Conference uscd::gardenn

Ok, I'm getting the (new, grassless) yard cleaned up and have a few cubic
yards of straw to get rid of. This was used to insulate the basement dirt
before the slab was poured.

I'm attempting to compost it away, but I have no green material to add to
heat the pile up. Any suggestions? I'd rather not add chemical fertilizer.

I started one pile yesterday in a 4' diameter x 4' high wire bin. I guess
I'll know tonight whether it's heating up or not...? That took about half the
straw, BTW.

    You could mix in some horse manure or cow manure if it's available in
    your area or maybe grind up some leaves and soak the heck out of them.
    I realize leaves are carbon but when wet they attract alot of worms who
    will get the pile started pronto. Kitchen scraps will help.....
    
                                         -Steve

    Rabbit, chicken or other manure, grass clippings as you get them, IF
    you aren't going to be using bradleaf herbicides, coffee grounds, tea
    leaves, whatever eelings, old bread moldy vegetable stuff from the
    fridge, rinse the beer carboys and pour the leavings over the heap.  we
    also add ashes, but other people don't as it can get a heap too far on
    the PH edges.  Caveat, make sure the ASHES are at least a week old and
    cold.  Nothing is more embarassing and possibly disasterous than
    setting your heap on fire.  We have done it.  
    
    Ringers makes several compost starters, and one for high-carbon
    materials.  should be at your local garden center.  I have had good
    luck with their hard-to-breakdown culture.  
    
    Another option is to find someone with a healthy pile and borrow a
    shovel full of their heap.  Gets the right bugs running. 
    
    Alternatively you could till the straw into the yard and plant over
    it.
    
    Finally there is nothing wrong with a cup or too of High nitrgen
    fertilizer to get things heating if you have no other sources.
    
    meg

It's a month later... I've been collecting the daily coffee grounds from
around the cubicle area here (5-8 pots of coffee per day), and we've been
dumping in kitchen scraps. I'm turning the pile every week or two.

It's working - the straw is starting to blacken and rot.

Something is getting hungry for our kitchen scraps. The neighbor's dogs go
nuts, and we look out to see the wire bin all bent over. Haven't caught it
in the act yet...

    The squirrels like to go through mine for anything tasty on a regular
    basis, my dog goes nutz when she finds them rooting around.
    
    
    
    

    I got my neighbor to add his grass clippings to my pile, and lo and
    behold it's cooking! Yay! I wondered if I'd ever get it to work.

Yah, I was thinking about that... we actually have some of our own grass now,
so it won't be long before I can start adding that. We ought to have some
finished compost by about mid-summer.

    I throw grass clippings in mine, but I don't use any herbicides and
    have declared dandylions as those pretty yellow flowers.  If you are
    using 24D or other boradleaf herbicides, you may want to review where
    you are planbning on useing your compost.
    
    meg 

Nope, no plans to use herbicides, or even fertilizer on grass. I've only got
so much time for gardening, and having a putting green lawn is way, way down
on the list. Also trying to go chemical-free.