"David W.E. Roberts" wrote in
:

So if your garden is reasonably large, and you don't have the time (or
the gardener) to maintain large borders, and you don't have the desire
(or the money) for large scale 'hard landscaping' then you may well
end up with a garden which is mostly lawn, and which can produce
mowings faster than the borders can consume them.


You could choose to have more shrubbery and less lawn. Shrubs need less
care than lawns, I find, and shrubs can absorb a lot of cuttings.

From time to time you do need to cut the shrubs back, but not as often as
lawnmowing, shredding is more fun than mowing, and if you layer the grass
cuttings with shreddings they don't go green slime on you.

Victoria

"Victoria Clare" wrote in message
. 240.12...
"David W.E. Roberts" wrote in
:

So if your garden is reasonably large, and you don't have the time (or
the gardener) to maintain large borders, and you don't have the desire
(or the money) for large scale 'hard landscaping' then you may well
end up with a garden which is mostly lawn, and which can produce
mowings faster than the borders can consume them.


You could choose to have more shrubbery and less lawn. Shrubs need less
care than lawns, I find, and shrubs can absorb a lot of cuttings.

From time to time you do need to cut the shrubs back, but not as often as
lawnmowing, shredding is more fun than mowing, and if you layer the grass
cuttings with shreddings they don't go green slime on you.

Victoria

A logical solution :-)

However I like my large lawn.

I guess the OP and myself are seeking a solution which does not involve
reducing the size of the lawn just to make it easier to dispose of the
clippings.

Cheers
Dave R

P.S. to take this to the logical conclusion; "just keep reducing the size of
the lawn until the problem goes away" is a solution but not perhaps the one
we are seeking

On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 10:29:04 +0100, "David W.E. Roberts" said:

[snip]
] So if your garden is reasonably large, and you don't have the time (or the
] gardener) to maintain large borders, and you don't have the desire (or the
] money) for large scale 'hard landscaping' then you may well end up with a
] garden which is mostly lawn, and which can produce mowings faster than the
] borders can consume them.
[]
Such is certainly my case. I always have more clippings than I know what to do
with. Currently driving them to the bottom of a field to fill in a hollow area (was
long ago a communal path) which adds time to the mow, as well.

-E
--
Emery Davis
You can reply to
by removing the well known companies

In article , David W.E.
Roberts writes
P.S. to take this to the logical conclusion; "just keep reducing the size of
the lawn until the problem goes away" is a solution but not perhaps the one
we are seeking

Works well for me!
--
Kay - whose lawns are now ponds, gravel paths, and wild flower meadows

The message
from "David W.E. Roberts" contains these words:

"You can never have too much/many grass clippings."

Mr Picky says 'yes you can have too much/many'.

With all due respect
There seems to be an assumption in some quarters that all contributors to
this NG have massive borders for growing stuff in, which are always crying
out for extra mulch, manure, feeding etc. which cannot be supplied from the
huge compost heaps constantly digesting plant material.
Witness the comments about bringing in neighbours grass clippings.
[BTW shouldn't these neighbours be composting their grass cuttings and
mulching their own borders?]

They employ a mowing contractor because they are either very old and
frail, absent second-home owners, or frantically busy with tourist
guests almost 24 hours a day during the lawnmowing season.

I've lost one of my grass-contributors this year. He's so amazed at
what his cuttings did to my garden, he's decided to do the same in his
own. He has no difficulty at all using up all his cuttings.

Not all gardens have a large border+compost heap to lawn ratio.
Perhaps you should merely state "In my particular garden, I can't get enough
grass clippings".

I think most sensible readers would take that as read, but YMMV.


/With all due respect

With respect, you have no idea of the ratio of lawn to bed/compost
heap in my garden, and have made a wrong assumption. ATM I've got more
lawn than beds, same as you.

For low maintenance it is good to have a large lawn (requires mowing but not
much else) and shrub borders which require occasional pruning and not much
else.

Grandmothers and eggs come to mind. One of the huge benefits of
permanent mulches, is to create a low maintenance garden at minimal
cost. Vegetable mulch smothers many weeds and prevent their seeds
germinating; it creates rich soil in which plants grow healthy and
strong so they don't need chemical feeds and sprays, and it conserves
moisture so watering isn't necessary.

In the past I have converted borders to lawn because I didn't have the time
to weed them and the garden looked a mess.
Now I have more time, but I have not reached the stage of ripping up the
lawn to enlarge the beds.

There's no need for all that hard labour, "ripping up lawn" to make
beds. I made many of mine by laying mulch on top of lawn, a highly
effective low-input, low maintenance way. I only do it your way when
I've run out of mulch material.

Grass as a mulch takes a long time to break down

Not in my experience.The speed of its breakdown is the reason I can
never get enough. Together with the other mulches I use it creates
intense worm activity. As the worms start working, blackbirds and
thrushes move in to hunt them, and constantly stir the mulch around
which helps it break down into a dark friable humus. The three-inch
surface mulch of grass cuttings I applied yesterday will be brown in a
week and within a month will be unrecognisable as grass.

So in two to three weeks I have covered all
available space in the borders, and if I keep adding more layers it gets
unsightly and does not break down well - going to 'green slime' mode.

Never had "green slime" mode, even though I live in a high-rainfall area.

As stated elsewhere one mowing can fill a brown wheelie bin, which is
emptied once every two weeks, so in the spring and early summer the mowings
are being produced faster than the council can take them away.
I have just installed my trial 'builders bag' compost heap in one corner
where it will be mainly concealed by shrubs (a white bag is not a pretty
feature) and this is already 1/3 to 1/2 full. It is not going to swallow all
my clippings plus other material and compost it all down faster than I can
produce new clippings.
I expect it to be full within 6-8 weeks.
We shall see :-)

I think you'll find that the heat generated by that volume of grass
will shrink it fast, but additions will tend to press down and make it
very dense; anaerobic decomposition doesn't make good compost. Mixing
crumpled cardboard cartons in with the grass will keep enough air in it;
if you have any wood ash to scatter, that's a good additive. If the bag
has a bottom in it, that will slow composting considerably.

So if your garden is reasonably large, and you don't have the time (or the
gardener) to maintain large borders, and you don't have the desire (or the
money) for large scale 'hard landscaping' then you may well end up with a
garden which is mostly lawn, and which can produce mowings faster than the
borders can consume them.

Disposing of them in a constructive manner (not just in bin bags to create
methane in a landfill) is a serious problem.

Quite; so let's hope more people will try mulching with grass cuttings
for themselves.

Janet

"Janet Baraclough.." wrote in message
...
The message m
from "kenty ;-\)" contains these words:

I have quite a large lawn,too much clippings to keep composting! Would
like
to know what others do with there clippings.

I've just come in from collecting the clippings from two neighbours'
gardens, who have their grass cut by a contractor. 8 high barrow-loads.
You can never have too much/many grass clippings.

Today's haul went straight on the beds as mulch, on top of earlier
spring mulch layers of seaweed and strawy manure. These beds were made
last year by laying cardboard on the lawn, and covering with clippings
etc; they are rich soft soil now, full of earthworms.

My own lawn's clippings from a cut on Sunday, were very mossy so I put
them in the compost heap along with a load of weeds and some seaweed.

Janet,

"You can never have too much/many grass clippings."

Mr Picky says 'yes you can have too much/many'.

With all due respect
There seems to be an assumption in some quarters that all contributors to
this NG have massive borders for growing stuff in, which are always crying
out for extra mulch, manure, feeding etc. which cannot be supplied from the
huge compost heaps constantly digesting plant material.
Witness the comments about bringing in neighbours grass clippings.
[BTW shouldn't these neighbours be composting their grass cuttings and
mulching their own borders?]
Not all gardens have a large border+compost heap to lawn ratio.
Perhaps you should merely state "In my particular garden, I can't get enough
grass clippings".
/With all due respect

For low maintenance it is good to have a large lawn (requires mowing but not
much else) and shrub borders which require occasional pruning and not much
else.
In the past I have converted borders to lawn because I didn't have the time
to weed them and the garden looked a mess.
Now I have more time, but I have not reached the stage of ripping up the
lawn to enlarge the beds.
[Although the fruit trees could be in for a limited treat this year.]
At the moment I am mainly growing fruit and vegetables in containers on our
very large very low maintenance patio area.
Grass as a mulch takes a long time to break down - a mowing will normally
last most of a year.
One mowing of my lawn will cover one of the two borders where I can hide the
mowings under the shrubbery. So in two to three weeks I have covered all
available space in the borders, and if I keep adding more layers it gets
unsightly and does not break down well - going to 'green slime' mode.
As stated elsewhere one mowing can fill a brown wheelie bin, which is
emptied once every two weeks, so in the spring and early summer the mowings
are being produced faster than the council can take them away.
I have just installed my trial 'builders bag' compost heap in one corner
where it will be mainly concealed by shrubs (a white bag is not a pretty
feature) and this is already 1/3 to 1/2 full. It is not going to swallow all
my clippings plus other material and compost it all down faster than I can
produce new clippings.
I expect it to be full within 6-8 weeks.
We shall see :-)
So if your garden is reasonably large, and you don't have the time (or the
gardener) to maintain large borders, and you don't have the desire (or the
money) for large scale 'hard landscaping' then you may well end up with a
garden which is mostly lawn, and which can produce mowings faster than the
borders can consume them.
Disposing of them in a constructive manner (not just in bin bags to create
methane in a landfill) is a serious problem.
Small gardens which are all lawn and no borders have even more of a problem,
but at least the brown bin can normally keep pace.

Cheers
Dave R

On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 10:29:04 +0100, "David W.E. Roberts"
wrote:


With all due respect
There seems to be an assumption in some quarters that all contributors to
this NG have massive borders for growing stuff in, which are always crying
out for extra mulch, manure, feeding etc. which cannot be supplied from the
huge compost heaps constantly digesting plant material.
etc.

A few years ago, "mulching mowers" and "mulching blades" for mowers
became available/fashionable here (US). The general idea is that the
clippings are chopped into such teeny pieces that they can be left
in/on the grass to quickly decay and nourish the lawn in situ. I can't
recall reading much about owner satisfaction with these products, but
then I haven't read anything like "a mulching mower destroyed my
lawn," either. FWIW.

"David W.E. Roberts" wrote in message ...
"Victoria Clare" wrote in message
. 240.12...
"David W.E. Roberts" wrote in
:

So if your garden is reasonably large, and you don't have the time (or
the gardener) to maintain large borders, and you don't have the desire
(or the money) for large scale 'hard landscaping' then you may well
end up with a garden which is mostly lawn, and which can produce
mowings faster than the borders can consume them.


You could choose to have more shrubbery and less lawn. Shrubs need less
care than lawns, I find, and shrubs can absorb a lot of cuttings.

From time to time you do need to cut the shrubs back, but not as often as
lawnmowing, shredding is more fun than mowing, and if you layer the grass
cuttings with shreddings they don't go green slime on you.

Victoria

A logical solution :-)

However I like my large lawn.

I guess the OP and myself are seeking a solution which does not involve
reducing the size of the lawn just to make it easier to dispose of the
clippings.

Cheers
Dave R

P.S. to take this to the logical conclusion; "just keep reducing the size of
the lawn until the problem goes away" is a solution but not perhaps the one
we are seeking

So you like your large lawn. I'm not even hinting at trying to dictate
to you what you want in your own garden, but when I discuss designs I
ask questions like "Have you thought about _why_ you like it?"

Is it because it looks nice, or is it because the family use it for
clock-golf, boules, football, French cricket, sun-bathing, and
generally messing about? If it's because it looks nice, (and that
could include displaying some large specimen trees, or statues, or the
house itself to the best advantage) that's just as good a reason as
any other for keeping it; but if keeping it commits you to a price you
don't like paying (such as getting rid of the mowings), why not at
least consider the alternatives?

Maybe it's just too big for the purposes you use it for; maybe the
family have grown up, or maybe you don't practise your putting or
fly-casting any more. So what would you get in return for reducing the
size? A pond, a spectacular fountain, or some winding walks through
flowering shrubs and bulbs? A beautiful summer-house? A bird
sanctuary? A fascinating knot-garden or maze? A traditional potager? A
beautiful walled suntrap with weathered stone paving, peach and fig
trees, and a standard wistaria on an umbrella support in the middle? A
minimal oriental meditation garden? Heck, a small vineyard, or
orchard? Would you enjoy any of those as much as a big lawn? Maybe
you'd enjoy one or more of them _more_.

This is just wondering, of course. But if the mowings are feeling like
a problem, maybe it's time to consider getting rid of the problem at
source instead of at the big end. Your garden should be fun, not a
burden.

Mike.