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What Do Lawn Care Companies Do With Lawn Grass Clippings

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It’s the fact that lawn mowing and maintenance produce the grass that can be irritating. But the question is, what do lawn care companies do with lawn grass clippings after mowing? Lawn care companies can give you different options. These options include bagging, leaving them on the lawn, or starting a composite pile.  

In this article, we’ll discuss all methods mentioned above for using grass clippings. It’ll help you find the best one to use for your grass clippings.  

What is Lawn Grass Clippings?

The grass left behind after mowing is grass clippings. The grass clippings are small if you follow the “one-third” rule. It can be larger if you neglect your mowing responsibilities.  

What Do Lawn Care Companies Do With Grass Clippings?

Lawn care companies can opt for various options to settle the grass clippings off your lawn. Here’re some of these methods.

Bagging up the grass clippings

Bagging your lawn’s grass clipping is a good option. You may need a separate bag for the mower. However, some mowers have a built-in bag. In such a case, never remove that bag. It can be dangerous. After collecting the grass clippings, you can send them to landfills for disposal.

Pros:

  1. ● Leave a neater lawn
  2. ● The Cleanest striping 
  3. ● Provides better surface for sports 

Cons:

  1. ● Bagging up need extra effort for cleaning the lawn
  2. ● Needs additional equipment and vehicle to carry the grass clipping
  3. ● Need to find a place for disposing of the grass clipping
  4. ● May cause loss of some minerals

Recycling the grass clippings

Leaving behind grass clipping in your lawn is another option besides bagging it up. Generally, you can leave a grass clipping of 1inch in your lawn. In such cases, grass clippings can move down the soil and get decomposed. However, for longer clippings, it’s better to remove them as they can damage your lawn. Further, it’s better to use clippings as garden mulch rather than wasting them.  

Benefits of recycling

  1. ● Grass clippings decompose and provide valuable nutrients to your lawn’s grass. Thus, your lawn needs less nitrogen fertilizer if you leave the grass clippings on the lawn.
  2. ● With regular mowing, you can reduce the effort to collect the grass clippings.  
  3. ● The organic matter from grass clipping also improves the soil.
  4. ● It saves the effort to deal with the bag of clippings.
  5. ● Recycling grass clippings reduce the landfilling cost.  
  6. ● Grass clipping fulfills the water needs of your garden. Actually, grass clippings are about 75-85% of water.  

Does recycling increase thatch?

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Thatch is the decomposed organic matter’s layer between soil and vegetation. It develops only if the decomposition of the organic matter is slower.  

Contrary to widely accepted myth, grass clippings do not produce thatch. Clippings comprise rapidly degradable material that does not accumulate. Even the long clippings with wiry stem cells don’t contribute to thatch significantly.  

When should you never recycle the clippings?  

Remember, it’s not advisable to recycle clippings every time. There are some exceptions when you should not leave clippings on the lawn. These exceptions are:

  1. ● Don’t bag grass clippings if the lawn is wet, as clippings can clump together and can smother the grass.
  2. ● If the grass is contaminated and infected with diseases, it’s better to bag clippings. It can help to lessen the disease severity.
  3. ● It’s better to bag your clipping after applying the herbicides.
  4. ● If the grass clippings are longer, prefer to bag them.  

Use clipping as mulch for garden beds

Lawn care companies can also use the grass clippings as mulch for garden beds and vegetables. It can help your garden to 

  1. ● Retain moisture
  2. ● Eliminate weeds
  3. ● Meet fertilizers requirements 
  4. ● Add nutrients
  5. ● Moderate temperature of the soil

However, you can achieve all these benefits from clippings mulch under specific conditions.

  1. ● Never use more than 1-2 inches of grass clippings.
  2. ● Prefer to use dry clippings. Wet clippings prevent oxygen and moisture from getting into the soil. As a result, you have to bear an offensive odor.
  3. ● Avoid the use of herbicide as mulch if you have recently applied herbicide in your garden.  

Add to compost

Compositing is the mixing of plant material with microorganisms containing soil. The resulting compost is an excellent source of nutrients. And you can recycle these nutrients back into your garden with compost. You can also add grass clippings to this compost pile.  

You can add clippings to the backyard compost pile. Moreover, it’s better to add some dry straws and leaves along with clipping in the compost. It’ll help to avoid the foul odor from anaerobic decomposition.  

Use as Cattle feed

You can turn the grass clipping into silage for cattle. According to research, clipping silage contains about 18.2% protein. Furthermore, the digestible material in it is higher. Another study from Colorado State University’s Cooperative Extension says fresh clippings can increase the weight of sheep. The amazing fact is that this daily weight gain costs you less than traditional diets.

FAQs

1. What do you do with lawn trimmings?  

You can settle down lawn trimmings in various ways, such as

  1. ● Use them as livestock feed, especially for cattle and sheep.
  2. ● Bag these trimmings if larger.
  3. ● Leave them into your garden for better grass growth.
  4. ● Use them as garden mulch
  5. ● Add them into the compost for nutrient enhancement
2. How long does it take for the grass clipping to decompose?

If you have left the grass in your lawn, it will decompose in a few weeks as it contains 80% water. On the other hand, a well-managed composite pile takes 2-4 months to decompose.

3. Is it a good idea to leave grass clippings on the lawn?

Leaving grass clipping on your lawn can be beneficial if clippings are small. Actually, clippings are a good nutrient source. Thus, recycling clippings can save fertilizers cost and prevents water contamination. Besides these benefits, you don’t have to put efforts to bag grass clippings.

4. Can I put grass cuttings in my black bin?

Of course, you can put grass cuttings in the black bin. You can also add some other plant material, leaves, and straws to the bin. All these components will pile up to form compost. And compost is the most effective source of nutrients and nitrogen.

5. How do you clean grass clippings?

You can clean the grass clippings in three ways:

  1. ● Firstly, use a grass mower with an attached grass box. It’ll automatically collect the grass clippings after mowing.
  2. ● Secondly, you can use a springtime rake to collect the grass clippings. After that, you can remove these piles manually.
  3. ● In the last, you can use a lawn sweeper.
6. How do you get rid of grass clippings?

You can get rid of grass clippings in different ways.

  1. ● Put them in the waste container
  2. ● Donate them to local farmers. They can use it as livestock feed.
  3. ● Donate them to local gardening businesses. They can make compost or mulch from them.
  4. ● Leave them on your lawn. You should use this option if you cut your lawn regularly. And your lawn is not infested with any disease.  

Final thoughts.!!!

So finding a single answer to what do lawn care companies do with grass clippings is not easy. However, leaving grass clippings on your lawn can be the best option as it recycles nutrients and moisture. On the other hand, this method might not be helpful in some cases. In those cases, lawn care companies choose different strategies for disposing of grass clippings. Remedies for yellow grasses.