Browns Are Beautiful!

I've never had a very scientific approach to composting. Pamphlets and books on the subject overwhelm me and make me feel defeated. I take to heart the parts I like - that whatever the balance, it will eventually compost. Let it be. But I can't ignore the experts forever. I know that my compost bin is sadly lacking in "browns." We live on a new lot, so we don't have significant leaves in the fall. And it DOES take my pile of green debris forever to become "gold.' In the summer I feed it a steady diet of kitchen scraps and garden clippings. All greens. Green, green, green. But on this Spring weekend I've collected buckets and wheelbarrows of BROWNS! Last Fall's foliage, brown blossoms, blown astilbe plumes, pruned hydrangea, two year old triple shredded bark mulch that has begun to decompose. I've gone to the edge of the woods and raked out leaves and dried grass. I turned my old compost pile over and layered with my collected browns. It's a happier pile now. I can tell! Next Fall I will steal the bags of leaves from the edge of my daughter's mature lot and stockpile them. Oh, and guess what I have learned is a "brown?" Dryer Lint!! Yaaaay!