My neighbor's old compost bin taught me a trick about layering browns and greens

I saw my neighbor dumping coffee grounds on his compost last week and asked him about it. He said he puts 3 inches of brown leaves for every inch of grass clippings to stop it from getting slimy. I tried it with my bin on Tuesday and the smell dropped a ton compared to my old pile. Has anyone else had better luck balancing their compost pile with specific ratios?

2 comments

2 Comments

victor_carter5127d ago

Three inches of browns to one inch of greens? That's way more browns than I've been using. I've been doing one to one and my pile was a wet mess. All slimy and stinking like rotten eggs. My wife was about to make me move it to the back corner of the yard. I'm gonna try your neighbor's trick this weekend. Sounds like the guy knows his stuff. Maybe I been overloading on the grass clippings.

fionagibson27d ago

My neighbor Bob down the street told me the same thing last spring. I had always figured compost was just compost and you toss everything in together. But after I started measuring out three inches of dried leaves to one inch of kitchen scraps and grass clippings, the difference was night and day. That slimy layer on top of my old pile just disappeared and now it actually smells like damp dirt instead of garbage.