posted 8 years ago
Bagged greens/lawn trimmings can get pretty funky pretty fast ---- they just want to turn to compost -- can you blame them?
My go-to is always coffee grounds. I have a source where I pick up two good-sized bags a couple of times a week. They are in plastic bags. I just throw them out on the ground by the pile and they sit there until I'm ready to build a new pile, or re-energize a cold pile. Used coffee grounds are a great green that you can leave in a bag or bucket for months --- very stable. Just keep them dry, but when you are ready to use them, they'll jump-start your pile.
A bale of alfalfa hay is also high in nitrogen, but once dried, it doesn't heat up or stink up until you re-hydrate it. (That's why farmers work so hard to make sure their hay is dry before they put it up in the barn—they don't want it to mold or catch on fire). Just bust the bale apart and saturate it with water, and it becomes a nice green for your compost pile.
I've heard that dried seaweed is also a great storable-green, but I've never worked with it so I don't know that from personal experience.
Urine is a green. Pee in old milk jugs, cap them and keep it around till you are ready to use it. Know that it'll smell like ammonia after a couple of days—don't know why. But it's a great way to add moisture and N to your pile.
Dried cow pies or other animal manures are also great storable greens. I would imagine that it would only take a day or two to sun dry rabbit poop in the hot summer sun. Horse road-apples only take a couple of days until they are very dry and non-stinky.
My ultimate green "storage" solution is the 100 or so comfrey plants I've got growing all over the place. Comfrey is a prolific producer. When I'm building a pile, I get the wheel barrow and walk around with a set of hedge clippers, chop up 20 or so big comfrey plants, and incorporate that into the pile. Instant heat. I've never been able to dry comfrey because its so wet, it almost melts in a couple of days after you've cut it. In our climate, it grows 12 months of the year, so I've always got a bunch of it ready to cut and use at any time.
those are a few of my ideas.
As for meat and dairy --- go ahead and use them if you build a big enough pile that is hot enough. But as was mentioned above, you have to be prepared for rats and other vermin. Put such food scraps right in the heart of your pile, well integrated with both drier carbon (like shredded paper) and a super hot activator (coffee grounds or comfrey). A well-built pile will get 140 degrees within 3 days. That'll keep the raccoons out. They don't want to put their little snout into a hot pile of coffee grounds and human urine.
Sure, you can build a pile on concrete or other paved surfaces. But I like to know that whatever is leaching from the pile (compost tea of the purest sort) is dripping down into the root zone of my trees. That's why I'm constantly moving my pile from place to place, so I can spread the goodness around. If you build it on a driveway or sidewalk, it will likely stain the concrete.
Sure 1/3 & 2/3 is as good a ratio as any, but be prepared to alter the mix. If it gets stinky, more browns and give it a good mix. If it's not heating up enough, more greens. Actually, I'd recommend a ratio more like 1/4 greens, 3/4 browns, or even 80/20. But I've never calculated my ratios EVER, and I don't intend to begin any time soon. I just pile it up and keep adding more and more to it. When I turn it, I'll assess what the pile needs. (But I'm not making 21 day compost—I'm a slow composter).
Have fun! What could possibly be more fun than watching biomass rot?
"The rule of no realm is mine. But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, these are my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail in my task if anything that passes through this night can still grow fairer or bear fruit and flower again in days to come. For I too am a steward. Did you not know?" Gandolf
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