Grass Clippings As Mulch

[Pavel314]

We finally got a break in the rain for a few days so I mowed the lawn. I raked up the clippings and filled the lawn tractor trailer, about 24 cubic feet; I had to tamp down the clippings a few times to fit it all in.

My wife uses the clippings as mulch on her vegetable and flower gardens. She says that after a rain or two, the clippings all mat down and keep the weeds from taking over.

Paul

[Terry Coombs]

  Unless the grasses have gone to seed ... in which case you just planted it in the richest soil around . Ya know , it always gets me that people go to great lengths to make the soil rich so their garden does well - then wonder why the weeds do well too ! I use straw as a mulch , it also mats down . But any seeds in the straw are annuals rather than perennial grasses .

[songbird]

sure, almost any organic material can be used as a mulch which eventually gets broken down and turned into humus. the longer term issue is the number of weed seeds that the mulch introduces into a garden space and how easy it is to control the weeds if they manage to sprout and grow.

we have enough issues with weeds as it is, i sure don't need to spread certain ones of those any further especially when i spend time trying to eliminate or reducing them. an uncleaned mower can spread things far and wide...

songbird

[Pavel314]

I raked up the clippings and filled the lawn tractor trailer, about 24 cubi c feet; I had to tamp down the clippings a few times to fit it all in.

. She says that after a rain or two, the clippings all mat down and keep th e weeds from taking over.

My wife thought that was a great comment about people enriching the soil an d wondering why the weeds grow there.

Paul

[Frank]

Numerous mushroom houses around here and mushroom soil is cheap and a good soil amendment. It is the compost that comes out of a mushroom house after the fungi have depleted it. Nice stuff but full of residual weed seeds.