Composting with no browns

wmugrl99

My DH and I just moved into our first house.  I have been dreaming of a compost pile and now I can finally have one!  The problem is we moved into a very new subdivision and there are no trees which, of course, means no leaves.  Is there a different kind of "brown" other than leaves?  I am new to composting so maybe I am misinterpreting the info I have read.  Any help is appreciated!  Thanks!

Pescalita

Other browns include newspaper, thin cardboard (like toilet paper rolls), dead/woody plant material, egg shells and tea bags.

Do you have somewhere like a park around you that might have extra leaves you can collect? Or does someone you know subscribe to a newspaper you could shred up? 

MadameFancyPants

Our grocery store allows you to shuck the corn cobs in the store so I'd collect a produce bag's worth to take home and dry in the sun.  Not sure if they are totally considered browns, but I called them that.  We also empty our paper shredder into the compost bin.

 

Alisha_A

I get extra leaves for my compost and my yard (like mulching under plants) off Freecycle. People are quite happy to have me come rake up and bag their leaves!

SuperGreen

I take my gardening tub to one of the wooden areas in my development and collect leaves from there.  All developments, even new ones, should have pockets of wooded areas, they're required by wetland legislation.

Alisha_A

But isn't removing leaves from the wooded areas bad for the woods? I got in big trouble once as a kid removing pine needles from a national forest for that reason.