Lots of discussion/debate on this question over the years. The hang-up is that what many think is "dried" usually isn't...dried enough to be called a carbon that is. ;) I have linked a couple of the best prior discussions for you if you want to review them for more details and there are many more that a search using "grass clippings" will pull up if interested. But I think the easiest way to go is to think of so-called "dried grass clippings" as a mixture of the two - sure they are part carbon (or browns) but they also still contain a high % of nitrogen (green) no matter how dry they are. So treat them as a great addition to your compost but weigh them equally on both sides of the green/brown question. Then if you note an odor developing you'll know they were still 'mostly' green and you can then add more carbons or vice-versa. ;) Dave Grass clippings - green or brown When green turns brown

This has probably been mentioned: The option to use the clippings for mulch. I have been using grass clippings for the past few years in raised beds with no problem. I know the four problems people espouse: 1. seeds to turn weeds. In my raised beds I pull grass and weeds early in the morning while drinking coffee. It is not labor intensive. 2. It is an un-appealing color as mulch. I don't care about aesthetics in my vegetable beds. Although I do have flowers in them...maybe I do and don't find the grass offensive. 3. turns to slimy mats. I throw the clippings in my compost bin for a few days. Things get hot and brown the clippings; have felt like my hands are burning while laying the mulch. Lay down an inch or two with no problems. 4. mats up and repels water. I have never had a problem. I have checked after rainfall and the soil appears evenly wet. I run a hose for irrigation when needed. You can see the grass float up where the water is spreading underneath. I also have the benefit of turning in the decomposing mulch at the end of the season for an additional soil amendment. I cannot find any issues with clippings as mulch. IF you are trying this on a large scale garden, then some of the issues like "seed to weed" will be problematic. I work with 4 - 12'x4' raised beds, 1 - 4'x4' strawberry bed, and some other oddball planting areas.

The other thing is that you may need to add more water or other source of moisture, if the clippings are dry, to get a good moisture balance in the pile. For me, my "greens" are usually wet, and browns are dry, so one reason to mix is not just for green-brown combo but to even out moisture content. So, dry grass still adds nitrogen but can help keep my garbage can compost bins (used for kitchen waste)from getting as garbagy-smelling even if I don't have quite enough paper, dry leaves etc to balance out. And sometimes if I have a lot of grass at once, I intentionally spread some of it out to dry so it's easier to work with (no gobby clumps)and not so wet, because I may not have enough other stuff to balance it out right away. Grass is a pain when it is all smelly, but still useful if you can mix it up or spread it out amongst dry brown stuff. If it's totally putrefied (which happens quickly in current hot weather) it can be too gross to work with. When I was an extreme newbie, I had NO idea bags of grass would start to smell, or even that thick layers of fresh green clippings would start to smell (and SO bad, like, what just DIED here?). But now I know to move fast or take measures as above.

Sure you can just let it pile up. If the pile gets big enough it could get a bit stinky. But I have had piles of grass that were two feet high and 4 feet long sit there for weeks until I had enoug brown material to combine with it. Depending on how hot it is, even after a couple of weeks you might find that even thought the top two or three inches is all dried up under that layer the rest of the grass is as fresh as the day it was cut. But if it is at all warm in your area the grass is going to begin to break down and will more than likely begin to turn into a clump of goo. One of my neighbors saves his clippings for me in his big green yard waste barrel. It took me four days before I had a chance to get it into my yard. By then the clippings had begun to compost and when I tried to get it out of the barrel I had heavy clumps of hot green wet stuff that was quickly becoming goo. A few more days and I would have had to use a shovel to get it out. The nice thing though, is that after a few days it dried out and I was able to spread it out as part of the mulch I use on the garden. I don't know how much a bale of straw or a large bag of sawdust cost, but it is not very much. You could just add that and be done with it. Grass breaks down pretty fast. And because sawdust is so thin it makes the perfect brown for grass. Shredded newspaper is good too. But I agree with iam3killerbs, I am not going to rummage through anyone's trash looking for whatever. If the pile of grass gets too big just tell the neighbor to stop sending it over until you have the other stuff you need to make the pile right. My neighbors understand when I tell them I don't need anything from time to time. But they always ask me how the tomatoes are coming along. They are always ready to give me their clippings because I share lots of tomatoes with them. Like you, my problem is brown material. I only have just so many leaves, cardborard or newspaper. In fact I too stopped getting the paper, partly because I feel they are too biased in the way they report, but also because I just don't have the time to sit and read it. I have so many other things to do than read the paper. In the middle of the summer when everyone's grass is growing like crazy I have often not needed anything for a long time. Otherwise I just get a mess that I have to clean up. Tom