Abby Ketchum
SunSouth
Do you mulch? Mulching is the easiest way to feed your lawn. It returns valuable nutrients and organic matter to soil and can even help prevent weeds. To make grass mulch, grass is cut into easily absorbed clippings to help keep your lawn healthy and lush. “In the lawn-care industry, we’re realizing that rather than feed the lawn synthetically with fertilizers, we can choose to do it more organically by mulching grass clippings and leaving them on the lawn to sift in,” says Richard Hentschel, University of Illinois horticultural extension educator. “Leaving clippings on the lawn provides the equivalent of 1 pound of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet of lawn. That’s nitrogen you didn’t have to buy and apply.” Removing the clippings means also removing those nutrients from the system. But also remember, while lawns benefit from clippings, they don’t want to be smothered by them. Using best mowing practices can leave grass room to breathe and looking as clean as it would with bagging. The key is to mow with sharp blades and frequently enough that no more than 1/3 of the plant tissue is removed per cutting. This will result in less plant material for the lawn to reincorporate per pass.
It may be a relatively simple task to stay ahead of grass to get a nice fine mulch that disappears quickly into the lawn, but what about leaves in the fall? Hentschel says to go ahead and mulch them, too. Leaves should be mowed frequently as they fall. To ensure finely parsed leaves that will move into the thatch layer more quickly, it may be necessary to make two or more passes with the lawnmower per mowing. When more leaves fall, simply keep making passes to chop up the material and help speed the composting process.
The John Deere MulchControl Kit with One-Touch Technology makes it so easy to mulch. Simply push the button and the chute closes, creating your mulching system. Push the button again and you’re back to normal mowing with side-discharge mowing or bagging. But really… who wants to lug a heavy bag of lawn clippings to the compost pile or yard waste bin?
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