Re: 5 Things You Should Know Before Mowing Your Lawn

 
Most important is amongst the mulching section.  Use a sharp blade.  Works
better if the grass is moist or dry.  Chops up the ORGANICALLY degradable
mulch better, making it easier to blend into the soil.  If you're too lazy
or don't know how to sharpen it, replace it every season.

Spam target newsgroups removed in response.
Dave

 Dave wrote:


I don't buy the mulching argument.

In my experience, mulched grass creates a sponge layer at the surface
and any rain that comes in the summer (we're having a drought, like we
usually seem to do every summer, here in SW-Ontario).

When we get our pathetic quick thunder storms, the rain rolls quickly
off our hard-packed clay soils.  Any rain that doesn't run off gets
absorbed by the dried mulch layer, which then gives it back to the
atmosphere when it dries.  It prevents the moisture from reaching and
being absorbed into the soil surface.

You might say "well, just add better top soil to your lawn".   That
doesn't work if we're talking about city-owned portion of your front
yard, or the grass circle in the middle of a court.

It is universally said that mulched grass contains nutients that are
great to give back to your lawn.

Well, if cut grass was so great, then why don't municiple yards that
collect yard waste accept it?  These places take yard waste (tree
branches mostly, maybe pine needles and other stuff you rake) and
mulch/compost it and sell it.  But they won't take grass.  Why not I
ask?  Everyone says that grass contains all these nutrients?  Grass
should be great, perfect to add to the ground-up yard waste?  But no,
they don't take it.  If they take it, they charge you $1 a bag.  

The truth is that municiple garbage collection and yard-waste
management knows that cut grass is useless and nutrient-poor (full of
carbon mostly) so they create this con-job and tell people it's better
for your lawn to mulch.  They just don't want to deal with cut grass
so they want you to just leave it in your grass, where it will create
thatch that will thin out your grass, harbor bugs and disease and soak
up the little, precious water you get in the summer and act like a
barrier to prevent the water from getting to the parched soil
underneath.

 Garden Guy said:


/Valid/ reasons?


I'm sorry, but the above sentence appears as an incomplete thought. "...and
any rain...", what? Are you saying that the dried grass clippings soak up
all of the rain? You have a source for that?


Ever consider watering between the rains? If you soak your lawn, properly,
you shouldn't have the runoff. You can't blame the grass clippings for your
neglect.


How much rainfall? Saying a "thunderstorm", no matter how "pathetically
quick", usually involves rainfall on the heavier side. There's not enough
surface area on the (especially, dried) grass clippings to absorb any
measurable amount of moisture. It may slow the water down, in route to the
soil, but it certainly doesn't absorb all of the water.


You'll lose /some/ to evaporation, but being shaded by the grass itself, a
good amount will reach the soil. A lot will be determined by the weather
conditions (does the sun come out, right after the storm, or does it remain
overcast?, etc.), as well as the general conditions of the area (full sun?
shade? etc.).


Why can't you improve the turf's conditions at the easement?


Who cares? That's the city's problem, not the homeowners.


And, you disagree with that? Are you saying that grass clippings have no
nutritional value to turf?


Because of all of the chemicals that people put on their lawns.


Do you apply chemicals to your trees and shrubs, on a regular basis (as
regular as your lawn?).

[...]
  

Wow, Einstein, "full of carbon mostly"? They're living organisms. Of
/course/ they're 'mostly carbon'. They're also absolutely loaded with
nitrogen (and a lot of other nutrients). Do some homework, eh?


"Truth"?

Source?


Again, source?


Please, give us your understanding of what "thatch" is.


They exist quite well in a lawn that gets "bagged". What bugs and diseases
do you speak of, that only exist in "mulched" lawns? Or, alternatively,
provide a source stating that bugs and diseases are higher in lawns that
are "mulched".


Go buy a sprinkler and quit blaming the grass clippings for your poor lawn
conditions.

Good grief, you /really/ sound like Stubby.

--

Eggs

-If a cow laughs hard, does milk come out its nose?

 Eggs Zachtly wrote:

(lots of crap)

Listen shit-head.

I know my own turf, soil and weather conditions.

The best turf comes from bagging the clippings.

You're fucking stupid if you think that crass clippings aren't
collected for use in municple compost because of the chemicals that
people *might* put on it (those chemicals have long since degraded and
broken down before the grass is cut and will further degrade when
composted).

The stubble left after food crops are harvested are turned back under
the soil.  You can't do that for grass clipping left on the lawn (but
that's what really needs to be done if you are to recycle any
nutrients they have).


What ever value they have, it does not outweigh the negative aspects
of leaving them on the grass, and can easily be replicated by a single
application per season of a liquid or granular fertilizer.

And what ever nutritional value crass clippings are purported to have,
it's apparently not enough to be attractive or desirable for municiple
composting operations, where grass clippings are avoided through the
application of a $1 a bag tipping fee, even though given their massive
stocks of other yard waste it would be easy to incorporate the grass
into that material stream where the grass would be evenly distributed
and anerobic decay would be prevented.

 Garden Guy said:


But very little about plant requirements, as well as minimal knowledge of
composting.


Opinion. Nothing more. How many golf courses have you /ever/ seen a mower
that bags their fairways? Does your turf even come close to resemebling a
properly maintained fairway?


Ahh, now you're a chemist! You sure get around. We're all quite impressed.
You spew drivel as fact, but can't substantiate your facts by providing a
source.

Oh, and for the record. My local municipality accepts grass clippings at
their composting operation. From their website:


So, who's the stupid fuck now? All your know-it-all drivel that you've
spewed was just that, drivel. Maybe /your/ municipality doesn't accept
them, but that doesn't mean the /all/ don't. GFY, asswipe.


By that way of thinking, spreading a granular fertilizer won't do any good,
either. You're not turning it into the soil, every time you apply it, are
you?


Ahh... so "easy" is really your modus operandi. That makes sense,
considering you don't water properly, during dry spells. Bet you never
change the oil in your mower, too, huh?


Hey, you're the one that chose to live in the municipality that robs it's
residents to dispose of grass clippings, not me. muahahaha... Dumbass.

--

Eggs

APATHY ERROR: Don't bother striking any key.