Recycle your grass clippings
Grass clippings have been banned from landfills by approximately half of the states in the United States. Regardless of bans, however, there are no good reasons to collect and dispose of lawn grass clippings. In the collection system, grass clippings are a costly nuisance. Yet when recycled at home, grass clippings are a resource of valuable plant nutrients and organic matter for your soil. The best way to manage grass clippings is to leave them on the lawn. Grass clippings left to decompose (in place) will improve your turf.

Why recycle grass clippings?

Grass clippings are too valuable to waste! When left on the lawn, properly mowed grass clippings filter down to the soil and decompose rapidly, usually within a few weeks. During the breakdown process, the clippings feed soil organisms, recycle plant nutrients, and contribute organic matter to the soil. As a result, water is conserved and less fertilizer is needed.

Usually the easiest and best way to handle grass clippings is to leave them on the lawn. Sometimes, this is not desirable, such as when the grass is mowed long. Fortunately, there are other good methods to recycling grass clippings at home, including using them as a mulch or soil additive in gardens, or as an ingredient in a compost pile.

Grass clippings can serve as a garden mulch to discourage weeds, retain soil moisture and reduce erosion. The grass eventually decomposes, adding organic matter and plant nutrients to the soil. Place grass mulch around plants in layers of about 1 inch and allow it to dry before you add more clippings. Thicker applications of clippings can become slimy and matted, impeding air and water movement into the soil.

Incorporating grass clippings directly into the soil captures more of the N and organic matter than mulching, though without the benefits of surface mulch. As the grass decomposes, nutrients gradually become available to the garden plants. After collection, work 2 to 3 inches of clippings into the top 6 to 12 inches of soil. Do not use clippings containing a large amount of mature grass or weed seeds. These will eventually sprout weeds in the garden.

Grass is a good ingredient for a backyard compost pile. Grass clippings decompose rapidly and provide both moisture and N, which are often lacking in backyard composting piles. Compost piles begin to heat soon after grass clippings are added. The resulting higher pile temperatures destroy more weed seeds and plant diseases and generally speed the composting process.

Hey, wait a minute!  Isn’t this blog supposed to be about motorcycles?

If you remember, last week’s The Experience came to you from my hotel room in Seattle with a comment about hoping my neighbor could cut my yard during my seven-day trip. Well, after copious amounts of fertilizer over the past 15 years and a week of rain in Central Indiana, my good neighbor cut the yard twice during my week long travels, but it still got totally out of control.

This past weekend was a spectacular two days of crisp clear days. After a week of travels, I opted to spend most of Saturday and Sunday on my Ducati 1098S Tricolore rather than deal with a yard of mounded clumps of dead grass. Well, it took over five hours of cutting, bagging and raking to bring my ¾-acre yard back into control, ending with a huge mound of grass clippings on my yard debris pile.

My elderly retired neighbor wandered over yesterday evening eyeing my mountain of grass clippings and proceeded to explain how when mixed with my mountain of leaves from last fall, what a wonderfully rich compost would evolve. He even offered to take some off my hands to enrich his own compost pile. Wow, now I can call my mountain of yard debris a compost heap!

Well, I hope you all learned a little bit about the wonders of Mother Nature and remember to recycle your grass clippings!

I’ll see you all next week at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com

Greg