This time of year, you are mowing your lawn what feels like all the time. It’s not ideal for all of these extra grass clippings be left on your lawn. So, what do you do with them?
Here are some tips we’ve found for utilising your grass clippings rather than placing them in land fill.
Compost
Grass clippings are high in nitrogen and break down quickly. When combined with brown material to decompose, it provides a great compost material that is high in nutrients that can be recycled back into your garden.
Mulch for garden beds
Grass clippings can be used in garden beds and as a mulch for vegetable gardens. Like many other biodegradable mulch materials, grass clippings help your garden to retain moisture, block out weeds and add nutrient to the soil. Nitrogen and potassium within the clippings are also great at helping to provide fertiliser requirements to your plants.
Liquid fertiliser
Place your grass clippings in bucket of water and allow them to steep. All of the beneficial nutrients like potassium, nitrogen, phosphorus and amino acids will leech into the water. After a few days strain out the liquid and feed your plants with it.
Livestock feed
Grass clippings can be turned into silage for feeding cattle. It has been found that silage from grass clippings has a protein content of 18.2%. In addition, it has a digestible matter content higher than that of hay.
Leave them on the lawn
It is okay to leave your clippings on the lawn every now and again, as clippings are a great source of nitrogen and can act as a natural fertiliser for your lawn. Recycling your grass clippings back into your lawn can actually account for 25% of its annual nitrogen requirements.
Leaving too many clippings on the lawn can cause your grass to burn and lose colour, so make sure you are only cutting a short amount off the leaf when you plan to leave it on the lawn. Read our article on the One –Third Rule here.
Worm Food
If you have a worm farm grass clippings can be extremely useful. Simply mix in some of your grass clippings with shredded paper or kitchen waste, and let your worms go to work.
Common earthworms eat their weight in wastes like this every day. In a short period of time, your worms will multiply, and your grass clippings will be turned into one of the most sought after materials for gardens: worm castings. Worm castings are extremely beneficial to soil, and can dramatically improve plant health. So put some fresh grass clippings into your bin, and let the worms get to work.
