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GRASS CLIPPINGS IN COMPOST HOW TO

Cut grass that is left on your lawn with disappears within a matter of weeks as it works its way down. So, if you don’t care to actively compost your clippings, leave the bag off your mower. Mother Nature has been composting material left on the ground for millions and millions of years. The easiest way of composting grass clipping is to simply leave them on the lawn when you mow. Grasscycling: Compost Grass Clipping In-Place However, composting is only one way to utilize grass around your house, and, surprisingly, it might not even be the best way! Let’s see what other options we have: 2.

GRASS CLIPPINGS IN COMPOST HOW TO

If you have a ton of brown material in your pile and need to balance it out, knowing how to compost grass clippings can be invaluable. There is an entire boatload of other things that we can do with grass clipping beyond composting them.īut is it necessary to add clippings to your pile? I don’t have a large lawn but I still produce more grass than I want to add to my pile. Dry leaves or cardboard are awesome materials that come in abundance that you can use to counteract the grass you add. The “greens” in your compost pile are primarily responsible for the heat that is generated in your pile.Personally, I only add grass to my compost pile if it has not been sprayed within 14 days. You should avoid getting clipping from commercial areas to compost as they may have more aggressive or long-lasting toxic chemicals on them. Any sprays that you use at home will likely break down in your pile within a matter of days. “Organic” grass can be a great addition to your pile but grasses my harbor herbicides, pesticides, or toxins.Waiting a few days for the grass to dry out before you gather/add it can reduce this moisture load and reduce the volume of browns you need to add to balance it out. In fact, freshly cut grass it up to 80% water by weight. Freshly cut grass adds a huge amount of moisture into your pile.

To avoid this, be sure to mix your grass into the pile so it’s well distributed. It will weave itself together into a thick layer that will hold in the heat, kill your microorganisms, and turn your pile into a slimy stinky mess.

Grass has a tendency to “mat” in your pile if you simply dump it on top.

While composting grass clippings isn’t rocket science, there are a few things you need to be aware of if you’re going to succeed: So, if you have an active pile, just treat your grass clippings like regular green material and you’ll be fine.

Wait for Mother Nature to provide you with beautiful compost!.

Mix the grass throughout your pile so the grass doesn’t mat.

This ratio will keep your pile from heating up or becoming smelly

Add the grass (a nitrogen-rich material) into the pile with a similar amount of brown (carbon-rich) materials.

Gather dried grass that has not been treated with chemicals for at least 14 days.

How to Compost Grass Clippings in a Traditional Compost Pile: If you compost regularly this is a simple matter of adding grass to your pile. If you want to start composting your grass clipping, the most effective way to handle them is to have a compost pile that is dedicated to grass clippings and other lawn trimmings. Just tossing it is a huge missed opportunity! 4 Ways to Handle Your Grass Clippings 1. But knowing how to compost grass clippings will do far more that just decrease the volume of solid waste. Now that waste will, of course, break down. And in case you need some zeros to help visualize it, that’s 74,000,000,000 pounds or the weight of 82 million lawnmowers. In fact, by 2017 numbers (dated, I know) 37 million tons of yard waste was disposed of by Solid Waste Management.

In fact, during summer months the grass clippings of some communities can make up a staggering 50% of collected waste! Now, grass is obviously far more environmentally friendly than plastics ( 12.8% of garbage) glass ( 4.5%) or metals ( 9.1) but it still means that millions and millions of pounds of something that could easily be composted and add to the environment end up in a landfill. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.ĭid you know that grass clippings make up nearly 20% of the solid waste that collected in communities? And that’s a year round average, not just the summer months.