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Georgia Gardener

Grass clippings as mulch?

17 years ago

We usually leave our grass clippings on the lawn when we mow, but this year we are not. Is there any reason not to use the clippings as mulch? I have both fescue and bermuda. I'm a little concerned about the bermuda grass sprouting all over the flower beds.

I have heard that too thick a layer of grass will not allow air and water to pass through, so I can mix with chopped leaves if that makes a difference.

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Comments (4)

quirkyquercus
17 years ago
If you have the hybrid (sodded) bermuda, those clippings take forever to break down. I have contemplated using it as mulch and think it would do well as long as it wasn't piled on too much. The same goes for any mulch you use. As long as it's not the common (seeded) bermuda, where you might have viable seeds in the clippings you won't have to worry about it sprouting up in your beds. Then again, you could have a number of other weed seeds in with your clippings that you might be introducing to your planting beds. I think Fescue clippings break down too fast to be effective mulch.
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
17 years ago
I really don't think that grass clippings make a good mulch at all. Period. When applied in a large heap, they become hot as they begin the rapid break down process....and plants do NOT like that heat. Too, as QQ mentions, they break down too fast to be useful as 'mulch'. AND, you are correct that if you continue to pile it on week after week, you will end up with quite a sludgy mess in the underlayers. There isn't much that smells worse than piles of decomposing grass.

A mulch is a (preferably organic) layer that is applied on top of the soil to modify temperatures, to maintain soil moisture, etc. It should be as long lasting as possible, and should be something that does not create a nitrogen insufficiency as it slowly begins to decompose.

Mixing grass clippings with chopped up leaves would be a much better idea, but the best plan of all would be to leave the clippings on the grass, where they can break down and continue to give back to the soil. Any reason why you don't want to do that this year?
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How about some GREEN MULCH? right now I have lettuce, chards, onions(for greens) between my tomato/eggplant/pepper plants. So by the time the toms are grown those vegies will be gone. Yet I have a permanent green mulch idea: FENUGREE. i have tried clover but did not work. But fenugreeg ( from alfalfa family) iworks fine. More than anything else, it is also a green manure. Fenugreeg produces nitrogen by its roots(like some beans) so instead of gettinh nutient out , it ads free nitrogen that it gets from air. What's more, its seeds and gree are edible and medicinal too. You can buy the seeds real cheap from any Indo-Pakistany grocery store by the pound. Indians, chinese..use fenugreek and seeds in cooking extensivly....
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grass (fresh) can and does mat into a giant plug of garbage. the nitrogen load can be an issue (Harbin you're part right, but when do you put a half-pound of fertilizer on the ground? one can easily add that much or more dried weight grass, so the excess N2 can be an issue.... that said, if you put it on green and wet my main issue has been that it can form this giant, stinky plug nothing else gets past--as mentioned, rain sloughs off it. Nothing grows through it, and things in the middle can be over-fed or suffocated by it. Grass can mulch, but too much can be a disaster. Drying it is the best solution I've seen thus far.
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I know a lot of people advise it, but I prefer grass clippings to be left on the lawn where they break down and feed the soil. But, that's living in a dreamland...cuz rainfall, warm spring rainfall makes grass grow...and grow and when we finally get around to cutting, there's more grass and clippings than we want to be left there. So we bag...or rake. Me, I put it all into my compost pile. There is absolutely nothing better to build heat in a compost pile than grass clippings...especially after they have been sprinkled with water. Spread it out over the pile's surface and let it do its stuff. Then use it around the trees and shrubs. If perchance, there is more clippings than can safely be put into the pile, then bag it. Throw a little extra stuff in with it, poke holes in the bottom to let the worms in, and put it behind a shrub or hedge and within a short time, it will be ready to take its place in the compost pile. In the fall, leaves done this way, chopped up with the clippings, are a great way to build leaf mold. Oh, and throwing a handful or two lawn fertilizer in with the clippings can speed up breakdown.
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Comments (8)
Wood chip mulch is far better. What they do is promote fungal growth which is essential to trees' health. Grass clipping tend to promote bacterial growth. Grass clipping is helpful though when you put fresh grass clipping in a bucket of dechlorined water for a day then pour around wood chip mulch to help release nitrogen to feed the trees. Protozoa grow rapidly in the bucket feeding on grass clippings and they chew through fungi in the wood chips releasing nutrients to the roots. Of course, it is pointless if somebody uses all kinds of chemicals on the lawn around the trees.
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mgan9311
17 years ago
I have the same problem. My husband likes to pile the bermuda and fescue frass clipping as mulch to keep the weeds down where our grass meet the woods...its fine and dandy, but it gets really hot (can smolder), takes forever to decompsose, leaves a sludgy mess (I discovered this when I tried to rake it out), and kills plants. Now after about a year or so...ornamental trees will can be planted where the old mulch is as long as its mixed with dirt and leaves...very rich soil...I planted some dormant ornamental trees in this type of stuff... within 4 days they started to get leaves on them, and are twice the size they were when I planted them.
Twinkle
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks to all. I think I'll use a light layer of the grass clippings, mixed with leaves.

As to why I'm not leaving the clippings on the grass, all I can say is that it's hard enough to get the teenager to cut the grass, let alone blow the clippings off the sidewalk...

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