Kitchen Garden Forum

Every week or so I have a largish quantity of lawn mowings that usually go on the compost heaps (2), but there's not much else to go on except leaves in the autumn. (Our peelings and other veggie food scraps go to a friend's chickens in return for eggs!). The grass doesn't rot down into very good compost - is there anything I can do to improve it or is it a lost cause?
Thanks all, John N.

Dear JohnN, if you can get hold of a bale of straw that would work a treat.

Shredded paper, torn up cardboard and Comfrey all help.

I also use the grass clippings fresh as a mulch particularly between potato rows ( in the dips between the mounds) and they are also then useful if the spuds pop up early and are threatened by frost - as you can then heap up the clippings as frost protection. the worms then soon chomp through them and you will be surprised with how little there is left.

I also use it to mulch overwinter on bare patches of the plot - esp. if it has some shredded leaves as well in the autumn. I did that last autumn - about 9 inches deep on one patch about 15 feet by 5 - and the worms have done their job over winter and I have a lovely crumbly tilth full of worm casts !!

I know i have said this before but, please be careful if you are using grass cuttings that have been treated with Herbicide, espcially if they have come from a lawn treated by one of the lawn specialists, as they use very potent stuff.

thanks for the warning OH - it is all our own grass - ( I say grass .. clover, daisy leaf , moss , creeping buttercup ... etc ... !!!!) so no herbicides there !!

Hi Yummyveggies,
"thanks for the warning OH - it is all our own grass - ( I say grass .. clover, daisy leaf , moss , creeping buttercup ... etc ... !!!!) so no herbicides there !!"
By using grass cuttings the way you do there may well be no herbicides but there certainly will be seeds of everything contained in the mulch.
I for one would never use 'live' grass cuttings as a mulch. Most of it here would be blown away and therefore wasted. To my mind grass cuttings will give a far better nutritional value if suitably composted. I too have a very large area of greensward which is mown very regularly, including a green lane over half a mile long, and all my cuttings are mixed with shredded straw and added to a heap that is covered with HD Black Polythene. These rot down very quickly but are not used for a couple of years by which time they are good fertile soil.
JB.

Interesting replies - thanks. Where does one buy the kind of straw recommended by OH? Equestrian supplier? Garden centre? Is any old straw suitable, or does oit have to be a special kind? My fishing club uses straw in their lake to keep algae down, would that do?.
John N

Hi John,
Straw is straw basically but most of my straw in Barley Straw.
If you do not have a shredder use a mower to chop it into pieces as small as possible. There is a high water content in grass cuttings and without something to soak up the excess moisture it can not only be foul smelling but actually seep out the bottom of the compost bin. This in turn may give you a fly problem. This is why my heap is wrapped in hd black Polythene and all the excess moisture is contained and is ultimately soaked up by the straw I therefore contain all of the nutrition.
I appreciate that many people swear by mulching but I am afraid that I am certainly not for it. I am of the opinion that mulching is responsible for plants forming too many sub-surface roots and not the deep roots that are very necessary for good plant health. To me if the compost is dug well in then the plants will have the moisture at the roots contained in the compost where it is most needed and come a very hot period your plants will survive far better than from a dried out mulch.
JB.

I couldn't agree with you more on mulching and root growth .. it is only usually the spuds I mulch during growing season ... but use the clippings as an overwinter mulch on bare ground with the shredded leaves - which is all gone by this time of year. And yes weed seeds - well I quite enjoy hoeing I am also fortunate to have a v sheltered veg plot so no problem with it blowing away.