Mulching grass vs. bagging the grass clippings is often discussed. This eco-friendly technique involves cutting grass into fine pieces and letting them settle back into the lawn, rather than collecting and bagging them. By leaving grass clippings behind, you’re not just saving time, you’re also returning valuable nutrients to the soil, reducing waste, and promoting healthier, more resilient turf.
Benefits of Mulching Grass
1. Nutrient Boost
Grass clippings are rich in nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, all of which are essential for healthy plant growth. By mulching grass and leaving the clippings on the lawn, this practice boosts the natural fertilizer that feeds the soil and promotes robust grass growth. This process complements the use of organic fertilizers, returning as much as 30% of the nitrogen back to the lawn and fostering a healthier, more sustainable turf.
2. Moisture Retention
Mulching Grass helps to conserve moisture in the soil by creating a protective layer of grass clippings that shields the ground from the sun’s drying rays. This natural mulch acts like a sponge, absorbing rainfall and reducing water evaporation, thus extending the time between watering sessions. Conserving water is not only environmentally responsible but also beneficial for your wallet, especially in areas prone to drought or water restrictions.
3. Improved Soil Health
The decomposition of grass clippings adds organic matter to the soil, which improves its structure and fertility over time. Healthy soil is the foundation of a thriving lawn, providing better root growth, increased nutrient uptake and improved resistance to pests and diseases. Mulch mowing fosters a symbiotic relationship between your grass and the soil, creating a self-sustaining ecosystem that will require less inputs over time to sustain itself.
4. Reduced Landfill Waste
Mulching grass is an environmentally friendly practice that reduces waste and promotes sustainability. By keeping grass clippings out of landfills, you’re helping to reduce methane emissions and minimize your carbon footprint. Yard waste was banned from landfills nationally in 1995. So if you must require clippings to be bagged to remove excess growth or disease/fungus, Clean Air will add the clippings to the compost pile and keep them out of landfills.
Debunking the Thatch Myth
A common lawncare myth is that leaving clippings on the lawn causes thatch buildup. The truth is thatch buildup can be caused by a whole host of reasons (from your lawn receiving too much nitrogen or even being over-watered), and can be cured through a whole host of strategies (like good aeration practices and organic approaches to encouraging a healthy balance of organic matter and organisms). Thatch is actually a normal component of lawns but if it builds up too much it can cause problems.
Clean Air Lawn Care understands how to optimize the benefits of leaving clippings on the lawn, and how to debunk the thatch myth.
In the simplest terms, the finely chopped clippings we leave on your lawn break down so quickly you don’t have to worry about unsightly and potentially damaging thatch buildup. A large portion of the clippings are actually water, so they dry quickly and begin to decompose long before they can create thatch. Here is a great article further debunking the old myth about clippings contributing to thatch — https://extension.missouri.edu/publications/g6959.
Mulching Grass and returning clippings to your lawn is another small way that Clean Air Lawn Care provides the best service for your lawn and can help the environment at the same time.
Author
Clean Air Lawn Care HQ’s blog is written by Craig Martin, one of Clean Air’s many franchise owners. Prior to becoming an owner, Craig spent more than 15 years as a sports writer for multiple newspapers, and he reported on prep, NCAA and professional sports. Each week he will be sharing thoughts, ideas and industry insights on how Clean Air Lawn Care helps foster an organic and sustainable lawn for you and your family to enjoy.
