Janet Baraclough wrote in
:

The message
from "Tom or Mary" contains these words:

People in my neighborhood dump their lawn clippings in the woods. I
have gone over there, and taken them and have used them between my
bushes. Now I plan to use them in my garden for mulch around my
tomato and pepper plants. Is there anything I need to be concerned
about. If chemicals are sprayed on my neighbor's yard, would those
chemicals affect the tomatos? One place on the internet says that the
clippings should not be deeper than an inch.

I use tons of the stuff, our own and trailer loads delivered free
by
a local lawn-mowing contractor. Two trailer loads yesterday :-) When I
first started doing this two years ago, he thought I was mad, and I
had to run miles with a barrow collecting it as he cut, but now he
brings his trailer into the garden and parks it wherever I want the
grass that week. Most of the beds were initially made by covering an
area in cardboard then mulch.

I apply grass clippings about 2" thick, but don't let it touch the
stems of plants. Once a year the soil in decorative areas also gets a
heavy cover of fresh seaweed and a smaller dressing of animal manure.
The vegetable area gets seaweed and home-made compost, manure in some
areas. The decomposition of so much green stuff by soil biota will
temporarily take nitrogen from the soil, so make sure you compensate
for that with something nitrogen-rich. Comfrey or nettle tea would do.

The soil is now full of worms feeding on the mulches. Many small birds
constantly turn over the mulch searching for the worms, so it quickly
breaks down into a loose dark friable covering, no smell, no caking,
and easily permeable to rain.(High rainfall area). The mulch and
constant bird activity keep down the weeds, and any which do germinate
have their roots in the loose upper surface so are easy to tweak out.

I can't answer about the chemical question, because none are used
on
the lawns that supply the cuttings.

Janet. (Isle of Arran Scotland)




Wow Janet, your soil must be incredible! Pictures please?

(Yes, I just asked someone for photos of their soil)

--
David J. Bockman, Fairfax, VA (USDA Hardiness Zone 7)
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