I have had a riding lawn mower for years and still use it but I just bought a push mower with bag recently. I am enjoying collecting all the clippings and it is good exercise. In hot weather I may have to get up earlier. I should be able to make some hot compost with all the greens I'm getting.

I am wondering, do I need a composter or can I just pile it all up? I could turn it occasionally with a shovel and add to it bit by bit. Wouldn't this work?

What I do is probably called sheet composting. I mulch with the more attractive things like chopped fall leaves and grass clippings.I throw pulled weeds down somewhere to rot sometimes putting something more attractive over that. I get big brown sheets of cardboard from Sam's to smother weeds and put leaves or grass clippings over it. It is sometimes slick to walk on. It all rots and it all helps. I tried a little hugelkultur but decided that may attract snakes so I am slowing down on that idea. Done properly I think hugelkultur is a good idea, but I had some rotten wood on top of the ground.

Click on my name to go to my page, click on my clippings and you will see okiedawn's post about sheet composting.

This post was edited by helenh on Sun, Jun 8, 14 at 10:35

I've been a composter for over 30 years, there are several methods , If you only have grass clipping just making a pile would turn it a glob of matted clumps it would be a hot pile its best if you had 50% dry matter chopped as fine as the clippings and mix it in 4-6 inch layers wetting each one just to be damp not soaked best to have it 2-3 ft deep and turn it every few days this type will be done in 2-3 weeks the pile should really heat up or you can just slowly add to it with the same mix dry and green and wait til next spring the pile will be full of worms by then I also add my kitchen scraps veggies only , I have a lot of clippings to use up and a big garden so I mulch with my clippings around almost everything you can put them on thick 4-6 inch that shrink down they help with the weeds and hold in the moisture and will decompose into the soil also called sheet composting , if I'm tiling up a bed to plant I'll add some clippings and til them in it gives the plants a little nitrogen fix what ever way you use them grass clippings are great for the soil I treat them like just another crop to harvest.