tox - in my experience fungal diseases both in the veg garden and in the lawn seem to be greatest at seasonal turns when the days are reasonably warm -- mid 70's to low 80's -- and the night temps are breaking down into the 50's. nj - I agree with tox. Material from about any reasonably healthy garden plant, clean grass clippings, and anything from the kitchen you are willing to put into your compost. The most common problem for most folks is getting enough brown material for the amount of greens they can produce from their kitchen in an ongoing basis, let alone fresh grass clippings. On the lawn treatments, the two big ones for compost and plant health are herbicides and fungicides. The issue on herbicides is carryover via your compost to your garden and subsequent killing of your plants. The transfer to the compost comes via amounts that have been taken up or absorbed by the plants treated. Most of the common herbicides available to the home owner work via foliar absorption. Only a few, mostly atrazine and Image, work primarily through translocation from the soil. If you're doing the application with common homeowner retail herbicides that you bought from someplace like HD, then they will decompose to very low residual levels under any reasonable composting conditions. There is a risk, but it is very small. To minimize that risk I suggest that after application of any herbicide you wait until after 4 regular mowings of 1/3rd grass height or greater. After that the residual in the grass should be low enough that even with marginal composting you should be without issue. Fungicides present a different threat, and that is to the microbial community that is working in your compost. Honestly, I don't have a good feel for how long they can persist and at what levels in grass clippings. It would probably depend on whether they work topically or systemically. I don't think there is much data on this - just a few specific lab studies on or in media to determine susceptibility. I've not heard of it ever being an actual problem. Commonly available insecticides generally aren't a concern to plant or compost health, but they could pose a risk if they are systemic in action and transfer through the compost. Again, this is one of those I don't really know about, and I don't think there is much data on that either. A final word of caution - all present a risk from handling treated materials. My SWAG is that grass clippings from any homeowner treated lawn would be safe to handle and compost after the 4th mowing, provided that the materials were used in accordance with the label instructions. After all that on grass clipping, I am not a fan of composting them. I've done it in the past, but gave it up several decades ago. The best place for those grass clippings is right back on the lawn from where they came. You lawn will benefit from tremendously over time from mulch mowing and allowing the clippings to decompose in place, providing organic matter for the soil beneath the surface. That also eliminates all the risk of lawn chemical transfer to your compost system.

Here is my experience of letting wet grass clippings sit in black plastic bags in the sun in hot weather. They get Hot! and so does the bag so be careful lifting them up to dump, It was hot enough to burn once! They also get stinky and slimy and perhaps breed some anaerobic bacteria. I wouldn't worry too much about all that if you don't mind the stink and slime then it isn't such a big deal. Heating in a bag might help some to kill weed seeds but I wouldn't expect it to do anything about fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides. If you are worried about chemicals the gather grass clippings at your own risk. I don't use much chemicals personally but I am still willing to collect grass clippings for my compost. If you have been composting mainly with leaves before, you might be suprised to see how hot grass clippings can make a pile get. A big glob of wet grass clippings might not make really pleasant compost so I do my best to spread it out before covering with a layer of leaves or other carbon material. Just so you know, the strong smell is a sign that the nitrogen is escaping so it is good to mix with carbon material is the pile as soon as you can or you loose a little of the benefit of the grass clippings. If the smell starts to get like the bottom of a samp or pond muck, that is a sign that things have gotten anaerobic and you want to avoid that when you can. Experiment a bit and see how it goes. Composting doesn't need to be very complex. If it is not heating up, it needs more nitrogen or moisture needs adjusting. If it is smelly, it either needs more carbon or it is too wet. Starters, inoculants, soil, tumbling, and turning are not required. Only time and a mix of materials. Good luck with it.

For the original question - I think it depends on whether your weedy grass has gone to seed before it gets cut. If allowed to go to seed and then blown in, yes it could cause weeds. I used to use grass in my vegetable beds. First I put down a layer of partly composted straw to keep the grass from matting too badly. Then the grass clippings would go on top of that - part of the trick I think was to have it thick enough to block all light for germination to anything below it, but not so thick that water wouldn't penetrate. It worked pretty well. For regular flower beds I've always just used bark mulch but grass would work too as long as you have enough clippings coming to keep it a certain thickness. Mary

Posted by Kachana DFW Texas (My Page) on Sun, Dec 21, 14 at 16:14 Hi, I'm in Carrollton, and if you don't mind, I would love to pick up some healthy cuttings to propagate. Thanks, Kachana This is exactly what I was about to post, you could do this using 'roseseek" method, here is a link to it, also you could sell any that strike. Kim's method works. Here is a link that might be useful: pushingtheroseenvelope