by: Lawn Care Business

Grass clippings: Bag, Compost, or Mulch?

As environmentalism continues to become a dominant issue in the lawn care industry, LCOs are continually faced with running their businesses in manners not harmful to our environment.

One issue you may be challenged with is what to do with grass clippings on finely manicured lawns.

1) Bagging the grass clippings:

Bagging is the least desirable method of dealing with grass clippings.  Bagging takes tremendous effort on your part
in extra time and extra work.  The bags themselves are expensive and you must either absorb the cost of the bags or pass the expense to the customer’s invoice.  Bagged grass clippings must either be disposed of in a landfill or dumped elsewhere.  Bagging is wasteful in so many ways and there are much better options for grass clippings.

2) Composting grass clippings:

If you must remove grass from your customers’ lawns talk your customers into having a compost area on their lawns. Compost areas can be as small as 2’x2′.  A compost area can contain household wastes such as banana peels, coffee grounds, and other similar items that otherwise will be sent to the landfill.  Grass can be added to the compost.  In as little as 8 to 12 months the compost will decay into rich soil that can be used in garden beds or to level rough areas in your customers’ lawns.

3) Mulching grass clippings:

The best solution in dealing with grass clippings is to mulch the grass right back into your customers lawn with your lawn mower.  Schedule your cutting appropriately so you do not have any grass to rake, bag, or haul off.  Though some of your customers may ask you to cut it as short as possible, raising your blades and cutting less off the top of the grass during each mowing cycle will give your customers’ lawns better stands of grass.  Slightly longer grass also chokes out weeds by depriving the weeds of sunlight and water. 

If there is excess grass, you are either cutting it too short, not cutting it often enough, or cutting it wet. Proper cutting disperses fine grass clippings into the lawn.  Grass clippings have lots of nutrients which continually feed the lawn and this is beneficial to new growth as the season wears on.   Some customers may ask about thatch buildup.  Once again, proper scheduling and height adjustment of your lawn mower blades will increase the health of their lawns and reduce the need for dethatching.

Professional lawn care companies know the correct methods of reducing waste and running their companies with an environmental state-of-mind.  Most customer appreciate this attitude and will follow your lead when you tell them bagging is not necessary.

Our Lawn Care Business Program gives you many methods of running a profitable, eco-friendly lawn care company.  For more information and to purchase the program, visit us at: 
www.StartALawnCareBusiness.com