To Bag or Not to Bag.... that is the Question

[txshellie]

As we are headed into Spring in full force and my husbands eye has turned to thoughts of a riding mower, here is a question....

Do you bag and mulch or send your clippings to your city or do you just let the clipping lie where they fly?

I've heard opinions on both and wanted to see if there were any lawn gurus here who could give an analysis of this critical and highly debated lawn-care issue.

[Jim Gillum]

Over the years I have used grass clippings to mulch the flower beds.....
Maybe in front of the house they may look a little unsightly.....but when applied thickly, they stop weeds and decompose, adding organic matter to the soil.
They hold moisture.
A couple of times (years) I used the clippings to mulch the garden.....great results.....

A couple of times a year I mowed without the baggers, to add some organic matter pack to the soil. Some will say that that encourages fungus in the lawn, that has not been my experience....

I keep a section against the back fence and piled up some clippings. Then added some earth worms. When I wanted to fish, I always had plenty of worms.... even with the sandy Florida soil.

[ScriptMan]

I mow regularly and let them lay where they fall. I actually think my lawn improved after I quit bagging. That was at least 13 years ago. One thing you must not do is fail to mow regularly. That should not be a problem with a rider.

The local owner of a flower power store whose family has a long history in the landscape business preaches three things, mulch lightly, leave the clippings, and don't make those mulch donuts around your trees. He is a person whose opinion I respect.

[Dreamrage]

We do the same thing more or less. We have a compost heap at the very back of our yard. When the lawn is mowed, or hacked in some cases, it just gets added to the heap out back and used as needed. I only add grass tho, so there is no smells. All veggie scraps go to my muscovies.

[snakeair]

Right now I live in an apartment and don't do any yard work. lol

(Although, I do the yard work at my parents house and i dump the clippings in the woods behind there house)

[Luckyman]

I live in an independent house which has an exclusive rose garden. I mow my garden regularly and the clippings are just dried and utilized for vermi-composting...It makes an excellent manure

[Inspired Ink]

BAG???!!! (insert horrified smiley here)

NO!

I got a mulching mower that chops the pieces up fine, and I let those stay in the lawn. In a regular lawn, mowing often and leaving the clippings improves the soil, IMO.

Now I find myself with a LOT more area, and critters. I actually have to mow very seldom, due to having various grazers. When I do, I either leave the clippings on the "lawn" (such as it is, LOL) or, more often, I gather them to add to the compost, toss in the chicken coop, feed to rabbits, mulch in the garden, fill poultry brooder boxes, or whatever other use I have for them. I'd take in dozens of bags of other people's cut grass, if it were available, and if I was sure they didn't use chemicals on their lawns. That's valuable stuff!

[txshellie]

Well, it looks like the consensus is to mow often and let the clippings fly.

It took David about 10 hours on 3 days to push mow the lawn with all the bagging so he'll be happy to hear that until we find a good riding lawn mower that it looks like not bagging is the way to go and that will save him a ton of time. (I'm sadly allergic to grass )

And that saves us the money on the bagger for the mower and the bags.

There is a three year or older pile of leaves in one corner of the yard where there is a little hill.... that's the next project. The last owner just kept throwing his leaves back there. He told the realtor that most of them just blew away and he'd pile on more every year.... it's quite the pile. There is probably quite a few worms down there. We've been finding earthworms, frogs, weird bugs all over the place. Very few grubs so far. We'll be putting some nematodes on soon and I'd like some praying mantis eggs. We're going to have a buggy summer with the total lack of winter we had this year. We're trying to go all natural so that chemicals don't kill the lizards

Wish me luck finding a good deal on the mower on crags list.

If the yard turns out as nicely as I hope with plenty of flowers, fruit and vegetables, I'll post photos. (That may not be for a couple of years, LOL)

[ScriptMan]

That pile of rotten leaves in pure gold. I suggest you work the humus into any flower or garden you plan. If that is not your thing, a free ad on CL and the people who know will worry you to death for the chance to haul it away. I would even take some if you were closer.

[txshellie]

Originally Posted by ScriptMan

That pile of rotten leaves in pure gold. I suggest you work the humus into any flower or garden you plan. If that is not your thing, a free ad on CL and the people who know will worry you to death for the chance to haul it away. I would even take some if you were closer.

Thank you for casting the pile of refuse in an entirely new light

[boxfiddler]

I don't quite know how to answer this, as far as the poll options go.

I bag it. But then I place the bag contents in my compost pile.

[Ebla]

I compost mine. If you turn the pile regularly it will break down quickly, and you won't have a problem with smells.

[Inspired Ink]

Originally Posted by ScriptMan

That pile of rotten leaves in pure gold. I suggest you work the humus into any flower or garden you plan. If that is not your thing, a free ad on CL and the people who know will worry you to death for the chance to haul it away. I would even take some if you were closer.

Yup, must admit my first thought was just how far away from me you are if you want to get rid of it, LOL.

Definitely worthwhile. Can you get those chickens after all? That would help take care of your bugs. They might eat lizards too though ...

One of my best compost bins is in the main chicken yard. They go all over, but they definitely turn that one over all through the day every day. It gets broken down FAST and is a nice pile of compost.

Thinking of putting worms in under the rabbits soon ... but I'll have to keep the chickens out of that one. They would eat your worms too ...

Hope you are ok with the weather too, TxShellie ... lot of stuff blowing around.