Bag it or mulch it?

[scandal 951]

This is my first spring in my new house. My previous homes were townhouse/condo and I didn't need to deal with lawn and garden. Now I've got a detached suburban home with a mother of big lawn. I bought a decent self-propelled 6.75hp lawnmower which gets through the cutting fairly efficiently, takes me about an hour to do front and back yards. It's got a bag attachment, or there is the option to mulch the cuttings back into the lawn. I've tried it both ways. Using the bag means stopping the mower every 15 minutes or so to empty the bag, and I wind up with about 3-4 garbage bags full of clippings to take to the curb on garbage night. Mulching leaves a lot of dead grass all over my lawn. Today I mulched it, and hated the result so I wound up raking it all up and still bagged it, just worked a lot harder for the same result.

What say you, the VJ expert community? Bag it or mulch it?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

...or a third option - buy a composter. They're awesome. You can put a lot of your waste in there - egg shells, coffee grinds, leftover rinds from fruit, etc. They really work well.

[john & jean 37]

I mow a little over two acres so I mulch........

[scandal 951]

...or a third option - buy a composter. They're awesome. You can put a lot of your waste in there - egg shells, coffee grinds, leftover rinds from fruit, etc. They really work well.

Thanks! I was gonna go to Home Depot tomorrow anyway, so I'll look into composters. Any idea how much they cost?

I mow a little over two acres so I mulch........

Wow. Do you have one of those tractor gizmos? Who does the mowing - John or Jean ?

[john & jean 37]

...or a third option - buy a composter. They're awesome. You can put a lot of your waste in there - egg shells, coffee grinds, leftover rinds from fruit, etc. They really work well.

Thanks! I was gonna go to Home Depot tomorrow anyway, so I'll look into composters. Any idea how much they cost?

I mow a little over two acres so I mulch........

Wow. Do you have one of those tractor gizmos? Who does the mowing - John or Jean ?

YEAH HAVE A GIZMO, JEAN DOES THE MOWING, I do the weed eater, will buy a small weed whacker next time!!!

[one...two...tree 2,762]

...or a third option - buy a composter. They're awesome. You can put a lot of your waste in there - egg shells, coffee grinds, leftover rinds from fruit, etc. They really work well.

Thanks! I was gonna go to Home Depot tomorrow anyway, so I'll look into composters. Any idea how much they cost?

I bought one about 10 years ago from a friend for $25. I'm not sure how much they go for new, but there's really nothing fancy about them, so they shouldn't cost too much.

Here's from Home Depot's website:

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores...catalogId=10053

.....

I think mine was close to this one in size and the way it functioned:

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores...uctId=100659091

[one...two...tree 2,762]

...also worth mentioning - you'll be surprised at how much you can put in there - once the live micro organisms start to thrive, your grass clippings will break down pretty fast. I'd recommend reading the manual one how best to get those micro organisms up and running.

[Ban Hammer 13,643]

if you still see clippings while mulching, you're going too fast. slow down and take more time.

eta: you might also try mowing more often too when mulching.

Edited May 10, 2009 by charles!

[Nagishkaw 510]

mulch.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Smoke it!

Check the mower settings. You may be cutting the grass too short if you are trying to mulch. Leaving the grass a little high, and mulching means you will use less water, and fertilizer.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

This is my first spring in my new house. My previous homes were townhouse/condo and I didn't need to deal with lawn and garden. Now I've got a detached suburban home with a mother of big lawn. I bought a decent self-propelled 6.75hp lawnmower which gets through the cutting fairly efficiently, takes me about an hour to do front and back yards. It's got a bag attachment, or there is the option to mulch the cuttings back into the lawn. I've tried it both ways. Using the bag means stopping the mower every 15 minutes or so to empty the bag, and I wind up with about 3-4 garbage bags full of clippings to take to the curb on garbage night. Mulching leaves a lot of dead grass all over my lawn. Today I mulched it, and hated the result so I wound up raking it all up and still bagged it, just worked a lot harder for the same result.

What say you, the VJ expert community? Bag it or mulch it?

Compost. It's what I do.

[scandal 951]

Smoke it!

Check the mower settings. You may be cutting the grass too short if you are trying to mulch. Leaving the grass a little high, and mulching means you will use less water, and fertilizer.

Thanks for all the tips.

Charles: I can't go slower, it's my personality. Type A, you know? I gotta rush everything i do Yeah, even that part my honey doesn't want me to rush

Cutting more often would mean cutting during the week. No can do. M-F I get home from work, plop in front of the computer and blast out my VJ postings. You wouldn't be asking me to sacrifice that for the lawn would u? Once a week on Saturdays is all I'm managing for home maintenance, at least till Thanti gets here. I am telling myself that once she's here we'll make this place a home. For now I'm just a slacker.

Bill: Yeah, i did set it for that clipped buzz-cut look. Last time I mowed I left it higher and it still looked too fuzzy for my tastes. So this time I decided to take vengence on the lawn. It's all out war - me vs. the lawn

I'm gonna look at composters tomorrow. I think that's the right solution for me. Bag it and dump in the composter.

[Danno 1,228]

Lots of composting ideas and info on youtube.

[Reba 2]

Compost it, and include your kitchen scraps and other yard waste as well, then you can use the nice black stuff in a flower or vegetable garden later.

Just DO NOT put meat, bones, or corn cobs in the compost. They don't break down too easily, and meat fats could attract some pests to your yard.

If the compost gets too mushy and wet (which it can do if it is mostly grass), tear up some newspaper to sop up the moisture. You can also include paper plates and papertowels in the compost to keep the moisture levels under control.

If you have an out of the way corner of your yard you don't even need a compost container, just pile it up and let it rot.

[rebeccajo 14]

It's springtime, uscandual. Your lawn is on full-throttle growth right now.

Bag it now. Mulch it later when summer comes.