This time of year, you are mowing your lawn what feels like all the time. All of these extra grass clippings aren’t ideal to be left on your lawn, so you need to find something to do with them.
Here are some tips we’ve found for utilising your grass clippings rather than getting rid of 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 nutrients to the soil. The 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 you can 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 ok 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.
