If your compost has stopped breaking down and smells of ammonia, it’s not the greens you added: it’s what you emptied on it after the last barbecue
Your compost pile didn’t fail because of too many vegetable scraps—it’s probably the ash from your last barbecue. Wood ash and charcoal ash create a chemical reaction that releases nitrogen as ammonia gas and raises pH so high that microbes simply shut down. Here’s exactly how much ash your pile can handle and how to fix the damage.