I use the grass clippings in the summer directly as a mulch. In the fall, I don't mow for a few weeks before leaf-fall, then mow everything up together, getting a pretty good mix of grass clippings and chopped leaves, which I heap up and they compost nicely by spring.

Mulch your leaves and compost them by themselves (no grass) to get leaf mold. Leave your grass clippings on the lawn and fertilize less often.

I do the same as Dave. I also use clippings directly mix in with the soil and this way I cultivate valuable earthworms that I need to create healthy soil.

I do the same as Dave as well. You can still keep the three bins going and throw your greens from yard waste in there and keep the rotation going once you see how everything works.

Hi Leo,

I’m lazy! The way I
do it is to throw it on a pile and let it rot!
No special mixtures, just whatever I have to throw on the pile goes on
the pile. In the last few years I have started to turn and/or mix and
fluff it up at least once a year to get air in it to get it cooking! Otherwise the only thing I do is to wet it
down well every now and then in summer (and occasionally in winter) when we
haven’t had any precip for a while.

What David 52 isn’t telling you (now, David!) is that he has
a couple acres of grass! At least! So
when he lets it grow “for a few weeks” and then mows—he has a MOUNTAIN of
clippings! Most urban folks aren’t that
lucky!

Like David 52 I use my grass clippings to mulch my veggie
garden, but I don’t have that many and last year I started putting a thick
layer of half-decomposed leaves that have been laying out there in the bags
(the bags that get holes and get water in them) all winter around all the
tomatoes/eggplants. That’s working
really well—it’s almost like a wet sponge on top of the soil!

If you’re planning to have a “bottom” in your bins,
DON’T! If you leave them open to the
soil the worms will migrate up into the compost and help the decomposition—and
they’ll multiply like crazy and give you lots of worms to “transplant” all over
your yard!

A buncha years ago I started a compost thread—with possibly
the longest post I’ve ever done! The
only thing I do differently from what I said in that thread is that I don’t do
any screening at all anymore! And I also
do NOT let the compost decompose ALL the way anymore! I generally use it when it’s about 50-60%
finished. That puts organic matter that
attracts worms into the soil where I’m planting whatever I’m planting—and I
also intentionally transplant worms with the compost I’m using. When I’m mixing it in to plant something and
I find “pieces” that are too big to easily mix in, they just get thrown back on
the pile. The one (minor, in my opinion)
problem is that as the unfinished compost finishes, the area “sinks down” a
little bit and needs a little bit of filling in at some point.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/2127510/reflections-on-compost

With your “bags of leaves!”
It’s WONDERFUL to have bagged leaves over winter! I discovered this accidentally, but I get all
the (50-60) bags of leaves from one neighbor and, needing someplace to put
them, I started stacking them on top of the soil where my tomatoes are
planted. The first year, when I was
moving one of them I discovered that the worms had been “procreating” out there
all winter! When I pick up a bag there’s
a MASS of worms under it—most of them disappear pretty quickly, but I can never
believe how many there are! So since
that first year, I now cover every square inch of my veggie garden with leaf
bags and leave them there all winter!
They keep the soil underneath moist, and they insulate the soil enough
that the worms stay active ALL winter. I
highly recommend you try it!

In spring I mix leaves right out of the bags (both wet and
dry ones) into my (clay) soil where I plant the veggies, and they decompose in
the soil over summer. The bags that get
holes in them will get water in them, and they’ll start to decompose in the
bags over winter—and it’s not unusual for worms to find their way into the wet
bags and happily live in there! Whatever
bags I have left in spring that I can’t use somewhere I put on the compost pile
and just keep adding more as it goes down.
(I do add bags of leaves sometimes over winter too!)

People will dispute this, but I don’t put eggshells on the
pile anymore! The first year I did, but
I tend to dig around in the pile with my bare hands, and eggshells are
SHARP! I also discovered that they never
decompose! The few I put in that first
year stayed just like they were when they were put there—except for the fact
that they got dirty!!! (Also, pumpkin
seeds NEVER decompose! I haven’t put any
on my pile for 8 or 9 years, but when I’m planting in the yard I STILL get into
them—intact—in places where they got buried those first couple years. I’ve even tried “tearing them in half” when I
find them and reburying them, but then I just wind up finding the “torn in
half” ones a couple years later!)

I don’t know if this is explained in the compost
thread! What you see in the pics is
pieces of galvanized sheet metal attached to the fence to keep from rotting it
out! That’s the “entire” construction of
my compost pile! I put up the metal and
started throwing stuff on the ground!

I think you might be surprised by how many veggie scraps you
come up with, and all “discards” from perennials and annuals can go on the pile
too. I don’t ever put weeds that even
just MIGHT have seeds on the pile. Not
worth taking a chance!

As usual, this got way longer than I planned! Gotta go!

Happy composting,

Skybird