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Grasscycle!
By:
Marjorie King

"Grasscycling" means allowing the grass clippings to fall to the ground. That's easy enough, in fact it is easier than not grasscycling! 

If you grasscycle, you do not have to purchase (or use!) a grass catcher for your reel mower. Reel mowers are perfect for grasscycling because, properly used, reel mowers send the clippings flying off the reel in a fine spray of short clippings which are virtually invisible on the lawn. Since they are 80-85 percent water, these clippings will have withered to almost nothing in a few hours. the remaining plant material will help to preserve soil moisture while it returns its valuable nutrients to the soil. According to the California Integrated Waste Management Board, grasscycling can provide 15 to 20 percent of a lawn's annual fertilizer requirement. 

An "old wives tale" ...(oh come on, why always blame the old wives? We know some old husbands who spread some pretty silly tales, too, but ah, we digress)... One popular concern is that leaving clippings on the lawn causes thatch. Thatch is a mat of stems and roots that forms at and just beneath the surface of the lawn. It is a natural growth pattern of the plant which helps to preserve soil moisture and protect the roots below. Thatch becomes a problem when it forms an overgrown mat so tightly entangled in itself that water cannot penetrate it, even air flow is restricted, and the risk of disease is increased. 

There are several things which cause this overgrown thatch.  Frequent shallow watering is the most common culprit. Roots grow where the water is. Watering a few minutes a day means all the water is near the surface, so not only do the normal thatch roots grow there, all the grass roots compete for the same small amount of moisture that never gets far beneath the surface. Less frequent, deep watering sends the water inches below the surface where the roots will follow. The moisture deeper in the soil will not evaporate as readily as moisture near the surface, so deep watering actually requires less water than shallow watering. And when a drought year comes along, those deep-rooted lawns will be more likely to survive than the shallow-rooted lawns. Regardless of the weather, the deep-rooted lawns will always be greener and healthier. 

Too much fertilizer, infrequent mowing and improper mowing height (too short) also contribute to too much thatch, a living mat. Grass clippings from properly mowed lawns do not contribute to thatch or any other lawn problem, they contribute to lawn health. 

"Proper mowing" means mowing often enough that you are never cutting off more than one third of the grass blade length at a time. If the desired finished lawn height is three inches, the lawn should never be more than four inches tall before mowing. Cutting off more than one third of the blade is traumatic to the plant and produces larger clippings. Large clippings may be visible on the lawn, and in extreme cases can smother the grass below.

Grasscycling is much more than just good for your lawn. It is good for the environment in a big way. In California alone, we can divert a million tons of lawn clippings a year if we all grasscycle. Grasscycling saves expensive fuel and prevents air pollution by eliminating the need for all those big trucks to haul the clippings off to landfill.

Grasscycling makes so much sense! In a recent grasscycling survey 98 percent of people who tried grasscycling said they will never bag again.

copyright Marjorie King 2004. All rights reserved.