary Hobson cardboard going in

Manure is rich in nitrogen (although it looks brown). I would imagine that kangaroo droppings are rich in nitrogen. So, the kangaroos would in fact fertilise the golf course. But I imagine that the course owners employee people to sweep up the kangaroo droppings, and then they employee more people to reapply the nitogren in the form of 'clean' pellets.

Most of my grass cuttings go to the green-waste collection. Having seen the efforts that went into trying to compost Bowling green cuttings and the failure there of, it took a lot of effort to remove years of black sticky waste and nothing would grow where it had been.
If there is plenty of woody or plant material I mix in a thin layer of grass cutting but there is too much to add it all, I also add some uric acid, the human kind collected in a bottle in the garage with the doors shut if you do not want to be arrested. Mix that with a watering can of water and sprinkle it on the compost as you add to the pile.
Nitrogen is part of all fertiliser whatever the mix and too much of any of it will burn or kill your plants. It greens up the plants often to the detriment of the plant flowering or fruiting, it will make the plant green and soft. Tomato fertiliser is a mix of Nitrogen Urea Phosphorus and Potassium (Potash) NPK.
You need a balance of feed to suit the plant and what it is actually doing, like your own diet a good mix little but often is better than stuffing your gut.
If you grow peas beans and other nitrogen producing roots then you have a fertile area for next years rotation crop.

Frank.

4711 wrote (see)

 

thank you sotongeoff, have you any idea which is the best way to feed an allottment and any makes you can recomend

Get your hands on as much organic matter as you can-including your compost-your fellow allotments holders will help with supply and offer loads of help and advice no doubt-get the soil in great shape first then you could add something like growmore at planting time.

many thanks to everybody for the info ,really helpfull,got a bucket in the shed now Palaiglide and an old shower curtain ,,know what i mean cheers everybody

Palaisglide, as I said grass cuttings go anaerobic if just left, turned and or aerated they compost just fine.

Berghill, in my experience no they don't, we were all volunteer groundsmen for our bowling club and so we tried all ways to compost the cuttings and still had to bag and get rid of a pile of black goo.

Frank.

Hi, I have been using grass cuttings for years as mulch under trees and as a weed supressant. yes it does go mushy and slimey but if it is spread thin it soon disappears and even weakens bind weed and dock and dandilion. it works ok in the compost bins too if spread thin  and mixed with other plant matter and uric acid, as suggested by others or use grotter.I compost most of my green waste and find the compost very useful. I have noticed lately that not only is bought compost pricy but some brands are not as good as my own and have bits of wood etc. in it.Besides, I resent sending anything (except stuff that takes ages to compost, i.e.rose prunings etc.) as they don't even give us FREE compost.It is a cheek considering that we pay council tax and get an inferior service from them.

Then, Palaisglide I do not know what you were doing, almost all of my grass cuttings go onto our compost heap and they make up the vast bulk of it and rot down within the normal length of time into usuable compost. Our neighbour puts his grass over the fence into the farmer's field behind and I noticed to day that it has rotted away into usuable stuff.

Yes indeed Berghill I too put some on my own compost spread thinly and mixed with plenty of other material, I turn it often so it gets air and being large wooden structures plenty of heat. If I go a bit mad and add too much I find when turning the heap the grass is still in a layer and have to break it up.
The bowling club grass did not have the mix, even when we tried turning and getting some air in it did not work. We added the trimmings from the surrounding hedges and that did not work so it went into bins and sent to the green-waste. We live and learn and up here on the North East Coast we have to work at getting heat into the compost.

Frank.

It is a shame really, throwing away material which could be turned into usable stuff and then having to buy it back again.

I sometimes think the amount of work involved in turning grass in to compost is not worth the effort for the amount one gets. 12 months worth produces a few cubic feet of it and a lot of back ache!

Mind it would take a few bin loads to get rid of even one mowing of our paths so the choice is not really there.

And if this rain does not stop there is going to be even more of it, nothing else is growing as it should, but boy is the grass.

The story of compost Berghill is knowing when to stop. I do not have a shredder so heavy stuff goes to the green-waste they put everything through a huge shredder and mixer, pile it high and turn it often.
My two large boxes with lids to keep the heat in fill quickly enough without the grass cuttings so it does not bother me too much and we can have a bag of compost per week from the green-waste free.
This week some woody gone over plants were mixed with some of as you say fast growing grass and dead headings, a drop of the magic mix from the garage sprinkled on and it is away, using one box whilst filling another turning the new box into the barrow and tossing it back keeps it aerated and heating.
In Autumn all the old potting soil gets mixed in as well then left all winter for lovely compost in the spring, usually my summer compost takes around six weeks this year probably six months?

Frank.