Tower of grass clippings

Grass Clipping Tower ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden )

Never had it this tall before. Normally it was just half the height and I guess the rain must had made the grass grew real fast. I guess I am going to have a very fertile farm soon!!!

 

Love mulch

 

Looks like the grass has taken on a life of its own. Lots of nice mulch. Future plants and vegetables will benefit. Are you sure there is not a grass creature hidden in that pile. It is awful big.

Jerry

 

That is a lot of grass, KK. was that all from one mowing (the green part)?.

 

Thanks Jewell.

Jerry there are lots of other life form in there but the grass are either dead or dying. Yes future plants will benefit from this pile because it will be compost. Our daily kitchen and garden waste goes in there too!

Eileen, it definitely will because that is where my composting starts.

Yes Carolyn, only the green part is from one mowing. The green part is from 30% of the front yard. The brown part is from the rest of the area surrounding the house and some left over from the previous pile.

 

That looks very good, KK. Are you going to leave it as-is, or will you add some fresh horse manure or the like?

It looks like great stuff there....and so tidy!

 

Do you have that in a fence? It is so neat and tidy....It is a lot of clippings, too I think we have that much when we mow our grass and we mow a lot, but we put it on the garden for mulch.

 

Thanks Sojerd, they are really great stuff for the plants when they are ready. Horse manure is a thing that is unheard of here because horses are almost non-existent. Cow manure is also getting rare because of development. Kitchen and garden waste is added into it on a daily basis. A hole is made in the tower and covered again after the waste are added in.

Carolyn, there is no fence or any structure to keep the grass clipping in place. I too am surprised that the grass clipping can stay in place as it is. As the grass clippings dries out they tend to stick together.


Compost Stations ( photo / image / picture from KK Ng's Garden )

The tower is the first area where the composting start and and station 2 is where serious composting takes place. Normally when the tower shrinks to about 1/3 its original height, the middle part of it will be extracted and placed in station 2.

In station 2 the composting compost is turned once in every 5 or 6 days and is transferred to station 3 when it is is ready for use. Sometimes there are excess compost in station 3 when the cycle of the transferring need to be done so that the yard can get mowed. Normally at this time the compost in station 2 would be ripe enough to be transferred to station 3 and the excess from station 3 will put into storage in drums for use when I plant heavy feeders. Not all the clippings go into the tower, some will be used as mulch for new planting beds for veggies and some for perennials.

The cycle from Station 1 to station 2 is about 30 to 45 days and to station 2 to station 3 is about also about 30 to 45 days. Therefore I get fresh compost every 30 to 45 days even though it takes about 60 to 90 days for the compost to travel from station 1 to 3.

 

Wow, very nice! I keep trying to get my boyfriend to quit throwing away grass clippings because I want to use them, but he refuses to listen!

 

Thanks TheBip, why not challenge him to build a tower!!!

 

Can hardly wait until we can mow and bag our grass.Dh get it by truck load when he mows church's lawn.