I would suggest alfalfa.

Something like that could be reasonable if you’re able to “ sow” a cover crop without doing prep ( tilling) and no supplemental water, and the space is easy to mow. Especially if it helps crowd out more obnoxious weeds, helps with erosion.

But I wouldn’t get too hung up on the “ greens and browns” to the point where you’re spending a lot of $ and energy on “ growing “ compost materials.

If you have a lot of fall leaves( “ browns”), and put them in some kind of compost containment, they will break down, though more slowly. I do add some supplemental hose water at times, and often put out a trug before a rain so can turn like a bit and slosh some more “ free” water on it, but mine still breaks down in less than a year. Of course I do like it when I can add trimmings from perennials or veggie gardens, and sometimes some grass clippings, but a couple of bins are typically leaves- only.

If you can shred your leaves, all the better. Those break down pretty fast. Do you have an interest if growing veggies in some of the area you’d be growing a cover crop? Because then you get, veggies, plus the plant trimmings and spent plants.

I already shred the leaves with a chipper/shredder. I bag my grass clippings and mix with the shredded leaves and kitchen scraps presently to make my compost. However we very often have dry days of summer where we get no rain for weeks, sometimes a couple of months, and the "grass" (weeds) don't need to be cut. I would like to have a variety of plants during those dry spells to cut and make compost with. That is my basic purpose. I don't get too hung up on greens & browns and my compost turns out fine. I'm just thinking of adding more variety, I have the time and space. I was thinking of maybe seeding a plot with a pasture type mix, just looking for additional suggestions.

Ok, I get that.

So, I have no idea what to plant !

But, it sounds like you actually want growth ongoing in hot, dry weather. Or maybe you’d be ok with spring & fall dominance. It seems that plant expertise is needed ! Have no idea what exact forum because it’s related to crops for grazing, some of which are irrigated; annual and/ or perennial, do you want it to re-seed there or be pure annual, are there aggressives that will invade your other plantings( I assume you are making compost for… something else. ), are there thugs of the pasture to avoid. Are there things that will seed your compost, or how to have species that you can be pretty sure of mowing before they go to seed. It overlaps with meadows, but not the same. Fun questions!

If it's too dry for grass or weeds to grow I don't see how a compost crop would grow either. It would seem a waste of water to irrigate just to make compost. That said the suggested alfalfa is fairly drought tolerant compared with grass.

What you are looking for is Millet. There are several varities for different conditions but ability to grow in hot,dry conditions are common. We use it for emergency Summer pasture grazing in Texas. If you have trouble finding seed wild bird feeds contain up to 100% Millet.

Rye does well in winter,holds up to grazing, cutting, is cheap and easy to grow.

I suggest trying a 3x3x3 enclosed pile sprinkled with water as it's layered in Fall. Add greens if you have them. Chicken poop is excellent in place of green matter and commercil fertilizer will boost things. No greens or manure? Not to worry,layer and wet them. Cover with cardboard when temperatures are above 40F to prevent evaporation. Flipping pile in 5-6 months will yield leaf mold before bin is needed for fall leaves.

OMG! Heart be still,the queen is in our presence. (;

Ann ,how have you been? It has been hot,hot,hot in Texas so some times I might surface at dawn ,go under cover by mid-morning and not reappear until near dusk. That's only enough time to harvest veggies,pull a few weeds tend landscape. I've been known to flip a pile or other chore using my little miner's headlamp in the hours before dawn. I recently mowed for 15 minutes with lawn tractor on "the back forth" at 10pm then texted neighbor following day to ask if they heard me or if dog unexplicablly acted up around that time. He said they didn't notice so I told him if they did hear a mower at night to call me or fire a warning shot and I will cease.

I'm looking forward to increased activity on here this Fall so we can squabble over best practices and trade ideas.

Edited to add @annpat so that her Serene Highness is sent notification. (;

This was great!!! Now I feel like going away again---waiting a while, then returning! That absense makes the heart grow fonder thing is brilliant, but hard to wait out; I was starting to get wicked lonely. I wasn't sure enough time had passed for it to work.

I love nighttime gardening! Or used to, I haven't done much this year, although I did plant some stuff the other night---I got 16, 3" pot, perennials free from a nursery (because I spent hundreds of dollars there) so while I was waiting for the dog to come home, I planted a few.

I had big plans to sleep on my pontoon boat the other night because we had the annual Perseid meteor showers and I heard a few people had seen Northern Lights, although I didn't expect to. I anchored out at midnight and saw about 25 falling stars before I began to think I was seeing Northern Light activity. I couldn't really see all that my camera could, but it turned out that two of my neighbors were on their dock and could see the lights quite well with their bare eyes. I got bored around 3:00 and went home.

Others in the state got much more colorful pictures, but I was happy enough.

I feel much better now even though it looks like I was duped. I have a forgiving heart so your ploy will be overlooked as long as we know you are safe in the fold.

I feel like such a fool for missing the comment by @old_dirt 6a. Since when did alfalfa replace dead possums and other hapless creatures as the preferred addition to his,,,,her,,,,their,,,compost? As y'all might recall I always suffered gender identity crisis when referring to od. (; Seriousy, it's good hearing from y'all.

Well this thread has the potential to heat up like a pile of fish guts, leaves and a little alfalfa. klem1-I never used alfalfa, just thought it fit the purpose as it can be harvested several times in a season. I have grown rye as a cover crop and also used in compost.

You'll be glad to know I just threw two mice in my compost pile and tomorrow I have a bucket full of fish scraps and if I dig a hole in my active pile I might throw in a small raccoon.

annpat-"Queen Ann" I kind of like that. Years ago my Dad grew a boat load of comfrey, I know he made comfrey tea but seems he may have fed it to the animals, goats and maybe rabbits? Most was added to the compost piles. I thought comfrey was a cut and come again crop.

It is good to see "y'all" here. :<)

"Mice,fish scraps and a coon to boot". Atta dirt,that will heat any pile on any day.

Are you taking all this in @robblemac? You jumped this rabbit , now it's up to you to try it out.

I would deny it, but see no point. I humbly submit the rare nod my eccentric fervor received from my brother---a bookmark he tucked in my Christmas Eve book one year, a tradition he established---bookmarks usually not part of it:

What's the amount of leaves you're dealing with, I wonder? I presume the climate is too dry to make leaf mold?---Not that I'm suggesting that, but I can get by with a shortage of greens, but not a shortage of browns.. I only know green manures like those mentioned.---I'd pick a pretty mix and mow it twice..

Yup, that's what I was looking for, suggestions on a mix, and if anybody else has tried this. For fall leaves, no shortage. I stockpiled a good bit last fall, taking up an area about 12' x 14', 4' high. I'm still making my way through them, shredding them as I make the next compost pile. As I get closer to October, I will shred the remains of these ones and make a pile of moistened shredded leaves for leaf mould to use next year, then start collecting again.

@robbiemac from what you've said about stockpiling leaves it sounds like you are needlessly extending time between gathering leaves and harvesting finished mulch/compost/mold by 8-9 months. Even if supply is unlimited you have to construct more enclosure space than necessary. Why not layer and moisten leaves as they are gathered each Fall? Better still,why not shred,layer and moisten as gathered?

I reckon this type of thread is just an opportunity for us to toss out names of plants you hope someone else will try and let us know how it works out.

I nominate purslane - edible, easy to propagate, tolerant of a fair amount of heat and dry, should be a good green for a pile, and please let me know how it works out.

https://gardenerspath.com/plants/herbs/grow-purslane/

My apologies but I'm still working on my communication skills, lol. I have some areas set aside to sow plants in combination so that I can cut those plots a few times (2,3,4) a season in order to combine them with shredded leaves to build compost pioles with them. I want to have more diverse nutrients in my compost as opposed to just the grass clippings that I presently use, and the grass clippings aren't always available due to lack of rain in the summer months. I ws just looking for ideas/suggestions for a mix that I should try.

I didn't see a thing wrong with your communication skills up until you apologized, then I began to wonder. So are you looking only for plants which can be grown together in combination on the same soil at the same time? I think I understand your desire for diversity of nutrients in compost but I don't understand why that can't be accomplished by planting xx square feet of plant A plus xx square feet of plant B plus xx square feet of plant C then harvest each at its optimum stage of growth.

As for diversity of nutrients in compost, I rarely give much consideration to any thing other than %N and ph . Not to hi-jack your thread but more so keep things light and fun as is our tradition on this forum. I didn't dedicate my life until I was married with children. My daughter became friends with a minister's daughter in kindergarten which lead to my wife and I becoming friends with the family. I asked the minister one day why he didn't preach to a sinner as is usually the case. He said he only needed to tell me enough to make me miserable after which I'd seek the rest on my own. It worked.

That brings us back to compost and as is true most days,to the queen. Robbie if you plant the idea in queen's head compost must have a certain balance that can only be had by carfully choosing what gos in,her life will become miserable. Queen has always been on top of the world taking whatever leaves happen to be in the landfill that day. If you get her down this rabbit hole the poor thing will spend half her time sifting through the dump for just the right leaves. Long live the queen. (;

Like Klem, I mostly pay attention to the nitrogen i add to the pile, wanting heat, but not slime. I used to layer my ingredients, with an eye toward variety, over time. Eventually I realized I needed more compost and leaf mold than I could make with my own contributions and I discovered that municipalities take yard refuse from homeowners, and they pile it up, often allowing people like me access to those piles. I bought a truck. I started by bringing home leaves to mix with my household's nitrogen contributions, then fall came, and with it, Halloween. I found at least 50 pumpkins one Nov. 1st morning that kids, I presume, had put in the road overnight, and which passing cars had turned into mush and chunks. I returned home, got a shovel, went back and shoveled up a ton of pumpkin flesh, which when combined with my leaves got smoking hot within a week.

At that point, I started wondering if variety mattered, and I still don't know, but I mostly think it doesn't. I went from layering several piles over a length of time to building an instant pile in an afternoon. Sometimes two. My nitrogen contributions are often almost from a single source. A typical pile starts with leaves and grass clippings from someone else's yard, then I'll toss in four or five pumpkins from someone else's yard decorations, more chipped leaves and grass clippings, maybe 50 apple drops or pear drops, more leaves, more pumpkins until the bin is full. It will start to smoke in a week. I do feel a preciousness about my seaweed contributions---minerals and nutrients that I imagine fight plant disease, but mostly I just try to turn out as much compost as I can in the shortest amount of time---ingredients notwithstanding.

I'm curious, too, though, about the value of variety.

Old_dirt is really into variety,a mouse here,a possum there and a bucket of guts to top it off. I get the feeling that is more about opportunity than structured plan. (;

Hopefully this conversation doesn't lead to talking about a bunch of bovine excrement.

Or bread....

;)

Dee

Dee! I was so pleased to see your name---and then I got sick to my stomach.

Sorry annpat, I couldn't resist! :)

If it makes you feel better, the reason I came to the compost forum was because I saw your hero thread on the main board, and came here to read it, and saw this thread as well. I was meaning to go back and post to your thread that you are indeed my hero. If you never composted another leaf in your life but continued to post as you do, you would continue to be my hero.

I will go to your thread and make it official.

:)

Dee

klem1 - you've got my number and I don't have much structure in my composting. If it will rot, its most likely going in. Wasn't always that way, years ago i was diligent about layering C:N and turning every couple weeks. Now that you mentioin it, I hauled many truck loads of cattle & hog manure. I just got lazy in my old age and cold compost now.

Klem, dee's back to being my favorite.

Like old dirt, I've slowed my efforts, too, but I make more compost. I rarely flip a pile more than once and my feedstock is less varied. The biggest change for me is that I fill my bins in a single day. I'll be filling two large hardware cloth bins today---the browns are all leaves and the greens are mostly grass clippings and pumpkins. All of it picked up yesterday at the leaf dump.