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Albert_136
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What was the etymology of greens/browns memes?

Who first concocted this 'greens/browns' terminology that has rattled around in our composting bins for years? .

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rainbowgardener
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Don't know, but here's some guesses. Composting has been practiced since ancient China and Biblical times. But modern Euro-American awareness of composting begins with Sir Albert Howard, a British government agronomist, who learned about composting in India in the early 20th century. He developed a recipe for composting called Indore method. It calls for building a pile all at once with a base of brush, then a layer of "green matter" and then a layer of manure. His piles actually had no "browns" except the brush at the bottom.

J.I. Rodale founder of Rodale Press, learned of Howard's methods, then brought them to the US.
He founded Organic Gardening magazine in the 1940's and published a huge book "The Complete Book of Composting" in 1950.

Dr. Clarence Goleuke studied composting at U Calif Berkeley in the 1940's and was a leading force in making composting scientific. He is called the "grandfather" of modern US composting.

My guess is that somewhere in these men's works you would find the origin of the terms and I would put my money on Rodale, since he did the most in popularizing it....

It is short hand because it sometimes works that way: grass clippings are "greens" and are green. Fall leaves are "browns" and are brown. But of course manure and coffee grounds are also "greens" so you can't rely on color.



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