Strimmers can be so messy
My lawnmower stopped working last year and I am only now
missing it. It was one of those plastic Flymo types and did an OK job in the
three years it was working. Yes the
cable frayed a couple of times and the blades were so flimsy they buckled on a
tuft of couch grass. But it was quiet, light and could get into tight corners.
My grass cutting this
year is by a petrol strimmer and you wouldn’t believe the mess you can make
with these things. I don’t think there’s a piece of wall or window where small
muddy tufts of grass are clinging to. It’s very reminiscent of cutting a hedge
with a power blade. It takes ten minutes to cut and three hours to clean up
afterwards. With all of the sweeping and brushing down of pots you can see why
I’m only reluctantly using the strimmer about once every three weeks.
One thing is the same regardless of what machine I use to
cut the grass and that’s a huge pile of clippings. How do we cope with all of the cut grass
throughout the year? If you don’t bag
them up and take them to the recycling centre then what are the options?
The simplest way to deal with them is to just leave them on
the lawn, or the wall in my case. There is even a phrase known as "grass
cycling" to make us feel less lazy when it comes to dealing with the problem.
The grass clippings soon rot down and are a natural feed. This saves money
buying fertilizer and saves time bagging up.
I don’t think this is very practical for me with the
strimmer grass though as it’s too long, maybe it’s be good for weekly cut grass
and a mulching mower. I like the idea of not having a lawn at all; just a small
meadow with wild flowers and growing cover plants but nothing seems as robust
and up to the job of putting up with two frisky dogs playing.
Compost Them
Grass clippings are approximately 85 percent water and 4
percent nitrogen, which means if composted correctly they will rapidly reduce
to one tenth of their volume. A bag of grass clippings would reduce to handful
or two of compost and I think they can be classed as both a wet and dry compost
material depending on how much water they contain. A compost heap usually includes other wet
waste such as vegetable peelings and fruit. To balance this out, dry matter or
carbon material could be added. This will help to keep the air circulating and
stop it from smelling. Other dry matter includes paper, wood chips, leaves and
broken sticks.
Add equal amounts of wet and dry matter to keep the fruit
flies at bay and stop the smells. Another way to let the oxygen circulate in
your pile is to aerate it. This means turning the grass clippings and other
materials to loosen up the piles.
Let them bake
Put grass clippings in the sun for up to a day before adding
them to the compost pile. I tend to strim my grass then go and do other jobs
for a few hours, the grass that spreads and flies all over the concrete path is
soon dry in the sun. This reduces the volume considerably.
If you have recently applied pesticides or herbicides to
your lawn, do not add the grass clippings to your compost piles until the rain
has wash off these chemicals completely.
Under the hedge
Grass clippings can be used for weed control at the base of
your hedges. This helps to retain moisture and adds organic matter and
nutrients to the soil. For best results spread about an inch or two of weed
free clippings at the base of the hedge avoiding its main stems. Add more
clippings when the previous batch has broken down.
Over the hedge
A pile of grass clippings is very attractive to hungry
horses, ponies, donkeys, cows and sheep. I have a pile of broccoli plants to
give to some local horses soon when the flowers die back to mix their diet up a
bit
Buying New
I’m on the lookout for another lawnmower. I quite fancy one
of those push types. It’ll keep the grass down long enough for me to come up
with a “grassless lawn” made from wild flowers and my growing number of
chamomile plants.
