Hello, I am trying to compost an avalanche of dried leaves and sticks that has piled up in my backyard over the years. However, everything I see on YouTube says compost also requires green matter. 50-50 green matter and dried matter. But I don't have a lawn and very little tree trimming.

Can I compost just dried leaves? Is there something I can add to makeup for the lack of greens?

My mother likes to add Miracle Grow powder to her compost. Is that a good idea?

Yes you can. It's called leaf mold. The pile will not heat up and will take considerably longer to break down. I shred the leaves and they​ break down faster if you keep them damp and give them air. You could go get coffee grounds from Starbucks or other green material and add them to the pile. Regardless, that pile of leaves is going to breakdown just a matter of time.

I don't see a reason of adding miracle gro to a compost pile. Extra nutrients? Sure but why? Give that to the plants directly.

You can put in some fertilizer for the nitrogen, keep it moist like a sponge, should work. Miracle Gro is just a blue colored fertilizer 15-30-15

Leaves are carbon. You also need the greens which provide the nitrogen. Rather than use a general fertilizer such as a 5-5-5 or a 10-10-10 you could add blood meal which is usually something like 20-0-0. C-I-L sells one that is 12-0-0.

Lily_Lover said:Leaves are carbon. You also need the greens which provide the nitrogen. Rather than use a general fertilizer such as a 5-5-5 or a 10-10-10 you could add blood meal which is usually something like 20-0-0. C-I-L sells one that is 12-0-0.

Hi Lily_Lover, thanks for the tip. Will get some blood meal.

Depending on where you live, you might be able to get some green matter to add to your compost. A local grocery or restaurant might be able to supply you with out of date vegetables, Are there any food manufacturing facilities in your area? A local lawn service might be willing to drop off a couple of loads of trimmings. How about farms?...

Another source is spent brewery waste. We have several craft beer breweries popping up. This spring I'm going to look for the nearest and if its nearer than the nieces horses....

I'm with Thomas. No doubt that it will decompose and be a wonderful amendment to your garden soil. I dump truck loads of leaves onto my garden in the fall, sometimes shredded, sometimes not. Sometimes I leave them on the surface as mulch, sometimes I turn them under in the spring. In my experience, the exact way I add organic matter to my soil is less important that just doing it.

Henderman has a good idea, get veggies tossed out by any grocery store and that will give you a good boost.
I rarely, to not at all, turn my compost piles but I also leave them sit for two to five years but I do add compost booster which works wonders.
Old fruit works well also. I put bananas in mine often along with coffee grounds and filters.

https://www.google.com/search?...

thommes= "Another source is spent brewery waste. We have several craft beer breweries popping up. .." I'm sure it's potent stuff, but i remember reading a hilarious post about how disgusting the brewery waste was when it wasn't quite fresh...

agreed with others= can do it, faster if you shred, faster if you find nitrogen, must stay moist, good to dig into it every now and then to see if it is too dry/wet/has finished looking stuff to harvest.

Good advice already given here but I thought I'd share the link to our Soil & Compost Forum for possible further reading: https://garden.org/forums/view...

sallyg said:thommes= "Another source is spent brewery waste. We have several craft beer breweries popping up. .." I'm sure it's potent stuff, but i remember reading a hilarious post about how disgusting the brewery waste was when it wasn't quite fresh...

agreed with others= can do it, faster if you shred, faster if you find nitrogen, must stay moist, good to dig into it every now and then to see if it is too dry/wet/has finished looking stuff to harvest.

Hmmm... I could only imagine, but honestly it can't be any worse than horse manure. I don't like beer so the other issue could be the smell of the brewery waste. I may go to all the trouble to find a source and then run away when I smell it. LOL