For those who have a lawn that gets cut regularly, we get questions about what to do with the lawn clippings.
No matter how you cut your lawn, we recommend leaving the grass clippings to decompose right on the lawn. The cut grass quickly decomposes, adding valuable nitrogen back into the soil for the plants to continue growing. Grass clippings are essentially it’s own source of fertilizer.
If you must add lawn clippings to your composter, we recommend only adding small amounts at a time or drying it out first as fresh lawn clippings have a higher nitrogen content which can overheat the pile as it breaks down and decomposes.
The worst thing you can (unless you use chemical fertilizers and pesticides on your lawn) do is bag and throw away your clippings as you are throwing away an excellent and free source of nitrogen.
Leave the grass clippings right on your lawn. Keep it simple. Don’t over-complicate the issue and stop using chemical fertilizers and pesticides in your lawn.
Cover Image by Dan4th Nicholas, used under its Creative Commons license.
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