Is this you?
How much time do you spend each week cutting your grass, stopping every few turns to remove the grass catcher, shake the clippings into a garbage sack, and reattach the bag?
Every time you mow
By the time you've finished, you've hauled 70-140 pounds of filled garbage sacks to the curb. Trucked away week after week, those bags, along with your neighbors', contribute about half the waste going to the landfill between May and September. As a result, collection and landfill costs rise, passed back to you in higher fees. This can be you
You can save as much as one-third of your lawn mowing time over an entire season by letting grass clippings lie. While you relax, those grass clippings are settling between the living leaves, locking in moisture, shading the roots from the hot sun, and beginning to break down and feed nitrogen and other nutrients to your lawn. You save time and $$. Recycle Guys - Grasscycling
The Recycle Guys teach you how to recycle food and yard waste. They help you learn the benefits of composting in this :15 second video. The Recycle Guys were created by SC DHEC.
Runtime: 0:15
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Weekend gardener?
You'll like this book
Taylor's Weekend Gardening Guide to Safe and Easy Lawn Care: The Complete Guide to Organic, Low-Maintenance Lawns (Taylor's Weekend Gardening Guides)
Amazon Price: (as of 10/07/2008)
The title says it all. Grow a safe lawn your children can romp on all summer long. Go ahead, show them how to whistle through a blade of grass.
Grasscycling saves!
Save time, save money, save precious water
Properly mowed, grass clippings settle quickly between the growing blades of grass. There, they shelter the roots from the sun and conserve moisture. You'll need to water less.As the clippings break down, they release more moisture and nutrients into the soil, including the nitrogen that keeps your lawn green and lush. You'll need to fertilize less.
How to Keep Your Lawn Green Using Less Water
To encourage deep root growth, water deeply and less frequently. Avoid light, frequent watering, which encourages shallow roots and may lead to increased disease and stress injury to the grass plants.To avoid losing up to 60 percent of the water to evaporation, irrigate in the morning, between six and ten. Use a low sprinkler head that saturates the ground, rather than a high shower. On a hot day, most of the water from a high sprinkler evaporates before it can sink into the soil.
Finally, if you live in a moist climate, avoid watering at night. A damp lawn after dark is more prone to disease.
Rule of thumb
Water only when the grass is dry--most lawns need no more than one inch water per week, even in arid areas of the country.
How to have a beautiful lawn and lower your fertilizer costs
Fewer weekends pushing the fertilizer hopper
Use less fertilizer. Less is more! Most grasses require modest levels of nitrogen for good color and controlled growth. Clippings supply one-third or more of your grass nutrient needs. Excess fertilizer makes grass grow faster, requiring more mowing.For optimum lawn health, follow this schedule.
- Fertilize only in the fall. A fall application boosts spring growth.
- Fertilize again in spring, but only if the lawn needs it.
- For slower, more uniform growth, choose fertilizers with the label "water insoluble nitrogen" or "slow release nitrogen." These increase the amount of time the grass can use the nutrient.
- Let clippings do the job through the summer.
Go organic
for a safe, healthy lawn
The Organic Lawn Care Manual
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 10/07/2008)
Everything you need to know to build a lush, green lawn your kids can romp on safely is right here. Go ahead. Lie down. Feel the earth supporting you. Pluck a blade of grass and indulge in its sweetness while you watch the clouds skuttle overhead. This is the book to help you get that lawn.
For a healthier lawn, mow high and a little more frequently
You'll still save time
Set your mower height to 2"-3". Mowing high reduces shock to the grass plant because less of the blade is removed. Grass looks healthier because it is, from the roots up. About one-third, in fact
Even though mowing high requires mowing a little more often--about every five days--studies conducted by the University of Idaho and elsewhere show that most grasscycling homeowners reduce overall mowing time by about one-third. Keep your mower blade sharp
to keep your lawn healthy
Mow when the grass is dry
Consider a mulching mower
Buying a new mower this year?
This mulcher comes highly recommended
Lawn-Boy Insight Series 21-Inch 6.5 HP Gas Powered Self-Propelled Lawn Mower with Sens-a-Speed (Non-CARB Compliant) #10685
Amazon Price: $427.85 (as of 10/07/2008)
This model was well-rated in Consumers Reports, the Amazon reviewers are especially pleased with its mulching capabilities and the way it handles tall grass, and they like its ease of use.
Will grasscycling cause thatch?
GRASSCYCLING DOES NOT CAUSE THATCH
Thatch is an accumulation of dead rhizomes, roots and stems, which do not decay quickly. Cut grass decomposes quickly and does not cause thatch build-up. Tip
Wear golf shoes while mowing. The spikes help to aerate your lawn, which improves soil health.
Keep cool and fit
Fellas, try this pair
to keep the soil fauna well oxygenated
ECCO Men's Casual Cool Hydromax Golf Shoe
Amazon Price: (as of 10/07/2008)
These handsome shoes can go from the early morning lawn mow directly to a round on the links.
Just the facts - A summary
Grass recycling saves lawn care costs
- Grass clippings can supply up to one-third of a lawn's nitrogen fertilizer needs
- Leaving grass clippings on the lawn saves one-third of the mowing time during the growing season
- Clippings shade grass roots, cool the soil, return moisture, add moisture-holding organic matter, and reduce lawn watering needs
- Clippings decompose rapidly, feeding soil organisms that keep soil healthy and help to prevent turf diseases
- Studies prove that grass clippings do not cause thatch build-up
Teaming with microbes
(Do you like the play on words?)
"Sure, it's a gardening book, but it has all the drama and suspense of an extraterrestrial thriller. A cast of characters without eyeballs or backbones. Battle scenes with bizarre creatures devouring one another. Only this book is about as terrestrial as it gets."
Debra McKinney, Anchorage Daily News, September 14, 2006
Teaming with Microbes: A Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web
Amazon Price: $16.47 (as of 10/07/2008)
Build a healthy lawn
Building a Healthy Lawn: A Safe and Natural Approach
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 10/07/2008)
You know the advice is good when a professional landscaper, for whom time lost on lawn care is money lost, recommends the organic route. Franklin gives you the deep view on how grasscycling and avoiding harsh chemical net a more beautiful, durable lawn.
Grasscycling is good for your community, too
Good citizens grasscycle!
Grass recycling saves municipal costs, which we all pay for one way or another, sooner or later.- Curbside clippings collection increases trash hauling and handling costs, which you'll see in your trash bill.
- Grass clippings can represent from 20 to 50 percent of the solid waste going to landfills in the spring and summer, and cities across the country are fast running out of new land to fill.
- Clippings contribute to landfill gas and leaching, putting our groundwater and air at risk and raising environmental management costs.
- Grass clippings increase odors during storage, collection, and disposal of trash.
Grasscycling is easy
Cut the sweat
Make yours a chemical-free lawn
SAFE FOR YOUR WEE ONES
The Chemical-Free Lawn: The Newest Varieties and Techniques to Grow Lush, Hardy Grass
Amazon Price: (as of 10/07/2008)
List Price: $14.95
Want to save even more time and money? Not only does this book give excellent grasscycling info, it shows you how to mow your lawn in a third less time by mowing in a spiral. Try it. It works! (No, you won't get dizzy, but you will have some fun.)
Grasscycling is for the birds!
and the soil and the water and the air and all of us
Will you switch to grasscycling this year?
Fetching blurbs now... please stand byNo way, Grasshopper. My lawn is hooked on drugs.
Ah yes, Ladybug. I've got better things to do than feed and mow and water all summer.
kmcvay says:
My lawn hates drugs... probably has something to so with the concrete-hard dirt it's trying to grow in :-)
Posted August 18, 2008
CherylK says:
Absolutely. No chemicals are allowed anywhere near our lawn, especially because we live on a lake. Gotta save our water any way we can.
Posted March 28, 2008
LaraineRose says:
My Grasshopper is drug free! I'm going to switch to grasscyling this year. In fact I've been doing this for years.
Posted March 21, 2008
Do you have a lawn? How do you care for it?
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flighty02
Hi, just dropped by from lensmaster soup... What a great lens, 5 stars from me! I usually compost some of my clippings but I can't compost all of them... I shall certainly try out some of your ideas. Posted May 03, 2008 |
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Graceonline
FoxMusic, you are absolutely correct. If you don't mind the extra work of collecting clippings in the bag, dumping them on the compost pile is good. Careful, though, they are nitrogen-rich, which can become a problem if your compost pile is primarily grass clippings. Also, they tend to clump in the pile. Be sure to aerate and turn them with a pitchfork every day. Posted April 29, 2008 |
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FoxMusic
Fresh lawn clippings are great for the compost pile, which is always looking for something green. Posted April 28, 2008 |
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CherylK
Good job, as usual. Am lensrolling you (of course). Posted March 28, 2008 |
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rwoman
Wonderful lens! If you need some inspiration check out my lens. Posted March 21, 2008 |
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Graceonline
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My passion, my mission is to make sure my grandbabies, and theirs, get to run wild in fields of tall grass, get to lie down and make snow angels under a crisp blue sky, and get to stand in awe at the wide, wide ocean stretching far and tall above the...
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