Clever Garden Recycling With Lawn Clippings

 

What do you do with your piles of lawn clippings?

 

It’s easy to think of them simply as more landfill, right? Filling up the green bin till its brimming 4 times a year, then once the rubbish truck comes, it’s not thought of anymore.

 

What a waste!

 

With all that nutrients ending up in piles at the processing plant, there are more clever and sustainable ways of utilising all that built-up ground nutrients in your garden.

 

When you look at how much money you can (and perhaps do!) spend on fertilisers, soils, manures, and other garden supplements, it’s clear that making use of your lawn clippings is more than a sensible idea. Perhaps you’ve been mistreating a potential garden-friend for decades? Tut tut.

 

Lets go through a few ways to utilise your lawn clippings;

To leave or not to leave clippings?

If your lawn doesn’t grow or thatch too quickly during the down seasons (Autumn, Winter), leaving the clippings on the lawn during lawn mowing can be a great idea.

 

When the clippings are small, they will quickly break down, releasing their nutrients and feeding the lawn.

 

Lawn mowing regularly will ensure not just a great looking yard but will assist in the rapid deterioration of clippings into the soil, due to the small size of clippings being produced.

 

The practice can also be beneficial by protecting the soil beneath lawns from evaporation during the Summer months.

New-age Lawn Mowers

In recent years, manufacturers have been releasing mulching lawn mowers.

These are Rotary Lawnmowers with 4 blades and a special Mulching Plug which inserts into the rear chute of the mower.

 

The special design of the lawn mower base, mulching plug, and the 4 blades, combine to send the clippings through the blades several times before being ejected. This process finely chops up clippings to be broken down quickly.

 

Another feature is that the finely chopped clippings are actually pushed by the fan action of the blades into the lawn, reducing the visible appearance of the clippings being left on the lawn.

 

When combined with regular lawn mowing, the clippings rarely look out of place being left on the lawn, usually disappearing altogether within a couple of days.

 

Exceptions

Clippings are great… except when they’re not. Here are a few exceptions to the rule-

  • The grass being mowed is too long,
  • If lawn grows rapidly, clippings will be unhealthy
  • When weeds are present, and especially when seed heads are already formed, this simply propagates the weeds for their next generation
  • If any weed spraying has recently been completed, these clippings must be placed in the bin.

 

 

 

If you need help maintaining your lawn, or if you simply need advice on how to use, service or fix your lawn mower, get in touch with the team at Hempfield Small Motors today.