Grass clippings are the way to go IMO. I have tried straw in the past and it doesn't break down fast enough for me - (it looks the same the following year), plus it often has seeds in it and its also not dense enough to provide enough benefit for the effort...There are reasons straw is used with growing grass seed... Grass clippings, however, do everything a mulch is supposed to do(including look good) plus its free. It does require some work though... We have a 5 acre yard so we have some grass...When cutting the yard(and needing "mulch") we try to gather/direct about 6 riding mower widths of clippings at a time and let that dry in the sun for a day or two, before we rake it and move to the garden. With a push mower, you could dump & spread your bagged grass onto a tarp to dry - we have done this in our barn if rain is expected. When the clippings are dry to the touch and starting to brown, then its ready to use by plants and greener clippings can be used to "fill in" other areas. I have used it for the last ten years. I have never had any burning problems and it breaks down for tilling by next spring. Incedently, the clipppings will not "introduce" new weeds or new grass problems in your garden...We have clippings under almost everything in the garden from tomatoes and peppers to corn. I also have it under young trees in the yard. Just like the old lady in the Frank's Red Hot Sauce commercial says: "We use that s#!t on everything...". Theres only so much grass I can put in my compost pile so I have found other uses. I also have a pine cone trail...on the same note. I do buy the "real" mulch though for use around the house though lol. Grass clippings and hostas doesn't quite work for me.

Over the last year or so, I have been regularly harvesting from my forest to use in the garden: leaves, rotting wood, and not so rotting wood. Great stuff in the garden or compost pile Granted, I try not to disturb the floor more than I can avoid. I use a bagging lawnmower or a hand rake--not the box blade on my tractor. I leave a majority of material behind, and selectively thin out some of the less desirable specimens to decrease competition an increase access. Some have chastised me for this, but I fail to see any logic behind leaving the forest strictly 100% off limits. Sure, this all part of a natural cycle, but so are forest fires. Who wants one of those in their back yard? If I am a bad steward of my land for this practice, am I also a bad steward by picking the wild blueberries? I've asked those who chastise me how they build their hugelkultur beds, or where they think their firewood comes from if not from a tree somewhere, or how they burn in those fancy little rocket stoves. The bottom line for me is that is makes perfect sense to harvest some fertility and organic matter to improve previously clear cut, graded and raped areas. This spring/summer I will stroll through select areas of my forest unmolested by thorny vines, tripping hazards, and hung deadwood while picking wild blueberries. Then, I will harvest from all the members of the plant and fungi kingdoms I have cultivated myself. I will be happy. My forest will live on and the earth will keep revolving.

Thanks for the heads up. I will be placing an order this weekend ;-)

Ian and Judy WintleÂs Birkdale Garden 2007 ÂA True GardenerÂs Garden ItÂs worth the trip; itÂs worth the time to enjoy Ian and Judy WintleÂs ÂGiving Garden situated on BrisbaneÂs bayside suburb of Birkdale. After 20 years of Service in the RAAF and nearly as many addresses Judy, our two sons and I were looking forward to putting roots down in one place. We acquired our one-acre block here in Birkdale in 1988 and proceeded to build a house that would actually be our permanent home. It was a bare block so we started well and truly from scratch. We decided from the outset that we would have a reasonably nice Garden, one that would return something back to us. It must be pointed out that we have done ALL the work ourselves, no Landscape Gardeners in our yard. It is basically a gardenerÂs garden built by sheer hard work and effort, the only help being shovel and wheelbarrow. We started off the Garden by planting a variety of Tropical Fruit Trees and basically lots of lawn. It was not until after three or four years after our eldest son became a paraplegic through a Motor Bike accident in 1996 that we really started to put our heart and soul into the garden, which then became an integral part of our own rehabilitation, Âthe harder you work the less time you have to thinkÂ. It hasnÂt been easy, very hard work Âpoor soil and Âno underground waterÂ. We rely on rainfall and the Garden hose; sometimes I wonder with the changing dryer weather pattern if we should have taken up a less stressful hobby. In 2005 we put in a 15000-litre rainwater tank and two more in 2006 (no rebate in Redlands). We now have four tanks with combined storage of 50,000 litres of rainwater for use in the garden. We also have another 15000 litre tank on order. This should make us Âdrought proofÂ, only problem is the 22 week wait. The soil is solid clay down to about 70 feet (we know this because we drilled for fresh water and found salt water at 80 feet), so over the years we have had to trailer in many metres of different mulchÂs. We bring in quite a lot of Stable and Mushroom Manure and compost everything that is able to be put through the Greenfield Shredder and use all the Lawn Clippings. Our main mulch is sugar cane of which we use about 160 bales each year. We have about 70 Tropical Fruit and Nut trees, with approximately 40 different edible varieties, we have Sapotes, Star Apples, Longans, Custard Apples, Sapodillas, Hog PlumÂs Wax Jambu, Lychees and of course several types of MangoÂs just to name a few. We also have a productive vegetable garden, which reflects the time we spent living in Malaysia, it is full of Asian vegetables. No matter what time of year it is we can always go outside and find something to eat, be it fruit or vegetable. Our Garden is a ÂGiving Garden and if we cannot eat it the Bats and Cockatoos will. The garden changes every year and is still evolving, it will never be a great Sub-Tropical...