Thanks for the responses... This isn't a vegetable plot. It is an ornamental garden. The plants are well-established for the most part. Although (my personal opinion) the plants are being moved around a bit too often for this dry hot weather. I could make an onsite compost pile (or 20)nobody would try and stop me but I was looking for a quick fix. LOL People around here seem more interested in plants than soil. I like dirt so am sticking to that part of the process. I guess I have silty sand because this stuff is HARD. It is almost as hard as clay but when you do get the clods to bust they break up into fine pieces instead of chunks like clay does. The fine bits just reform into a hard layer once it is watered and left to dry. The area is mulched but the water just goes through the mulch and runs off the beds and into the paths. We do water but I do not think it is a very effective system. I've been digging holes and trying to break up the top soil and watering into the holes instead of watering the top of the mulch or soil. I guess I'll just make some "community garden" compost and keep picking out what I can from around the dump area to use to amend the soil. I can "liberate" the grass clippings and hide them until fall and start a regular compost pile and maybe some leaf mold. I can find a place that is a little out of sight near the garden and get some wire fence from the junk yard and see what happens. Thanks again.

If your road people will be spraying poisons along the roads to control "weeds" and growth of grasses they are required to notify those living near by and those people have an opt out clause. If you do not want your roadside sprayed you can tell them not to. One year my county road commission was proposing spraying and I asked with what and eventually was provided the mix. When I pointed out to them that the formula was very similar to that of Agent Orange sprayed in Viet Nam the road commission dropped that idea altogether. Can you use the clippings from the roadside as mulch in a vegetable garden? Sure, but be aware they will be polluted with what is worn off the vehicles, rubber from tires, oil, what is in exhaust, whether that road side is sprayed with poisons or not. I find in the grass in my road side all kinds of trash that I would not want in my gardens including cigarettes and cigars, plastic, syrofoam, paper, car parts, etc.

That will work. Put newspaper or card board down and then the grass or leaves. This fall begin collecting leaves. Yours and any others you can find. If you have access to shredded paper, that will work also and feed the worms. Do not use week block are any plastic, as that heats th soil too much.

The grass clippings themselves are fine for the potted plants. What would be an issue is any weed seeds blown into the pots as well. The clippings will eventually and slowly break down, but not nearly like they would in a compost bin/pile. Adding a few worms to each pot could accelerate the breaking down of the grass. Another issue that might be of concern to some is that if the grass is sprayed with herbicides or fertilizers. Those would end up in the soil of your pots as well, something especially concerning if you are growing edibles. I have mulched a few pots in the past with grass and aside from having to pick through a batch of sprouting weeds, I have yet to run into any real problems.