is newspaper a brown?

My neighbor gave me all his grass clippings this week, my compost has gone from on the dry side to really wet. Dry leaves aren't available yet. Will newspapers cut into strips help with this? Is newspaper a brown? I still don't quite get the browns. Would someone take pity on me and explain browns again? I understand ratio, etc. just not what makes up browns. Seems like part of the year I'll have too many greens, and once the leaves fall, I'll have too much brown. Thanks!

Hmmm... maybe it's time to tell her...

Maybe this will help you (might further confuse you, but I hope not!).

Greens are materials that have a higher nitrogen content than carbon. Browns are just the opposite, they have more carbon (when you see carbon, think burnt, or brown, right?) in them nitrogen. It could be twice as high, 50 or 100 times as high, depending on what you have.

Newspaper has a higher carbon content (I don't think it has any nitrogen in it, even if once upon a time when it was a tree it did). So yes, it is a brown. Newspaper, paper towels, napkins, cardboard - just about any paper product.

Typically, our kitchen waste is high in nitrogen, as is our grass clippings, weeds, etc. - so usually people have a harder time finding the "browns". If you have a lot of leaves and a bit of extra space, you might want to consider storing a couple of bags to use when there's nothing else around. Of course, if you don't mind shredding up newspapers (the smaller *any* of this stuff is, the better) you can always have your carbon supply.

Hope that helps and wasn't too long winded!!!

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/soil/msg0814235418941.html

Here's a thread in that "other" garden forum that discusses greens and browns. The colors were meant to simplify the concept of Carbon:Nitrogen ratio. To cook compost, you want 30C:1N or about equal amounts of greens and browns (cardboard, shredded newspaper or office paper or bills and spam mail), and/or leaves.

By George, I think I've got it! At least I think so today, lol. Since right now my composter has just had a bag of grass added, I need to add a bag of shredded newspaper, too. Leaves won't be a problem (3 big trees), I've always chopped them and put them on my gardens. I'll just have to put some aside for the composter and take my neighbors bags, too. Thank you both very much, and now I can explain it to my next door neighbor because I bought her a tumbler I found used at a garage sale! C

I've never really understood the greens and browns....I just throw everything in and turn it over every few days, water a bit if it's dry.........this year I must have got 22 wheelbarrows full of good dark compost.

threegardeners: I think thats right. If it gets smelly add more leaves/cardboard/shredded paper. If it doesn't do anything add more grass clippings, kitchen scraps, and weeds.

you know...I've never ever put shredded paper or cardboard in my compost pile.....it's actually never occurred to me that I could....lol....in the spring and summer it's garden stuff, and in the winter 80% coffee grounds and tea bags.....

Ohh, i'm drooling over 22 wheelbarrows of compost! I'd be such a happy gardener.

To tell the truth Ive never made a compost pile. I sheet compost over cardboard or newspaper. I recently got a shredder to shred bills (after I pay them) and junk mail. Add rabbit droppings and straw. Add kitchen scraps,weeds with a lot of green tea bags. Repeat the layers and plant. I use old potting soil from dead plants or potting up to fill in.

Gloria, have you had problems with flies in your sheet composting? Mine is outside of my kitchen door and I've about had it.

We send all our flies to you, PC!

I sheet compost - but not right outside my door.
I haven't noticed any flies, except when I add the compost bucket innerds from the kitchen. I have to add shredded paper/newspaper immediately or they show up in droves. I think the first guy there does a 2-finger whistle, sounding the alert...
They don't stick around when the paper goes on top: they go to Gainesboro.

LOL, smarty!

Yeah, with the horses, the first guy doesn't even have to whistle - they're right behind him.

PC. No flies. Right now Im building beds some distance from my house adjacent to my greenhouses. They are pretty heavy on the "brown side" with a lot of straw from my rabbit. When I put in kitchen scraps I bury them under a wad of straw. I haven't noticed any flies.

Guess I'll have to go heavier on the cardboard- my darn dogs keep moving it around to see if there's anything good underneath. Grrrr...

c. The_Wonder_Down_Under. its her puppy.

PC: Its hard to out-smart a dog.

gloria

Oh my, Fluffy may be the cutest dog I've ever seen. What kind? I want one!

Did you look at the caption on the blow up? Destroyer! I asked her (The Wonder Down Under) but she hasn't answered yet. I want one too. Id even make room in my dog family for one of those. We may have to fly to Australia to get one.

OMG, how cute is that puppy!?!?!? It almost looks like a Shih Tzu pup.

I put alfalfa cubes in one of the layers for a bed I was building the other day, and my Shih Tzu mix had 3 of them out, eating them! Even after I buried them with dirt, he was still digging them out.

With that mask, I would have have named her something like Zorro.

SC, put the cubes in a bucket with some water. They blow up and you can spread it on like grass clippings. My dog hasn't bothered them since. Boy they smell, um, good.

Ya, think I'll have to do that next time. Actually, I like the way alfalfa smells. lol

That was a question I had about the greens and browns
What! Shredding newas paper and cardboard isn't everyone's hobby and favorite thing to do. Everyone doesn't spend their evenings watching TV and shredding paper?
What's the world coming to

I'm a virgin composter -- plan to start my first one this weekend. Before reading this thread, I was confused about the greens and browns (perhaps being color blind has something to do with that, greens tend to look gray or brown to me). Anyway, I've been wondering what to do with all of the bills, bank statements and junk mail -- nervous about just throwing them in the trash -- I've collected a big bag of this paper stuff. LorraineR , I now have a new hobbie - shredding paper while watching TV.

What is sheet composting and is it any better, faster than using a container? Did I mention that I'm also impatient. If I start my pile this weekend will it be ready for use in the spring ... :)

You can plant into a sheet composted bed immediately.

Sheet composting: Wet newspaper to choke out any weeds and to provide a base for the bed. You can also use cardboard. Water thoroughly before putting down the cardboard. Then layer shredded pine bark mulch, paper, kitchen scraps, straw, manure, leaves, coffee grounds. Whatever you can get your hands on. This is essentially the same as "lasagna bed".

Some argue that sheet composting results in less loss of nutrients than composting in a container.

I just made my first lasagne bed last week and put all my young cannas in it. Let me tell you, those are some HAPPY cannas!!! They didn't even flinch from the transplanting.

SCNewbie: How did you make the lasagna bed? Im just starting on one now for daylilies that a scattered hither and yon. I want to put them in one happy place.

Well, I'm no expert, mind you - I just know what I read here. Thank god for all you DGers!!! :)))

I have impenetrable hard clay, so I have to do the raised beds, & the top soil I had delivered isn't much better. I kept notes on this, since it was my first one.

- A liberal sprinkling of gypsum to soften the clay, watered in.
- A thick layer - about 7 sheets - of newspaper, watered.
- A 2 inch layer of dead leaves from last year, unchopped, also watered.
- A thin layer of the nasty top soil.
- A solid layer of alfalfa cubes, soaked & shredded.
- A light sprinkling of Epsom Salts over that, watered in.
- A thick layer of the nasty top soil.
- A solid layer of Aged Pine Bark soil conditioner from Fafard
- A heavy layer of the nasty top soil.

Then I planted the cannas, using some of the soilless mix from Fafard they were growing in, mixed with the top soil. Then I topped that with the Aged Pine Bark soil conditioner again as mulch.

My Australia was just starting to send up its first flowering stalk so I was nervous about transplanting it - I wanted to see a blossom so badly!! But it hasn't skipped a beat since I put them in, and my Madame Butterfly is now sending up a flowering stalk too, and little shoots are coming up around many of them. I'm really surprised and delighted that they took to this so well.

But, tonight's our first frost advisory, so I'm not sure I'm going to get to see my flowers after all. I'm going to cover them with plastic and see if that works - we'll be warmer the rest of the week.

Incidentally, I'm putting 14 clematis in the same way, only with individual lasagne piles for each one, along a fence.

WOW. No wonder those cannas were happy.

Ya, it was a lot of work, but nothing's going to grow in this dirt, so I don't really have a choice.

Don't let the plastic touch your leaves, SCN - if it frosts, that part will be bitten. I usually use sheets, just to avoid that. The louder, the better!

Thanks gloria125 for the sheet composting explanation. I'm planning a small (10x6, or so) bed in the back corner of the yard. Do I need to pull up the grass and break up the soil first? Or do I just lay down the card board and start layering on the compost material?

Sheet composting is a 'no-dig' method of gardening. The object of it is to disturb the soil as little as possible so that you maintain the integrity of its structure. First, water, or work after a soaking rain. Then cardboard or newspaper, and water that layer. You may need to stomp down any grass, but it is not necessary to kill it or remove it. That's the purpose of the cardboard or newspaper. Some instructions say to spread fertilizer under the cardboard. Some people here recommend putting coffee grounds under the cardboard/newspaper. You don't need to break up the soil first, because the sheet compost will bring earthworms to the area and they will do the work for you.

gloria

Great .. this is my kind of gardening. This will save my back for weeding and hauling bags of soil and mulch. Thank you so much for your help.

Ut oh, Pagan. :( Thanks for letting me know that. I'll have to make sure they're all ok when I take the dogs out for their last potty break.

Mmm - let 'em pee on your compost, lol... actually, I wonder if dog urine is as high in nitrogen as ours is.

And yes, there are people who do recycle it *all*!

If you're dealing with fly problems, you aren't burying the "additions" deep enough. I use sheet composting when I'm starting a new bed, and yes I do put down coffee grounds and a thick layer of wet newspaper and them big pieces of cardboard on top. The guys at Starbucks and the appliance store are my new best friends, LOL. I know they think I'm a crazy old lady, but they sure like the fresh vegs and home made treats. No good deed should go unpunished....LOL
We mainly use homemade bins made from pallets. Hubby got them from work and is going to build me another one this weekend. Luckly, we have ready access to cow manure and leaf pick up will start soon. WOOHOO! I usually make several trips to town and ask plp if I may have their bagged leaves. I have some "regulars" that call me and tell me to come and get it. I call them when I have fresh vegs. Great stuff all around!