A well-kept lawn looks good, but also leaves garden waste. That said, there is so much more you can do with grass clippings than just clearing them from the yard and throwing them in the trash.
Using grass clippings in your garden can improve health and reuse your garden's waste in an environmentally friendly way. It can improve your soil, retain moisture, and gradually decompose to become plant food where your plants need it most.
So let's discuss the remnants of your weekend mowing and how best to use them for you! You never have to fill the plastic wastebasket with grass again.
Useful products for composting grass:
About grass clippings
Don't throw away your grass waste. Instead, use them again. Source: ah_blake
Grass clippings can be used in gardens in a number of ways. They provide the soil with nutrients, prevent weeds from growing and retain moisture. They contain 4% nitrogen, 2% potassium and 1% phosphorus as well as small amounts of other plant nutrients. During decomposition, grass clippings also serve as a source of food for microbial life in the soil.
Why reuse grass clippings?
Grass clippings are just too valuable to waste! If you leave the clippings on the lawn after mowing, they can usually decompose on the spot within a few weeks. Even if you want to rake them, you can put them in a compost bin or use them in some other way.
Here are some of the top reasons why you should reuse your grass waste.
It saves time
Mowing the lawn is much easier and faster. You do not have to use the mowing bag when mowing, which means that it takes less time to empty. Mowing the lawn becomes easier and takes less time.
You produce less waste
By 2017, around 35.2 million tons of garden waste would end up in landfills, which corresponds to 13% of municipal waste. Grass waste takes a long time to decompose when packed in plastic bags. Grass recycling can reduce your contribution to waste while improving your soil.
You need less water and fertilizer
Cut grass is rich in plant food and is ideal as a mulch or top dressing. Source: Jason A. Samfield
While grass recycling may not be a substitute for fertilization, mulching your lawn with grass waste will definitely reduce your need for lawn fertilizer. As the clippings decompose, they provide three important nutrients: nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. The clippings can cover almost 25% of your lawn's fertilizer requirements. They also act as a mulch layer, which means that the moisture is retained longer and you don't have to water your lawn as often.
6 Use for grass cutting
Here are some great ideas for you to try in your garden to make good use of this grass waste.
Use grass clippings as mulch
By mulching flowers, vegetables, trees and shrubs in the garden, you can control weeds and regulate the temperature and humidity of the soil. Grass clippings are an excellent choice for mulch because they are light and can be broken down quickly.
Spread a 2 to 3 inch thick layer near the plant base. Grass clippings used for mulching should ideally be about 1 to 2 inches long. Buying special mulching knives or mowing with a special mower can really help you. Mulching knives cut grass into smaller and finer pieces so that it can be easily decomposed. A mulching mower is also designed to cut and cut grass tips into small pieces and distribute them more evenly on the lawn.
It is best to use dry grass clippings. Fresh, moist can become a thick, almost impermeable layer that slows down drainage and reduces the amount of oxygen that penetrates the soil. When using fresh cuts, keep an eye on them to make sure they don't get matted and split them up if necessary.
Make sure your lawn has not been treated with herbicides and pesticides before mowing. Mulching waste containing these chemical products can become a problem, especially if you are trying to plant seeds or if you have very young plants that use the mulch.
Top dress loft beds
Grass alone or mixed with pine needles, as shown here, is suitable as a top dressing. Source: Red Moon Sanctuary
Grass cutting is also a great option to add your raised beds as a top dressing. They help your beds to store moisture, suppress weeds and add nutrients to your plants. You can simply spread a few centimeters over the surface of the beds. If the clippings decompose, the mulch height drops. Add more than you need during the growing season!
Use grass clippings to make compost
Lawn waste can also get into your compost heap or trash can. They are a rich source of nitrogen and, in combination with carbon-rich materials, are broken down very quickly.
Mix your grass with some straw, finely chopped paper or cardboard, dry leaves, or other carbon-rich materials in the compost heap. For the fastest decomposition, use one part of grass clippings for two parts of your high-carbon waste and layer them together. Make sure it's damp, then rotate it 1-2 times a week until you get a pile of dark compost. It will warm up if it fails. Be sure to use a compost thermometer to track progress.
It also works in a compost cup!
Leave cutouts on the lawn
It's okay to leave your newspaper clippings on the lawn every now and then. When they break down, they release nitrogen and other plant-based foods back into your lawn. However, be careful not to go so far as to suffocate your existing grass!
If you leave the clippings in place about once a month, the need for regular watering should also decrease. It looks like mulch around the living lawn grass. Try removing excess that blocks the sun's rays or slows the drainage of your lawn.
Make liquid lawn fertilizer
Grass cuttings can also be processed to 100% organic liquid fertilizer. To prepare a batch, fill two thirds of a bucket with grass waste. Fill the bucket with water and stir the contents once a day. After soaking for 3-4 days, you can strain it to remove the grass solids and use the liquid as a mild fertilizer. The grass solids can get directly into the compost!
Since this is a very mild fertilizer, it should not burn your plants when applied. A good rule of thumb is ½ cup to 1 cup per plant, depending on its size. Pour it around the root system of the plant and keep it away from the foliage.
Do you have a community garden nearby? They often have a common compost heap for all of their plant waste. Leaving your lawn waste with them will improve the quality of the compost. It also keeps them away from the landfill!
Save a little time and money by turning this useful plant source into good, healthy additives for your garden. You'll be glad you did.
The green thumbs behind this article:
Lorin Nielsen
Lifetime gardener
