what to do with bad compost

In my new garden - well previous owners haven't gardened much - there are several heaps of cut grass from lawn mowers that have not decomposed properly, i.e. bad small, grass stil visible etc.

Can one restart the process? That is is it possible to make it compost better by i.a turnign it over, mixing it with leafs etc?

grateful for any advice - I have quite a lot of these heaps around. It's a big garden and any shady sport seems to have a dump of grass!

 

Hi TOR..My son has also taken charge of a garden with the same problem with one massive heap.
We made a 6'x6' open bin and first laid a bed of Pampas plume stems,then added a 4" layer of well turned grass. He then used the bin for house hold compostable waste and small amounts of grass which he mixes together. Last month he added in a good amount of fresh,warm horse muck. The heap was covered with sacking and at present is working well....warm and full of bugs and worms.
The grass heap has been halved and I'm sure in this mild weather it will be in the bin too and I'll be using it on my plot later in the year...you see,he doesn't do veg or borders but no way was I letting it go to waste in a skip he was going to hire!:D

 

Many thanks to you both!

I will build several compost bins, shortly...

Under my chestnut - where I think many years of grass had been dumped - the roots of the tree have grown upwards, so it is now solid, even if it still looks like a compost heap!

 

These cuttings of unknown provenance may/may not have come from grass that had the likes of 'weed & feed' combined weedkiller/fertilizer used on them. I don't use anything like that in my compost, but somebody else may do so and know when it's safe to use.

 

if you saw my lawn, you wouldn't think that weed killers would be much of a problem!

 

Assuming it includes the herbicide that is persistent even in composted material than 18 - 24 months, and even then it may not be safe :(

You can grow some beans in it, in a pot, and they will very quickly (a couple of weeks) show symptoms of Herbicide poisoning, so that's probably your best bet - if they pass that test the heaps should be safe to use - just some compost and a bean in a plastic vending cup (with some drainage holes in the bottom) should do the trick