Help I have no grass to make compost?

[roach1229]

I just moved into a house that has no grass on the property. Basically, my 2.5 acres is woods with enough cleared to put the house and a small yard. However, the previous owner did not plant any grass. It is just dirt.

In the past i have made compost by making a cirle out of chicken wire. Then layering pine straw or leaves with grass clippings and what little scraps from the kitchen i could find. I turned the pile daily, added water as needed and had compost in about 2 weeks.

Actually, i have 2 questions:

1) how to make compost while i am clearing out the woods so i can put in some raised bed gardens?

2) I have not planted grass before, so any suggestions on what to plant and how to plant would be great as well.

Thanks

[soil]

what kind of stuff is in the woods? weeds? leaves? wood? other?

[roach1229]

My woods have several types of trees in them, but most are pine. The ground is completely covered with pine straw, leaves and branches. I haven't had the time to walk through the woods, yet, but in the few clearings that i can see there is nothing green.

[Kisal]

Maybe you have a neighbor who has grass clippings they would share? I had the majority of my lawn removed, but my neighbor has more than he needs for his compost, so he shares. Just make sure the grass hssn't been treated with stuff like chemical weed killers.

[rainbowgardener]

I make compost without grass clippings because we have very little lawn and we have a mulching mower that leaves the clippings on the lawn.

Check out the Greens & Browns sticky at the top of this section for ideas. All you need is a decent balance between greens and browns and it doesn't matter what they are, although having a good variety of different stuff in the pile makes better compost.

I use fall leaves for my main brown (I collect bags of them in the fall and use them most of the season), sometimes some straw, the paper bags the leaves were collected in, etc.

For greens I use kitchen scraps (we fill up a two gallon bucket at least every week with kitchen scraps, maybe you need to cook more! ), coffee grounds (Starbucks and other places give them away free, I bring some home from work), pulled weeds, deadheaded flowers and other yard trimmings, duck weed skimmed from our pond.

[farmerlon]

See if you can harvest Compost (already made) from the woods ... just dig down through the top layer of leaves and/or pine needles, and you'll probably find a nicely decomposed (composted) layer that you can shovel up and use right away.

[roach1229]

my hubby wants to remove all trees except the pines. On the trees that are removed are the leaves considered brown or green?

[farmerlon]

Browns ... even "fresh green" leaves are considered Browns for composting purposes.

[toxcrusadr]

My experience differs a bit on that...I've seen fresh shredded tree limbs (containing a lot of green leaves) heat up when piled. Not for very long, and the nitrogen is used up pretty quick, but there is some in there.

[Marlingardener]

Roach, this is not an answer to the question you asked, but I'll stick my two cents in anyway.
Please ask your husband to leave some of the deciduous trees. They are a great habitat for birds, add to the biodiversity of your acreage, and will make your wooded area much more interesting to look at. You'll have different greening times in the spring, and fall foliage to enjoy. Once those deciduous trees are gone they will be very difficult to replace.
By all means thin out the scraggly ones or ones that are in the way, but please leave all the ones you can.

[M.Clark]

I addition to what was mentioned above, I would try to shred any material that you put into the compost. The increased surface are will help break everything down. I also agree with asking your neighbor for his clippings. I have seen similar situations in the past where people have offered to mow their neighbor’s lawn with a bagging lawnmower, and then they would take the clippings. That way your neighbor gets a mowed lawn, and you get what you need.

Regarding planting a lawn, how packed down is the dirt? That is the problem that I am running into. I have used a small aerator in the past, but this year I am pondering the idea of either tilling and leveling or getting a commercial aerator and top soil.