Hi Julia Sun/shade is mostly irrelevant to the actual composting process. It can have some slight effect depending upon climate conditions. It might also affect how much time you spend with your compost. For some of us whackos enthusiasts we like to spend time with our compost and being in the sun can make it more enjoyable. note the picnic table Welded wire fence works well as an enclosure but depending upon the size of the openings, coffee and bunny doo doo may have a tendency to 'leak'. Putting a little cardboard around the stuff may help to hold that material in and help preserve moisture if you are in a dry climate. I've used cardboard and I made sure it didn't go all the way to the ground to allow for air to get in. Sorta makes a chimmney effect in the bin, cool air in the bottom, warm air out the top. Lloyd

That kind of depends on how the grass is stored. Grass clippings in almost any size pile, because to the C:N ratio, will be digested by the bacteria that do that kind of thing fairly rapidly, if conditions are close to waht they need, enough of a food source, enough moisture, and enough air. The "stink" that arises from a pile of grass clippings is nutrients escaping to the atmosphere and that simply means the conditions are right for the bacteria to get to work. Replicate the conditions that hay is cured and the nutrients of that grass will be stabilized and held for a fairly long period of time.

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.

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