I waited way too long to mow my backyard, and as a result, I have alot
of clippings... can these be used to mulch around my tomatos and
peppers, cuces, etc?? or am I asking for disaster? I guess the
clippings would provide good organic matter when they get tilled
under, but will they let enough water past into the soil?? will there
be any other problems I need to look out for??

thanks for the input!!




email: daveallyn at bwsys dot net
please respond in this NG so others
can share your wisdom as well!

If you have not treated your lawn with herbicides, the clippings make great
mulch for vegetable gardens. The trick is to add them in thin layers,
and/or spread them somewhere and let them dry out first. If you pile the
clippings up while still moist, they will mat and mold and not let air and
water through. Added in layers and allowed to dry out, they will work well
to keep down weeds and help hold moisture in the garden.

Cheers,
Sue, enjoying the first sunny day so far in May

Zone 6, Southcentral PA


"Dave Allyn (Dave Allyn)" wrote in message
...
I waited way too long to mow my backyard, and as a result, I have alot
of clippings... can these be used to mulch around my tomatos and
peppers, cuces, etc?? or am I asking for disaster? I guess the
clippings would provide good organic matter when they get tilled
under, but will they let enough water past into the soil?? will there
be any other problems I need to look out for??

thanks for the input!!




email: daveallyn at bwsys dot net
please respond in this NG so others
can share your wisdom as well!

Dave Allyn wrote:

I waited way too long to mow my backyard, and as a result, I have alot
of clippings...

If you leave them laying on your lawn you'll have a lot of little dead
spots. If you have a riding lawn mower you can just run over them again
and chop them up to nearly nothing if they're not to wet or too dry. On
a hot, dry day only takes about 15 miniutes for them dry out enough to
be mulched real easy, doesn't take long. Too much work for a push mower
tho /

I use clippings green, but don't pile them too thick. Maybe 2" or
less while fluffy. They'll get thinner as they dry and mat down.
I've never had any problems.

Regards, Dianna
_______________________________________________
To reply, please remove "fluff" from my address.

(Dianna Visek) wrote in message ...
I use clippings green, but don't pile them too thick. Maybe 2" or
less while fluffy. They'll get thinner as they dry and mat down.
I've never had any problems.

Most of my grass clippings go into the compost heap with last year's
leaves. However, every time I mow, I sprinkle grass clippings very
lightly on my very young plants in the garden. Right now, that
includes carrots and beets. These plants are too small to mulch
without damaging the plants, but the grass clippings can land right on
top of them without harm. As they dry, they will work their way to
the ground and form a light mulch. This is enough to shelter the
ground from heavy rains. As the plants grow up, they get heavily
mulched with coarser, partially-composted leaves and grass.

IC Gardener
Iowa City, Iowa
Zone 5A

I waited way too long to mow my backyard, and as a result, I have alot
of clippings... can these be used to mulch around my tomatos and
peppers, cuces, etc?? or am I asking for disaster? I guess the
clippings would provide good organic matter when they get tilled
under, but will they let enough water past into the soil?? will there
be any other problems I need to look out for??

thanks for the input!!

Yes grass clipping make excellent mulch for vegetables. As long as you only put
them a couple of inches deep, you should have no problems with water
penetration. I use leaves rather than grass clippings on tomatoes, in something
of an attempt to hold down foliar diseases, but the clippings are better than
bare soil.

writes:
I waited way too long to mow my backyard, and as a result, I have alot
of clippings... can these be used to mulch around my tomatos and
peppers, cuces, etc?? or am I asking for disaster? I guess the
clippings would provide good organic matter when they get tilled
under, but will they let enough water past into the soil?? will there
be any other problems I need to look out for??

thanks for the input!!

My tomatoes, etc., have been fantastic, and I attribute it partially to
the grass clipping mulch placed at planting and for a while after. The
grass clippings keep the soil warm while decomposing so you have the
advantage of warm soil as well as moisture retention. The added bonus is
weed control; by the time the surround soil warms enough for the weed
seeds to grow, the tomato plant has reached a height that it shades the
area which discourages weed growth. With a good supply of grass clippings
around the veggie plants, the plants grow better and weed growth is at a
minimum . . . works for me, your mileage may vary.

Never use any clippings from treated areas. Do keep an inch or two around
the stem free of mulch as a precaution against mold or other nasty things;
I've not had a problem with it, but some climates might have.

In addition to the grass clipping mulch, all of my watering (sans rain) is
done as surface watering (soaker system or drip lines) . . . and an ample
supply of water, always a good soaking never light watering. Since none
of my garden receives more than 50 percent sun (surrounding trees), my
conclusion for my own garden has been the water is more important than the
sun, not something someone growing up in eastern Washington on a farm
would have thought.

Last year's web page is still on line but not updated after July;
www.pacifier.com/~glenna (the tomato plants speak for themselves).

Enjoy your garden and do what "feels right" to you. I don't follow any
"rules" or I might have a real garden g. So far, I've not had any
problems with insects or birds . . . I feed the birds and so do the
insects. :-) Also important, an always full bird bath is beside the
garden so the birds never go to the tomatoes, etc., as they have plenty of
water available. Of course, all is subject to change during any year, but
so far my ignorance has served my garden well.

Glenna
who mows for mulch (in shorter supply each year as the garden expands)

(Glenna Rose) writes:

My tomatoes, etc., have been fantastic, and I attribute it partially
to the grass clipping mulch placed at planting and for a while
after. The grass clippings keep the soil warm while decomposing so
you have the advantage of warm soil as well as moisture retention.

I think people worry too much about the water-shedding qualities of
thick mulch. Yes, in a hard rain, the water won't all soak though.
But the mulch also prevents evaporation, so it's hard to say which
effect is stronger. I know that I've never pulled back several inches
of compacted grass clippings and found dry soil underneath. It's
always moist or even muddy.

The added bonus is weed control; by the time the surround soil warms
enough for the weed seeds to grow, the tomato plant has reached a
height that it shades the area which discourages weed growth. With
a good supply of grass clippings around the veggie plants, the
plants grow better and weed growth is at a minimum . . . works for
me, your mileage may vary.

All good reasons. My goal is to have my entire garden mulched this
year, and a couple more lawn-mowings should do it. I've also got
straw which I'm going to spread on top of the grass mulch around
vining plants like tomatoes and melons, to keep their fruit dry.


--
Aaron

On Sun, 25 May 2003 00:23:33 -0700, (Glenna
Rose) wrote:

Glenna
who mows for mulch (in shorter supply each year as the garden expands)

This is a problem. We've passed the point at which we can
mulch the garden by mowing the yard - we need to buy hay or
straw.

Pat

On 25 May 2003 06:30:28 -0500, Aaron Baugher
wrote:

I think people worry too much about the water-shedding qualities of
thick mulch. Yes, in a hard rain, the water won't all soak though.
But the mulch also prevents evaporation, so it's hard to say which
effect is stronger. I know that I've never pulled back several inches
of compacted grass clippings and found dry soil underneath. It's
always moist or even muddy.

I've been using grass clippings for mulch for several years now with
good success. I leave the grass clippings in a heap for a few weeks
before using them. I have a good size lawn area to mow, and always
have two or three grass heaps on the go.

When planting potatoes in my main garden area, I plant them quite
shallow and then put a good layer of clippings over the bed. As the
plants grow I shovel more clipping around the plant. I also grow
potatoes around the base of some of my fruit trees. With these I don't
plant them in the soil but just lay them on top. I then shovel a good
layer of lawn clipping mulch over the potatoes. With these also, as
the plants grow I shovel on more mulch.

Harvesting the potatoes around the fruit trees is easy as there's no
heavy digging. After harvesting the potatoes around the fruit trees, I
take away about half the well broken down mulch to dig into a garden
bed. I then lay some more seed potatoes on the remaining decomposed
clippings and cover with more fresh mulch.


Trevor