brown - mixed w/ leaves all you'll have in spring is half finished leaf mold

Bill

Green. The color of the plant material is not a good determinant for whether the material is green or brown. Any plant that is still storing protein is a green. Wheat is the most famous brown colored green on the planet. Your grass likely has protein in the leaves and stalks.

I would have left it in place as a mulch.

Well so far I have a green and a brown.. lol.

dchall, I would have left it be but the place happens to be the home to some apple trees that when I moved in where over grown and poorly maintained so I am attempting to get the plot in good order so I may get some fruit from the trees in a year or two. Just moved in this fall and from what I hear from a growers her in my area they say apple trees hate wet feat. but enough with my logic.

I am going to build a chicken wire pile in the next few days and see if I can get this thing to cook with the grass and leaves I have from this fall.

If all goes well I will flip it between two wire cages every weekend untill its done.

That depends on many things. Dried grass, like hay, can be a source of Nitrogen even if it is brown with a C:N ratio of about 19:1, so it would be a green. But grass can also fairly easily loose that Nitrogen and if not handled well could end up as a brown. My experience is that grass left exposed to the elements too long becomes a brown.

well all today I built a pile out of this stuff,

one layer grass, one layer leaves about 2-3 in in each wet it and so on. I should know in about a day if it has enough nitrogen to get things rolling or not.

one more question since I am relitively new. Can I throw some multi purpose fertilizer in the mix if things don't get cooking to add to the N. figured if its still cold in a week I go and turn it over and throw a handfull in every other layer. Will this type of granulated fetelizer supply enough N. its is 10 10 10.

any thoughts?

Any good Nitrogen source will work, although some schools of thought on using synthetic fertilizers is that they are too harsh (acidic or alkaline depending on who you talk to) and will kill off the bacteria needed to digest that material. I've not seen this where people I know use these synthetics but it seems to me to tkae longer for there compost to get digested than it does mine with manures or blood meal, or some other more natural form of Nitrogen. Just my observation.