I advise against composting weeds with your grass clippings unless you have a hot composting system with temperatures reaching 150° to 160☏. Grass clippings are mainly water and other rapidly decomposing compounds, making them one of the speediest garden wastes to break down.
And if you add your grass clippings to a carefully maintained compost pile, expect them to become a soil supplement in a few months. If you leave short clippings on your lawn after mowing, they’ll vanish within a few weeks. How Long Does It Take To Compost Grass Clippings? Completely dry grass is brown (filled with carbon).Freshly-cut grass is green (nitrogen-rich),.For example, all organic wastes that are wet and high in nitrogen are considered green, and dry, carbon-rich organic wastes are called brown. It’s not just clippings’ color that makes them “green” or “brown” it’s also their composition. Grass clippings can be either green or brown organic wastes! Are Grass Clippings Green Or Brown Compost? Grass clippings should make up at most 50% of your compost to keep the decomposition going smoothly. The right amount of grass helps create healthy compost, but too much makes compost soggy, smelly, and sluggish. If you’re curious, the other two essentials are air and carbon. Grass clippings are high in two of the four things compost needs to thrive: nitrogen and moisture (grass is about 80% water). Compost grass clippings. We’ll look at this option in detail later in this article.Add an inch-thick layer around flowers, trees, shrubs, and vegetables. Work grass clippings into your soil. Mix 2 or 3 inches directly into the top 6 inches of your garden beds.
In this case, you can choose between three other ways to clear up clippings without resorting to bagging them and kicking them to the curb: Suppose your lawn is too long to leave the clippings behind after mowing. Here’s an excellent example of this type of mower (Amazon) Mulching mowers’ blades chop grass into such tiny pieces they’re almost invisible.
Researchers have done the math and claim it takes up to 38% less time to mow more often and leave the clippings on the lawn than to bag the clippings after weekly mowing.Īnother option is to upgrade from your usual lawnmower to a mulching mower to create super-fine clippings for your lawn. The thought of mowing more frequently might put you off – but studies say this will save you time. The trick is to mow often, cutting just a little (the top third of the blade) each time. Clippings should be an inch or shorter to be good to leave behind. Basically, the old grass becomes a natural fertilizer for the new.īut there’s a catch. The clippings break down quickly, releasing nutrients to help your grass grow strong and healthy. It might be okay to just leave the grass clippings where they fall as you mow! Composting Grass Clippingsīefore we get started with the top ways to compost grass clippings, you should know there’s a shortcut: Keep reading for grass-composting guidelines, warnings, and tips for faster results. I’ve got several eco-friendly suggestions for using grass clippings (including one that involves zero effort). But what’s the best way to turn this valuable resource into compost? That does, of course, mean you need to spend lots of time mowing.Īnd you’re stuck with a lawn’s worth of clippings afterward!Ĭomposting is the most beneficial way to recycle grass clippings. If you’re lucky, your grass just keeps growing.