Wondering what do with grass clippings after you mow?
Here’s how to use them to improve your garden.
What to do with grass clippings instead?
Credit:capecodphoto / Getty Images
Here are three easy ways to use grass clippings to give your lawn and garden a boost.
capecodphoto / Getty Images
1.
Mow when the grass is dry to prevent the clippings from clumping on top of the grass.
Piles of wet grass clippings take longer to decompose, which may harm the grass growing below them.
Instead, bag them for yard waste pick up or collect.
Grass clippingsmake excellent mulcharound all types of plants.
They break down quickly, improving the nutrient content and structure of the soil as they decompose.
Vegetable gardensare great places to use grass clippings as mulch.
The fine mulch is easy to spread around young, tender seedlings.
The herbicide may end up harming nearby plants.
Also known as black gold,compost is valuable to lawnsand all over the landscape.
Improve soil structure by mixing a 2-inch-thick layer of compost into garden soil.
Suppress weeds by spreading a 2-inch-thick layer of compost around perennials in spring.
The compost will also add nutrients that help feed your plants through the season.
Make asimple compost pileby alternating layers of green materialgrass clippingswith layers of brown material.
You may have heard that leaving grass clippings in place after mowing creates a lawn-destructivelayer of thatch.
However, this is untrue because grass clippings decompose too fast to build up on the soil surface.
Thatch is actually because of excessive nitrogen fertilization, infrequent mowing, vigorous grass varieties, and unhealthy soil.
