How (and Why) to Mulch Your Garden with Grass Clippings, A Free Resource

in #gardening5 years ago

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We have an abundance of grass in our garden, around our garden beds and even outside the garden. The grass is a huge asset for us because not only does it feed the horse that gives us poop for adding fertility to the garden, the grass itself is also fertility. We use it as mulch around our veggies and plants.
Lawns are given a bad rap because they can be a mono culture and take lots of water to keep green year round, but they can also be looked at like a resource not only for feeding animals but also for feeding our gardens which feed us.
Now that we are well into spring, the weather is warming up, the soil is warming up and summer is around the corner it is a great time to be mulching!!

The grass clippings

  • keep the soil cooler and moister
  • prevents the clay soil from cracking and drying out too fast
  • creates more habitat for soil life closer to the soil surface
  • adds nitrogen to the soil
  • suppress some weeds
  • ideal for mulching seed beds since they are fine mulch

It is really easy to mulch with grass clippings. Just take the clippings you collect from your lawn mower and place them around your plants.

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I am placing handfuls of grass clippings between each broccoli seedling that I transplanted a few days ago. This is what they look like fully mulched.

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I am applying the second round of mulch to our garlic after the first round of mulch had dried out.

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Grass mulch between plants in a flower bed.

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The amount of mulch that you can put depends on the size of the plants. This mulch is so thin because it is around Agrostemma that had been transplanted very small. We want some mulch but if it is too thick it would suffocate the plant. So this mulch is lightly sprinkled on. Even this small amount of mulch can make a difference for the soil and the plants.

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This is another very thin layer of mulch, but this time it is placed over flax seeds that were broadcast planted. They are now starting to come up through the grass clippings.

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Freshly mulched veggies. Fairly light mulching since many of them are still small.

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Veggies and herbs mulched with grass clippings.

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This is another lightly mulched seed bed (sesame) that is helping to keep the top layer of soil moist while we wait for the seeds to sprout.

I am also adding grass clippings to our compost piles. Some of this grass and aged manure will be used to hill up my potatoes.

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And in the end we have a nicely mowed and mulched garden!

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If I were the long term steward of this garden I would eventually turn all the grass into garden space and plant lots of perennials along with my veggies. In the long run there would be less grass and more perennials to offer living mulch and chop and drop... just like @wildhomesteading has demonstrated so beautifully!




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Live and learn! I wasn't sure if we could do this with grass clippings! This is great to know. Your garden is looking amazing! It will be so great to have a long-term garden plot! All in due time.

I use grass clippings and leaves as mulch in my garden, as both are available on the land, your beds look great and I'm sure your soil is very happy xxx

My daughter told me a little tidbit she discovered recently about lawns being a status symbol for those wealthy enough to have land where they didn't have to grow food. Meadows have always existed, however, so grass can be decorative, functional of both, depending on how you choose to use it. I don't have enough to use ours as mulch. The rabbits eat it all, but I do use the straw from their cage in the same way.

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That makes a lot of sense! When I started learning how to scythe grass I learned at one point that the noble people would have a team of scythers cut their grass perfectly. It goes hand in hand with what your daughter told you! It is strange that they didn't graze livestock on their lawns.. but that is something you can do with wealth and opulence. Its really great that you have rabbits to help with your garden fertility!

I love that last photo view of your garden. I've never mulched with grass clippings, always add it to the compost but I'd love to try this. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks :) Looking forward to that garden view being busted with veggies growth.. Grass clippings is amazing in compost!

You know what, this never even crossed my mind, even though in my ghostwriting days I completed lots of rubber mulch articles and I didn't look at the alternative (or I don't remember doung so could be just as apt). When I have a big garden and lots of grass (my backyard consists of gravel, some decking and a huge kids trampoline at the moment), I will be sure to remember this advice. In fact, I have bookmarked, so I don't forget. :))

I hadn't even heard of rubber mulch.. go figure! But I have heard of plasticulture. I see a lot of advice for mulching with straw but not everyone has access to cheap or sustainable organic straw. So I am looking for ways to use what I have! In a previous garden I didn't have much grass or extra space so I grew as much veggies as possible in ever square inch that I could manage and did a lot of chop and drop for mulch and brought in lots of leaves from friends yards like @nateonsteemit is doing!

Thank you for the info. Last week I had some grass on the edge that the lawnmower missed, and I ripped it out by hand and threw it over soil nearby where I am growing pumpkins. I had heard that straw is ideal to mulch under pumpkin vines, because it keeps the soil cool and moist, and also lifts the leaves to keep them dry so they do not attract mold. I think the straw grass clipplings I lightly added will probably dry out and add a similar benefit.

Thanks for the tips. Always looking for simple tips like this. Does adding this thick layer of grass cause the soil level to keep rising over time? It might affect the way water drains after a rainstorm.

I am really glad you found this post helpful :) That is awesome! Yeah grass clippings can serve the same purpose as straw with the caveat that straw has a lot of air and fresh grass clippings has less air and can get matted and keep moisture in it... so you might dry the grass first before putting it under a pumpkin and/or not over water the grass when you are irrigating. Or you could make your own hay if your grass gets long enough and cut it with a knife or a hand sickle and let it dry in the sun then use it as hay! You could also use other things as mulch under pumpkins too, like bark, woodchips, branches, even rocks or bricks.. anything to keep it off of moist soil. The grass would probably not cause the soil level to rise too much because it will break down to become very small.. But if you did it year after year and didn't till or step on the soil so that it stays airy, it would probably rise some. Mulch would definitely help prevent some, not all, runoff from storms.

Thanks for the good ideas. How about mulching green clippings, and stacking dried hay on top? That would give multi benefit, right?

Yeah! That would be tasty for the worms and bugs as it breaks down on the soil surface :) I just stacked green grass clippings on top of dry horse poop next to some of my peas that are struggling a little :)

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A great option for folks growing on property that's not theirs. When it's all said and done, it'll eventually reseed from the mulch too so the owner wouldn't be able to tell a lit if a difference.

I'm gonna be trying some compost with our leaves and some grass that a buddy is supplying. Just leaves for carbon and grass for nitrogen, and see what happens.

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