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Taking care of grass clippings is one of the things that others might consider a challenge to deal with after mowing their lawn, especially if you have a large lawn to work with. Most of us have gotten used to simply sending it in a landfill for disposal. But some landfills don’t allow it. There are times that we don’t have the time to transport them for proper disposal. But what if we can provide you some ways of handling your grass clippings that will also benefit your lawn in the long run? If this catches your attention, then read on.
Below are the 8 ways that we can think of on where you can get away with your grass clippings that will not only benefit your lawn but yourself as well. 1. Do not bag them, just leave them from where they came from We have mentioned this a few times already but we really do not mind if we keep on telling people repeatedly 😊. Grass clippings do contain nutrients that your lawn needs in order for it to thrive. They will eventually break down and once that happens, it will release the nutrients that it holds then those nutrients will find its way back to your lawn. Study shows that this process can back up to 25% of the nutrients that growth removed from soil. They also encourage helpful microorganisms and earthworms that digests this grass and maintain a healthy soil for your lawn. Just be mindful that clippings that are too long won’t break down, making your lawn unsightly. To prevent this from happening (and as we have mentioned on our previous blogs), the proper way of mowing your lawn is to mow higher and more often. Please do note that if your lawn is showing disease or has weeds then you will need to sort these issues first before leaving the grass clippings on your lawn because this will only worsen the problems. 2. Can be used for animal feed Grass clippings can be used to make silage for cattle feed. Test shows that silage made from grass clippings has a protein content of 18.2% and a digestible matter content of 68% which is much higher than hay on which typically averages a digestible matter content of about 59%. Grass clippings can also be a suitable supplementary food source for sheep as per the several studies conducted. You can ask your neighbors or anyone nearby that you know of that has a cattle or sheep if they are interested in your grass clippings. But remember not to offer your grass clippings if your lawn was chemically treated (like for lawn fertilization or weed control). 3. Use them as compost Grass clippings do organically come from grass. This fact itself makes it a good candidate for compost in our garden. Once you prepare and treat the clippings in the right manner, you’ll be able to recycle the nutrients and take them in the other areas of your garden. A proper compost should have a mix of green and brown materials. Grass clippings is the “green” part while dried leaves, branches or twigs is the “brown” part. Just make sure to turn the grass into a pile to enhance aeration and prevent compaction. As an alternative to the brown part of your compost, you can also leave the clippings to dry out to make it the brown part of your compost. 4. As a… tea Yep, you read it right. We know it sounds surprising and unusual but this is a great way to suppress disease, give yourself the nutrients that you can get from the grass clippings, speed up the breakdown of toxins in your body and improve the nutritional quality and flavor of vegetables. To brew a lawn clipping tea, put your freshly cut grass into a bucket of water and allow it to steep. This process will release beneficial nutrients like potassium, nitrogen, phosphorous, chlorophyll and amino acids into the water. After three days or so, strain off the liquid and use it to feed your plants by pouring it to the roots or spraying it on the leaves. 5. As mulch The definition of mulch is that it is a type of material that you can use to cover the surface of the soil as a covering. Organic mulch has a lot of benefits to the soil like helping it to retain its moisture, suppress weeds, keeping the soil cool and improve its fertility. High amounts of nitrogen can be found on grass clippings, either fresh or dried and this is one of the nutrients that plants need to grow and flourish. As a mulch for your garden, you can start by laying a ¼ inch layer of fresh grass clippings around your garden bed. If the amount is thicker, it might take a while for the grass to break down, resulting in an unpleasant smell as it decomposes. While dried clippings can be used for vegetable crops can be spread on thicker amounts. 6. As an ingredient in your soil mix for your garden with raised beds You can mix the grass clippings with your soil to improve soil quality and boost the yield of your garden raised bed. In the lower regions of the bed, spread one part of grass clippings with two parts shredded leaves – these will turn into compost to enrich the soil. This should be spread thinly to prevent matting. Once the bed is full (within six to twelve inches from the top), add a barrier that can also serve as compost (like a cardboard) and fill the remainder with your chosen soil mix. 7. As a natural dye They can also be used as a natural green dye that you can use for decorative purposes. Some examples are using it to dye Easter eggs or as an organic fabric dye. Try to search online to know how. 8. Bring them to a recycle center Bringing them to a recycling center disposes the grass clippings in a green and clean manner instead of simply disposing it to a landfill. Lawn Care Pueblo Colorado is strongly against burning of grass clippings or leaves. This process creates thick smoke which is a health and environment hazard. Please call or fill up our form to avail our lawn care services.
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Avoiding a few common mowing mistakes can make your yard look beautiful again in just a few weeks. Believe it or not, the way you mow your lawn makes a huge impact on the overall health of your lawn. Some people do spend a lot of time and money to maintain their lawn. But by simply applying a few sound mowing techniques, you can be on your way saving and maintaining your landscape without spending a dime.
1. Mowing with dull blades. This is the most common mowing mistake. Dull blades tear the grass instead of slicing it clean. In return, the tips of the grass become damaged and turn brown. So instead of having a green lawn after mowing, you’ll get a brown one in a few days. The brown tips of damaged grass can make an entire lawn look dry and staving for water. But in reality, it is only the tips of the grass that are brown, not the whole lawn itself. Lawn mower blades should be sharpened on a regular basis. For a sizable yard of ¼ acre or more, a once a month schedule should be okay. Tip: Keep an extra set of blades on hand and change out once a month in season. While the spare one is used, then you can sharpen the other set. By the way, sharp mower blades not only decrease the stress to your lawn when mowing, it also maintains your lawn mower operating in good shape. 2. Cutting the grass too low. This practice makes you think that it can save you time because you do not need to cut often. But this creates all kinds of long-lasting negative effects to your lawn. One of them is by drying up your turf quickly because there is no adequate cover for your bare soil to block the sun. And this also allows weed seeds a place to settle and sprout. The proper way is to mow higher and more often. Grass length that are high puts less stress to your lawn because the additional height and thickness serves as a shade to the soil below and keep the weeds out. A typical height for a traditional lawn is somewhere between 3.25 and 4 inches. Tip: Never cut more than ¼ length of grass on a single cutting. Removing too much grass at once puts a lot of stress into the lawn and also creates a mess of clumped dead grass that can kill the lawn below. So, mow higher and mow more often. This is a great way to keep your yard looking fresh and clean. 3. Bagging the lawn clippings. Just leave the clippings on where they came from. They contain valuable nutrients that feed your lawn and this is the most natural way to fertilize your lawn. Lawn clippings contain nitrogen (this gives the healthy green hue on your lawn) and other important minerals that lawn needs. Do not worry if this makes your lawn look dirty because it will break down over time. You may evenly distribute the clippings to somewhat mask your lawn from looking dirty. 4. Mowing wet grass. Some of us do believe that a wet grass is soft, hence it’s easier to mow. But this damages your lawn blades and in the long run, the mower itself. Wet grass dulls the blades quickly plus it works more harder as the grass becomes bogged down and clogged underneath. This technique produces a tear cut instead of the slice cut on which as we have mentioned in tip number 1 creates the brown tip issue with cutting your lawn using dull blades. In addition, clumping from a wet mowing can snuff out the good grass as it lays in the yard and dries out. This in return creates unwanted bare spots and thatch. So do not mow on a wet grass. Let your lawn dry out whenever possible before mowing. Please call or fill up our form to know more about our lawn mowing service. Make no mistake. We are not going to cook something with sugar to get a beautiful green lawn. So why sugar got involved in this blog. Keep reading.
Doing lawn care and keeping it green is not easy and in fact it costs money. You might be spending around $300-$500 a year to keep your grass looking green – and that’s for fertilizer and weed killers only. And that amount itself could at least be used to buy something else. One time I was looking on my lawn and I remembered my mother in law putting sugar on a pot of soil before she planting something that happened a few years ago. I did not ask why on that time because it might sound disrespectful. Then I asked my dad the possible reason why. Then my dad said that sugar can act as a natural fertilizer on soil. So, I did some research and found out that it was true. Now, we are not saying to throw your chemical fertilizers and weed killers away. Sugar fertilizes your lawn using a different approach. So, you’ll still need those fertilizers and weed killers. Below are the reasons how can sugar can fertilize your lawn and its benefits that it can give when applied to your lawn.
How to apply sugar on your lawn It could be helpful if you have a hand-spreader or a broadcast spreader to be used to apply the sugar. But to be honest, it is not required. In fact, you can use your hand for it. There is no required or recommended amount of sugar that a soil will need. Plus, it is chemical free. So, you do not need to worry about the possibility of harming your lawn because of too much sugar. Here are some tips for applying sugar by hand.
Please give us a call or fill up our form if you need further assistance on making your lawn green again. One of the ideas of lawn edging is by raising your garden bed.
Beautifully raised garden beds that are made from prefab kits may look like a million dollars. I mean, having an idea of raising a garden bed will make you think that you initially need a landscaper to have that neat look. But here in Lawn Care Pueblo Colorado, we always come up with ideas that has the potential to save money and provide value at the same time. With a little bit of creativity, you can raise a vegetable garden bed using inexpensive, or free, materials. Below are some of the things that you can use to raise your vegetable garden bed. Log Not only do logs provide support to raising your vegetable bed, it will also give it a rustic barn look on it. Fallen logs or newly cut wood can be used to make an appealing vegetable garden bed. Cut the logs to the desired length and secure them to the soil to form the borders of your vegetable bed. Then fill it with soil. Rock and stone Using rocks and stone will make the borders of your raised vegetable garden bed look natural. The key is to look for rocks that are similar in size then line them up on the perimeter of the bed. To make it look more natural, take the time to seat the bottom of the rocks on the soil. Fill in the stone with soil around its base first to secure them in place then fill the remainder of the vegetable garden bed with soil Recycled lumber You can find these from old pieces of wood or lumber left over from construction projects. There is no standard size for a raised bed. But experts say it would be best to keep the width of the raised vegetable bed up to 4 feet or less so that plants can be accessed easily. This helps you reach the center of the vegetable garden bed with ease from both sides. Cut the wood to your desired size and build a rough box. Then place it in a sunny location and fill it with soil. Remember to line the bottom with landscape fabric or canvas to create a weed barrier Wooden crates Try to look for any unused wooden crates from your attic. You can also find them on yard sales and flea markets. Wooden crates are usually small. Try to combine several sizes and shapes to create a rustic barn look. Then use them as is by putting them in a sunny location and filling it with soil, or carefully remove the bottoms to expose the soil underneath. Need further lawn edging ? Please call or fill up our form to avail our lawn edging services. Myths doesn’t exist in story books alone. Lawn care has its own share of myths are well. But these common myths will cause harm than good in the long run and unfortunately, homeowners still practice them even today. On this topic, we have busted 6 common lawn care myths that we hope can be helpful to you.
1. Using spiked shoes to aerate your lawn. While it’s true that spike shoes does the same thing as using a lawn aerator, the former does more harm than good because walking on your lawn with solid spikes will further compact your soil and the spikes itself will suffocate the grass roots as it puhes the grass and dirt deeper into the soil. Remember that common lawn core aeration tools have hollow tines and these remove the soil plugs instead of pushing them down. 2. Shorter grass equals to lean looking lawn. Lean looking lawns like the one you see on golf courses or football fields are the best example of a well-maintained lawn to most homeowners. While it looks good to have the same on your lawn, please try your best not to do the same on your lawn. Cutting your lawn shorter than the usual length helps unneeded weeds survive by exposing them to sunlight and other nutrients that should be for your turf resulting for them to spread further. Shorter grass also develops shorter roots, making it harder for them the necessary water for them to survive specially on dry conditions. As a rule of thumb, do not cut more than a third of the grass blade length when lawn mowing. 3. Disposing your grass clippings – Yes, you are right. Your lawn will definitely look dirty if you left it on your lawn. But believe it or not, they provide benefits for your lawn by giving back vital nutrients that help fertilize the soil and even lessen the amount of thatch. It would help if you can distribute the clippings evenly on your lawn to somewhat mask your lawn from looking dirty. 4. Water your lawn every day – This myth is wasteful indeed. Remember, the key to better water your lawns is by doing it for longer periods and thoroughly. This will allow your lawn to develop longer and deeper roots so they can be more resistant to heat and drought. 5. Seeding your lawn during spring time – Spring time is always believed to be the start of new life. And most homeowners have the same thing in their mind when it comes to their lawn. Even though its true you can use a fall lawn fertilizer, your new grass have better chances of surviving when you seed during fall season because most weeds go dormant in fall. This means that your grass is not required to compete heavily with the weed for it to grow. Also, temperatures are more modest and steadier at fall season without the threat of extreme heat from the summer season. 6. Dethatching your lawn annually during spring time – While this is a common practice to dethatch your lawn annually, this process should be done once your thatch is more than ½ inch thick, regardless of how fast or slow your thatch develops. Not all lawns are the same, so dethatching your lawn once it reaches the recommended limit helps your lawn absorb air and its needed nutrients efficiently. Our lawn care methods are tested and proven efficient an effective. Please call or fill up our form to know more. |
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