Grasscycling & Yard Maintenance

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Grass clippings are accepted for collection or disposal at the SCMUA Landfill. Bags are free, Pick-up trucks are 2 cents a pound.

One of the Biggest Waste Problems is Right in Your Back Yard

Grass clippings can be added to the list of common home wastes that can be recycled. Leave your clippings on the lawn when you mow, and let Nature do the recycling. Grass clippings provide a natural fertilizer for a growing lawn.

Three Easy Ways to put Yard Waste to Work:

(1) Grass – Cut it and Leave it !

Leaving Grass Clippings on the Lawn
  • Reduced mowing time 20-25%
  • Saves the expense of buying lawn bags
  • Cuts the amount of fertilizer required
  • Reduces waste

Getting to Mow You
To maintain your lawn properly, avoid mowing more than the top third of the grass so that the small clippings will filter down to the soil.

Most New Jersey lawns thrive when mowed about 2 to 3 inches, especially in the summer. Since grass clippings provide a natural fertilizer, your lawn will be healthier, and the taller grass will shade the soil, cooling roots and preventing weeds.

What About Thatch?
Lawn experts agree that lawn clippings do not create thatch in the lawn. Rather, thatch is formed from the accumulation of dead roots and stems. But remember, the more you fertilize and water your lawn, the faster it grows, and the faster thatch builds up.

Save Time, Save Money:
  1. What could be easier than cutting your lawn and bagging clippings any more?
  2. You’ll save time because you won’t have to stop to empty your lawn mower bag.
  3. Homeowners who leave clippings on the lawn can actually reduce their total annual mowing time by 20-25%.
  4. You’ll also save money. You won’t have to buy lawn trash bags. You can spend less on fertilizer since clippings left on the lawn recycle nutrients, such as nitrogen, back to the soil.
Mulching Mowers
You might consider purchasing a mulching/recycling mower or adding a mulching attachment to your present mower. These attachments chop clippings into fine pieces that slip easily down to the soil.
 
(2) Mulch Clippings into Your Garden
Place about an inch of clippings directly on the soil around plantings to moderate soil temperature and to reduce weed growth, soil spattering, erosion, compaction, evaporation and runoff. As a precaution, use clippings from herbicide-treated lawns only after two lawn mowing.

Incorporating Clippings into the Soil
Another method of recycling grass clippings is to mix them directly into garden soil. Since most New Jersey soils are low in organic materials, applying fresh or composed clippings adds valuable organic matter. Grass clippings contain more nitrogen than horse manure.

(3) Consider Backyard Composting

Grass clippings are an excellent addition to the back yard compost pile. For more information on back yard composting, call Rutgers Cooperative Extension Service at 579-0985.