When you mow your lawn, take the grass clippings and use as mulch on your flower and vegetable beds. It will bleach out to a straw color in a short time and will help keep moisture in the soil, keep down weeds, and nourish the plants.
By Jennifer from Gilbertsville , NY
This page contains the following solutions.
If you are growing pumpkins, gourds, or squash I'm sure you understand the struggle of having weeds growing up in the vines and not being able to remove them without damaging your plant. Use grass clippings as mulch to keep weeds down without pesticides.
I ask my neighbors to give me their grass clippings after they have mowed their lawn. They leave me bags of clippings that I use as mulch around my flowers and vegetable plants.
A quick and easy compost method if you don't have manure but do have a good supply of grass clippings. Grass is quite high in nitrogen. Mix one part of sawdust with four parts of fresh grass clippings.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I like to use newspapers and grass clipping in my vegetable garden for mulch. I would like to know if I can use grass clippings from a lawn that has been treated with a weed and feed or crabgrass preventer. If I can, how long after being treated can I use them?
I have been using grass clippings as mulch in my veggie garden for many years. While we have changed to organic "weed & feed" products over the years, I have always done this. Generally, we wait until the lawn has been cut twice before adding to our garden, to make sure I am not getting any product into my veggie gardens. I have never found the clippings to impede the gardens growth in any way & it does a wonderful job of keeping moisture in & weeds out.
God Bless
Trish in CT
No one should use those chemicals in a place where people and pets walk. Do not put them on your garden. Even grass that has been cut several times still has the chemicals in it because they are in the soil the grass grew in. Just like it will be in the soil of your garden.
I have over an acre of lawn that I mow and sweep. My question is what can I do with the grass clippings that I sweep up? I have already given mulch a thought, but don't know were it would be useful for me.
Hardiness Zone: 7a
By michael austin from Guntersville, AL
I have about the same area and leave the clippings on the grass. It acts as a fertilizer. If you have too much clippings you may want to attach an mulcher to the mower.
When the clippings turn brown, does it show on the lawn, or does it go under the grass pretty fast?
Use some of them in your compost bin (if you have one) Layer then with your uncooked kitchen waste.
Do you like animals? You could get a goose, which lays beautiful, edible eggs and she would be happy to eat the grass. Or some chickens, dry grass used for hay. Or you could give it to a local farm to dry for hay and maybe they would give you something in barter, (eggs, vegetables, etc). Goose egg and chicken eggs in photo.
We don't use a bag with the mower every time we mow and that grass is left on the lawn as nutrition.
As suggested, make your own compost pile. Our small town has a recycling compost pile for leaves and grasses to be hauled to which then is mixed with the composting factors at the recycle center in making new dirt, that is free for people to come and pick up. The dirt is sterilized by the process used in composting big time.
My husband tried the 'put it in my garden' one time, cause he thought it was supposed to cut back weeds. Haha. He proceeded to start the weeds. Unless you have the perfect lawn and nothing icky growing in it, don't do that. I work hard in the gardens to be weed and grass free. Seeds of dandelion and other weeds can lay dormant in the soil for years then POP up.
Can I use grass clippings for mulch in my flower beds?
Hardiness Zone: 5a
By chris from IN
Yes as long as the grass clippings do not contain grass that has gone to seed. If it does, well you'll have a lot more grass.
Also avoid using grass that has been treated with chemical weed killers. It might stunt your flowers.
