GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - Which is better for the lawn over the winter?

Bob F · 06-11-2008, 05:08 AM posted to alt.home.lawn.garden

"Lawn Guy" wrote in message ...
wrote:

Because in most rural places with folks with lots of
trees and experience, bagging doesn't exist.

And it doesn't apply.

I'm talking about urban properties - not rural.

Here anyone who wants to have their leaves taken away, simply
blows or rakes them into the street. The township comes by
every couple of weeks from Nov thru Dec and vacuums them up.

But even in that case, the leaves are removed. Doesn't matter if it's
by blowing and then vacuuming or by raking and bagging.

If you did a little research, you'd find that there is widespread
agreement that mulching the clippings and leaving them is
beneficial to the lawn. The clippings decay and provide nutrients.

The nutient value of grass is so poor that nobody uses grass to make
compost.

You want a healthy lawn, you use fertilizer. The cut grass from last
season will not nourish your lawn anywhere near what a bag of fertilizer
will do. You want to promote thatch and give a home to bugs, then leave
your clippings on the lawn.

Beneficial to the companies harvesting trees to make those bags,

I highly doubt that paper leaf bags are made from anything other than
recycled paper and cardboard. Not freshly-cut trees. Maybe tree bark.

... I'd say there isn't anything natural or good for the environment
in the whole process.

I don't use paper bags for leaves because you can't pack them without
tearing them. That's why I use plastic garbage bags.

Hmmm, what about on all the streets and roads in a municipality
where there are just trees and no homes? Like in the country?

You don't have curbs and gutters and storm sewers on country roads. You
have paved or soft-shoulders where leaves don't accumulate on the
roads. So it's a non-issue in the country.

In conclusion, I'd like to see some credible reference that agrees
with your premise that mulching lawn grass clippings or mulching a
reasonable amount of leaves in-situ with a mower, is incompatible
with a healthy lawn.

If you already have a thatch buildup (1/2 inch or more) you do NOT want
to leave your cut grass on the lawn. If your grass has certain diseases
(snow mold, powdery mildew, etc) you DO NOT want to leave your cut grass
on the lawn.

If you want a THICK lawn that you don't need to cut every 5 days, then
bag your grass. The alternative being promoted to weed killer is to
regularly overseed your lawn, resulting in a thicker lawn. Again,
leaving the cut grass on the lawn only works if your lawn is relatively
sparse (vs thick) and requires more frequent cutting. The theoretical
BEST that grass cuttings can do when left on the lawn is to provide only
25% of the nutrients required. Water content claims of cut grass
varries wildly from 75% to 90%.

Bagging your grass has been villified in recent years because
municipalities want to desperately keep cut grass out of landfills
because many landfills are reaching capacity. That's why you hear so
much about the benefits of not bagging your grass. They're all
imaginary benefits. Terms like "Grasscycling" are being invented as
part of this propaganda.

If you want a good lawn, you bag your grass, and you deal with the
clippings by doing something other than putting them in your local
municiple landfill.

Many municipalities have yard waste drop-off depots where home owners
can bring various tree and brush cuttings for disposal for no charge.
The depots will grind them up and turn them into a compost or mulch, and
sell it back to the public. What you will find is that they won't
accept cut grass or use cut grass in the mulch, or will charge $1 a bag
and make you dump the grass into it's own dumpster. But why? Why not
take the grass for free? Why keep the grass segregated into it's own
pile? If cut grass is so beneficial and high in nutrients, why
discourage citizens from bringing it to the depots? Why doesn't this
grass get incorporated into the mulch along with tree branches and other
yard waste materials?

Why? Because cut grass is shit and has little to no nutrient value and
is high in carbon. If it's not good enough for municiple compost piles
it's not good enough for your lawn.

Quite the contrary, I've seen plenty of authorities
that say returning either grass clippings or other
organic matter in reasonable amounts is beneficial
to the lawn.

It's all propaganda.

They simply don't want to see the grass occupy valuble space in rapidly
shrinking municiple landfills.

Also, if you have something that supports your claim that
leaf removal is necessary to protect the health of trees
in the yard, I'd like to see that too.

This is one of the worst lawn advise postings I think I've ever seen.