I think I just got my answer from another thread. A green that has turned brown still counts as a green, if I understand correctly

Well, leaves were green - before falling from the trees. They are usually classified as browns when they end up on the ground and raked up.

LoneJack, that's great! I always have trouble finding enough browns

Leaves on trees have more nitrogen in them when they're (literally) "green". If they are allowed to naturally turn color and fall off in the autumn, they go over to the "brown" side of things because the tree takes the chlorophyll out of the leaves and breaks it down to store the nitrogen for next year.

Many people often mistake color of material to judge whether that may be a high Nitrogen substance or a high Carbon material and that comes from dividing things into "greens" and "browns". Freshly fallen leaves, in the fall, that are the red, orange, yellow color will have a Carbon to Nitrogen ratio of about 40 to 1 fairly high. The only thing green leaves tell you is that have a lot of chlorophyll, although that C:N ratio is still about 40:1.

Fresh grass clippings, still green, have a C:N ratio (depending on which chart you use) ranging from12 to 20 to 1. I have not found a chart, yet, that lists the C:N ratio of dried grass clippings is, but that will depend on how those clippings have been cured and they could be somewhat similar to hay or old leaves.

Animal manures, brown in color, have a low C:N ratio (15:1) and count as a Nitrogen source.

A simple test to see whether dried grass clippings might be a source of N or not mix them in with some high C material and if nothing happens they are not a source of N.

kimmq is kimmsr

I will be honest with you I have a hard time believing your grass clippings have not broken down in 2-3 years. That being said after only a couple weeks you would probably consider grass clippings as more of a brown then a green. Individual blades if grass do not contain much C or N so it doesn't take very long for it to lose that N.

I too would expect to see some compost under that pile. The parts that are not well composted can go into the bin but I'm going to guess they are close to neutral and neither a strong green OR brown.

You'll know when your new pile gets going. I would use equal amounts of them with greens and browns and see how it goes. Observe and adjust. They will be good stuff to inoculate the tumbler with compost microbes.

John, they have broken down - but I don't have compost. I dug into the bottom of the pile and there are cakes of some dry dusty light gray material. I may have misspoken when I called it a cold compost pile. It is made up almost entirely of grass clippings, never turned (bcs of my back) and only gets watered when it rains. I just started burying fruit and vegetable scraps in it 2 days ago.

toxcrusadr, my plan is to fill the tumbler half full with the gray material from the pile (see post above) and half with kitchen scraps and coffee grounds (if I can get some from Starbucks). Then I was going to add a couple scoops of "Moonure" (sp?) from my local HD. If you're not familiar with that product, it is a mix of compost and manure.

Maybe I should mow over some leaves I've got from last fall and add those, also just to be sure of enough browns.

Normally grass clippings on their own will heat up quite a bit till they have used up their available air in the process of partially decomposing and matting down (excluding air when the pile needs it most), thus going anaerobic and getting stinky and slimy. A particular microbe (name escapes me) will grow in this very hot environment and resembles gray ash. Sometimes people think their steaming compost is actually burning to ash, but it's not.

If it's not compost, compost it some more. I don't think you need the moo-nure if you're adding the grass, but it won't hurt anything. A handful of soil does the same thing.

Yes, I have been so surprised that my pile never got slimy or stinky especially since we have rainy winters. Somehow it stayed very dry. Just out of curiosity I occasionally checked for steam and as I expected, there never was any - just the powder. So I'm concentrating on shredding newspaper, saving food scraps and mowing over dead leaves. I also read just now that you can include dryer lint and hair from your hairbrush. May as well add those, too!

By the time my tumbling composter arrives and gets put together, I'm hoping to have stockpiled a little of all that to put in the first batch.

The hot phase of a fresh pile of greens is only a few days. Once it passes that stage it will never heat up unless a lot of fresh greens are added. How rainy the winter is will have no effect on that of course. But the way grass mats down, it can repel water, so the pile can be dry and half-composted inside. I know exactly what you're describing.

I would go ahead and mix up whatever materials you have and start a pile. You can shovel it into the tumbler when it comes. Why compost tomorrow what can be composted today? :-]

Basically, we just dumped the mower bag contents onto the pile every time we mowed the yard. In fall, there would have been some leaves in the bag as well as grass.

I have 2 piles going and don't have a place to start a 3rd one. So I've been making holes in the first pile and adding food scraps and garden trimmings and then covering that up with stuff that was already in the pile. I'll start shredding newspaper today or tomorrow and adding that. Then I'll tackle mowing over last fall;s leaves and adding them. Oh, and I've got to go to Starbucks to see if I can get coffee grounds.