"eHDMI" wrote in message
ink.net...
Cutting your lawn properly can lead to a healthy growing lawn. Although it
seems like a chore, lawn mowing can give you a great workout and be
relaxing. The smell of fresh-cut grass gives you a wonderful sense of
accomplishment. Before you mow, here are a few things about mowing that
you should take note first.

1. Never mow a wet lawn

You should avoid mowing when the lawn is wet. The grasses will settle in
big globs and cause clumping of the lawn. It will help to spread lawn
fungus quickly too. Schedule your mowing task to the evening as the
weather is cooler and your lawn has ample time to dry from the morning
watering.

2. Adapt your mowing schedule to the grass growth

Different type of grass flourish in different seasons. Warm-season grasses
will grow quickly in summer and thus you may need to mow once every three
to four days during the summer period. You can reduce the mowing to once a
month during a drought period. Observe how your lawn grass is growing and
adapt your mowing schedule accordingly.

3. Check your mowing height

A good practice is to cut off top one third of the grasses at any one
time. If your lawn grasses have grown to six inches and you like to bring
it back to two inches, do not cut off four inches in one mowing session.
Cut off the first two inches and let the lawn rest for a couple of days.
This will allow your lawn to recover and adapt to the new height before
mowing the next two inches.

4. Change Your Mowing Patterns

If you often mow your lawn in the same pattern and direction, streaks or
stripped lines can develop and make your lawn look horrible. Try to
alternate the mowing direction each time you mow. Mow side to mow during
the first pass and then top to bottom for the next pass. This ensures your
lawn will not be matted or trampled in the same place each time you mow.

5. Mulch your lawn

You should try to get a mulching mower that can cut and re-cut the grasses
to drop back into your lawn. Clippings are actually a form of natural,
slow-release fertilizer and they can help you reduce your fertilizer
requirement by half. You have to keep the mower blades sharp so that the
mowing action will cut the grass blades and not tear them. Tearing the
grass blades can lead to development of thatches, which are harmful to
your lawn.

Mulching your lawn is good practice during a drought season and after
fertilization. It can provide cover to help the soil retain the water it
received. In addition, the clippings contain water and small amount of
nitrogen (plus a host of other nutrients in small quantities) which will
provide the fertilization that your lawn need. In the long run, the cost
saving from a reduction of fertilizer purchases can really add up.

Proper mowing is one of the most important practices in your keeping your
lawn healthy. Keeping these five points in mind and integrating them into
your mowing session will ensure your lawn stays green and healthy for many
years to come.

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Most important is amongst the mulching section. Use a sharp blade. Works
better if the grass is moist or dry. Chops up the ORGANICALLY degradable
mulch better, making it easier to blend into the soil. If you're too lazy
or don't know how to sharpen it, replace it every season.

Spam target newsgroups removed in response.
Dave

Dave wrote:

Mulching your lawn is good practice during a drought season

I don't buy the mulching argument.

In my experience, mulched grass creates a sponge layer at the surface
and any rain that comes in the summer (we're having a drought, like we
usually seem to do every summer, here in SW-Ontario).

When we get our pathetic quick thunder storms, the rain rolls quickly
off our hard-packed clay soils. Any rain that doesn't run off gets
absorbed by the dried mulch layer, which then gives it back to the
atmosphere when it dries. It prevents the moisture from reaching and
being absorbed into the soil surface.

You might say "well, just add better top soil to your lawn". That
doesn't work if we're talking about city-owned portion of your front
yard, or the grass circle in the middle of a court.

It is universally said that mulched grass contains nutients that are
great to give back to your lawn.

Well, if cut grass was so great, then why don't municiple yards that
collect yard waste accept it? These places take yard waste (tree
branches mostly, maybe pine needles and other stuff you rake) and
mulch/compost it and sell it. But they won't take grass. Why not I
ask? Everyone says that grass contains all these nutrients? Grass
should be great, perfect to add to the ground-up yard waste? But no,
they don't take it. If they take it, they charge you $1 a bag.

The truth is that municiple garbage collection and yard-waste
management knows that cut grass is useless and nutrient-poor (full of
carbon mostly) so they create this con-job and tell people it's better
for your lawn to mulch. They just don't want to deal with cut grass
so they want you to just leave it in your grass, where it will create
thatch that will thin out your grass, harbor bugs and disease and soak
up the little, precious water you get in the summer and act like a
barrier to prevent the water from getting to the parched soil
underneath.

Eggs Zachtly wrote:

(lots of crap)

Listen shit-head.

I know my own turf, soil and weather conditions.

The best turf comes from bagging the clippings.

You're ****ing stupid if you think that crass clippings aren't
collected for use in municple compost because of the chemicals that
people *might* put on it (those chemicals have long since degraded and
broken down before the grass is cut and will further degrade when
composted).

The stubble left after food crops are harvested are turned back under
the soil. You can't do that for grass clipping left on the lawn (but
that's what really needs to be done if you are to recycle any
nutrients they have).

And, you disagree with that? Are you saying that grass
clippings have no nutritional value to turf?

What ever value they have, it does not outweigh the negative aspects
of leaving them on the grass, and can easily be replicated by a single
application per season of a liquid or granular fertilizer.

And what ever nutritional value crass clippings are purported to have,
it's apparently not enough to be attractive or desirable for municiple
composting operations, where grass clippings are avoided through the
application of a $1 a bag tipping fee, even though given their massive
stocks of other yard waste it would be easy to incorporate the grass
into that material stream where the grass would be evenly distributed
and anerobic decay would be prevented.

Garden Guy said:

Dave wrote:

Mulching your lawn is good practice during a drought season

I don't buy the mulching argument.

/Valid/ reasons?


In my experience, mulched grass creates a sponge layer at the surface
and any rain that comes in the summer (we're having a drought, like we
usually seem to do every summer, here in SW-Ontario).

I'm sorry, but the above sentence appears as an incomplete thought. "...and
any rain...", what? Are you saying that the dried grass clippings soak up
all of the rain? You have a source for that?


When we get our pathetic quick thunder storms, the rain rolls quickly
off our hard-packed clay soils.

Ever consider watering between the rains? If you soak your lawn, properly,
you shouldn't have the runoff. You can't blame the grass clippings for your
neglect.

Any rain that doesn't run off gets absorbed by the dried mulch layer,

How much rainfall? Saying a "thunderstorm", no matter how "pathetically
quick", usually involves rainfall on the heavier side. There's not enough
surface area on the (especially, dried) grass clippings to absorb any
measurable amount of moisture. It may slow the water down, in route to the
soil, but it certainly doesn't absorb all of the water.

which then gives it back to the
atmosphere when it dries. It prevents the moisture from reaching and
being absorbed into the soil surface.

You'll lose /some/ to evaporation, but being shaded by the grass itself, a
good amount will reach the soil. A lot will be determined by the weather
conditions (does the sun come out, right after the storm, or does it remain
overcast?, etc.), as well as the general conditions of the area (full sun?
shade? etc.).


You might say "well, just add better top soil to your lawn". That
doesn't work if we're talking about city-owned portion of your front
yard,

Why can't you improve the turf's conditions at the easement?

or the grass circle in the middle of a court.

Who cares? That's the city's problem, not the homeowners.


It is universally said that mulched grass contains nutients that are
great to give back to your lawn.

And, you disagree with that? Are you saying that grass clippings have no
nutritional value to turf?


Well, if cut grass was so great, then why don't municiple yards that
collect yard waste accept it?

Because of all of the chemicals that people put on their lawns.

These places take yard waste (tree
branches mostly, maybe pine needles and other stuff you rake) and
mulch/compost it and sell it. But they won't take grass.

Do you apply chemicals to your trees and shrubs, on a regular basis (as
regular as your lawn?).

[...]


The truth is that municiple garbage collection and yard-waste
management knows that cut grass is useless and nutrient-poor (full of
carbon mostly)

Wow, Einstein, "full of carbon mostly"? They're living organisms. Of
/course/ they're 'mostly carbon'. They're also absolutely loaded with
nitrogen (and a lot of other nutrients). Do some homework, eh?

so they create this con-job and tell people it's better
for your lawn to mulch.

"Truth"?

Source?

They just don't want to deal with cut grass
so they want you to just leave it in your grass,

Again, source?

where it will create thatch that will thin out your grass,

Please, give us your understanding of what "thatch" is.

harbor bugs and disease

They exist quite well in a lawn that gets "bagged". What bugs and diseases
do you speak of, that only exist in "mulched" lawns? Or, alternatively,
provide a source stating that bugs and diseases are higher in lawns that
are "mulched".

and soak
up the little, precious water you get in the summer and act like a
barrier to prevent the water from getting to the parched soil
underneath.

Go buy a sprinkler and quit blaming the grass clippings for your poor lawn
conditions.

Good grief, you /really/ sound like Stubby.

--

Eggs

-If a cow laughs hard, does milk come out its nose?

"Dave" wrote in message
ink.net...
"eHDMI" wrote in message
1. Never mow a wet lawn

Yeah right. It allways rains at the weekend.

Garden Guy said:

Eggs Zachtly wrote:

(lots of crap)

Listen shit-head.

I know my own turf, soil and weather conditions.

But very little about plant requirements, as well as minimal knowledge of
composting.


The best turf comes from bagging the clippings.

Opinion. Nothing more. How many golf courses have you /ever/ seen a mower
that bags their fairways? Does your turf even come close to resemebling a
properly maintained fairway?


You're ****ing stupid if you think that crass clippings aren't
collected for use in municple compost because of the chemicals that
people *might* put on it (those chemicals have long since degraded and
broken down before the grass is cut and will further degrade when
composted).

Ahh, now you're a chemist! You sure get around. We're all quite impressed.
You spew drivel as fact, but can't substantiate your facts by providing a
source.

Oh, and for the record. My local municipality accepts grass clippings at
their composting operation. From their website:

| 4) NO GRASS CLIPPINGS will be picked up. Grass clippings can be
| deposited at the Compost Facility.

So, who's the stupid **** now? All your know-it-all drivel that you've
spewed was just that, drivel. Maybe /your/ municipality doesn't accept
them, but that doesn't mean the /all/ don't. GFY, asswipe.


The stubble left after food crops are harvested are turned back under
the soil. You can't do that for grass clipping left on the lawn (but
that's what really needs to be done if you are to recycle any
nutrients they have).

By that way of thinking, spreading a granular fertilizer won't do any good,
either. You're not turning it into the soil, every time you apply it, are
you?


And, you disagree with that? Are you saying that grass
clippings have no nutritional value to turf?

What ever value they have, it does not outweigh the negative aspects
of leaving them on the grass, and can easily be replicated by a single
application per season of a liquid or granular fertilizer.

Ahh... so "easy" is really your modus operandi. That makes sense,
considering you don't water properly, during dry spells. Bet you never
change the oil in your mower, too, huh?


And what ever nutritional value crass clippings are purported to have,
it's apparently not enough to be attractive or desirable for municiple
composting operations, where grass clippings are avoided through the
application of a $1 a bag tipping fee, even though given their massive
stocks of other yard waste it would be easy to incorporate the grass
into that material stream where the grass would be evenly distributed
and anerobic decay would be prevented.

Hey, you're the one that chose to live in the municipality that robs it's
residents to dispose of grass clippings, not me. muahahaha... Dumbass.

--

Eggs

APATHY ERROR: Don't bother striking any key.

Garden Guy wrote:

[....]
people *might* put on it (those chemicals have long since degraded and
broken down before the grass is cut and will further degrade when
composted).

wrong....

when creating pasture grass for animals to graze on
you'll learn after doing some research and reading how
there are a vast number of lawn products that are strictly
forbidden and extremely unwise to use on pasture grasses.
these are products commonly used by the typical home owner
seeking a green lush healthy lawn. the reason behind this
is because these products do indeed end up in the grass and
are then ingested by the animal doing the grazing.

as for your problems with mulching, I suspect you're waiting
to long in-between cuts and therefore producing more clippings
than the lawn can properly absorb before your next cut. for
example: the typical recommendation for mowing fescue is to
mow when the grass reaches 4 inches in height and to cut back
to three inches. when mulching the 4 inch height the cut
should only remove 1/2 inch leaving the height at 3.5 inches.
proper mulching techniques require more frequent mowing. so,
cut and mulch at a height of 3.5 to remove 1/2 inch returning
the fescue to the recommend height of 3 inches.

"Garden Guy" wrote in message
...
Eggs Zachtly wrote:

(lots of crap)

Listen shit-head.

I know my own turf, soil and weather conditions.

I know my own turf, soil and wather conditions. Mulching works well for me.

The best turf comes from bagging the clippings.

my turf is mulched and looks fine, best it has looked in the 4 years I have
been tending it. Moreover municipal playing fields & school playing fields
are all mulched. No massive ctahcer towed behind a tractor to collect it all
up.

You're ****ing stupid if you think that crass clippings aren't
collected for use in municple compost because of the chemicals that
people *might* put on it (those chemicals have long since degraded and
broken down before the grass is cut and will further degrade when
composted).

grass clippings are accepted here for composting. Question is why, why
remove the nutrients from the soil and then have to replace them. Mulch and
they stay in situ.

The stubble left after food crops are harvested are turned back under
the soil. You can't do that for grass clipping left on the lawn (but
that's what really needs to be done if you are to recycle any
nutrients they have).

a very good soil food web will take care of most of that problem. Worms are
very useful things to have in your lawn.

And, you disagree with that? Are you saying that grass
clippings have no nutritional value to turf?

What ever value they have, it does not outweigh the negative aspects
of leaving them on the grass, and can easily be replicated by a single
application per season of a liquid or granular fertilizer.

nah, much better to leave them where they are, on the lawn. Fk hauling a
catcher all over the place or being even more stupid and piling them in a
bag for someone to collect and cart off. Roftl, that is just dumb.

And what ever nutritional value crass clippings are purported to have,
it's apparently not enough to be attractive or desirable for municiple
composting operations, where grass clippings are avoided through the
application of a $1 a bag tipping fee, even though given their massive
stocks of other yard waste it would be easy to incorporate the grass
into that material stream where the grass would be evenly distributed
and anerobic decay would be prevented.

gras clippings are accepted here for composting.

rob

You may be correct in your assessment of your specific growing area due to
soil, grade, rainfall, and so forth. I've found this true as this varies
widely.

Your conclusions about mulch resulting from typical lawn grass cutting
lacking nutrients, I beg to differ. What municipalities do with cut grass,
leaves, and branches varies widely throughout the nation. There's less
liability in simply disposing it as there's more than just that in that
waste. A government employee isn't cheap either for tackling screening such
waste. So, that, is the usual method.
Dave

"Garden Guy" wrote in message
...
Eggs Zachtly wrote:

(lots of crap)

Listen shit-head.

I know my own turf, soil and weather conditions.

The best turf comes from bagging the clippings.

You're ****ing stupid if you think that crass clippings aren't
collected for use in municple compost because of the chemicals that
people *might* put on it (those chemicals have long since degraded and
broken down before the grass is cut and will further degrade when
composted).

The stubble left after food crops are harvested are turned back under
the soil. You can't do that for grass clipping left on the lawn (but
that's what really needs to be done if you are to recycle any
nutrients they have).

And, you disagree with that? Are you saying that grass
clippings have no nutritional value to turf?

What ever value they have, it does not outweigh the negative aspects
of leaving them on the grass, and can easily be replicated by a single
application per season of a liquid or granular fertilizer.

And what ever nutritional value crass clippings are purported to have,
it's apparently not enough to be attractive or desirable for municiple
composting operations, where grass clippings are avoided through the
application of a $1 a bag tipping fee, even though given their massive
stocks of other yard waste it would be easy to incorporate the grass
into that material stream where the grass would be evenly distributed
and anerobic decay would be prevented.

"CWatters" wrote in message
...

"Dave" wrote in message
ink.net...
"eHDMI" wrote in message
1. Never mow a wet lawn

Yeah right. It allways rains at the weekend.



Uhh, I didn't write that, the original poster did. You needed to reply to
that, not my later reply...
Dave

"Dave" wrote in message
ink.net...
"CWatters" wrote in message
...

"Dave" wrote in message
ink.net...
"eHDMI" wrote in message
1. Never mow a wet lawn

Yeah right. It allways rains at the weekend.



Uhh, I didn't write that, the original poster did. You needed to reply to
that, not my later reply...
Dave



Sorry for my in accurate cutting.

"Garden Guy" wrote in message
...

You're ****ing stupid if you think that crass clippings aren't
collected for use in municple compost because of the chemicals that
people *might* put on it (those chemicals have long since degraded
and
broken down before the grass is cut and will further degrade when
composted).

And you're ****ing stupid if you think that grass clippings aren't
collected for use in municipal compost. They are here. There was a
problem with one chemical carrying over in the compost that would
prevent some plants from growing. I believe its use has been
discontinued locally.


The stubble left after food crops are harvested are turned back
under
the soil. You can't do that for grass clipping left on the lawn
(but
that's what really needs to be done if you are to recycle any
nutrients they have).

I hire worms to do it for me here. Pay is low, performance is great.
They love it.

You do want to feed your worms, don't you?


And, you disagree with that? Are you saying that grass
clippings have no nutritional value to turf?

What ever value they have, it does not outweigh the negative aspects
of leaving them on the grass, and can easily be replicated by a
single
application per season of a liquid or granular fertilizer.

I have seen no evidence of negative aspects, when done properly.


And what ever nutritional value crass clippings are purported to
have,
it's apparently not enough to be attractive or desirable for
municiple
composting operations, where grass clippings are avoided through the
application of a $1 a bag tipping fee, even though given their
massive
stocks of other yard waste it would be easy to incorporate the grass
into that material stream where the grass would be evenly
distributed
and anerobic decay would be prevented.

There are no such problems where I live. But then again, I'd never
give away my lawn clippings when I do bag (like during cottonwood
season). They make great compost, which my garden loves. It's a lot
cheaper than buying it back from the city.

Bob