To Bag Lawn Clippings or Not

Every homeowner wants a beautiful lawn...certainly.

I haven't provided basic lawn care in quite a while, but when I did I studied lawns, soils and turf grasses just as I continue to study shrub and tree care.

There shouldn't be much debate about not collecting (bagging) lawn clippings as they provide some of the quickest decomposing material to aid in the soil nutrients. Unless one allows their grass to grow too tall to the point of the clippings providing a blanket to block the sun, the resulting parts of plant life of the exact same ilk return their nutrients back to the soil, quite quickly. 

Here is the difference and I am only going to cite one of many instances which may occur throughout the year or the growing season. Bear with me.

I have had many customers over the years call me or show concern about the weeds which occur late winter and early spring. I have been on their properties for years and realize many of these weeds lose out to healthy lawns or have a very short life - a few to several weeks. And, later they are gone. Their lawns are again gorgeous throughout most of the year.

I am not going to get into all the genus and species of weeds, but many of these lawn weeds this time of year are short-lived annuals. Yet, an annual weed is not necessarily innocuous simply because one may believe its life has ended after dying, never to return.

Many of these weeds produce flowers or seed heads which when scattered by the wind, transferred by pollinators or left to fall to the ground, only wish to reproduce. And, they do so only waiting for next year and the opportunity to ugly your lawn again.

So, here are a few ways to reduce their impact on your lawn when you recognize these abhorrent little creatures:

Note 1: I say reduce as you are not going to eliminate the potential for weeds in your lawn and the decision to bag clippings or not will depend on your lawn's situation and your desire to make slight changes throughout the year unless you have an overwhelming weed problem.

Note 2: If you mow your lawn or have it mowed frequently (not too frequently and not too short) during the growing season you are probably preventing many seed heads from developing and should take advantage of mulching and returning the clippings back to earth.

Note 3: Mulching mowers work best, but they are only as good as the condition of the blade(s).

• Catch the weeds early by mowing the areas of your lawn which are affected by using a mower with a bag attachment.
• If your lawn service doesn't normally bag your lawns clippings ask them to bag the clippings and return to bag-less mowing when the flowering weeds are not so prevalent. Of course, depending on the size of your lawn, they may charge a little more for the time to empty the bags/containers.
• Or (many lawn services have a push mower), if you don't have large affected areas, ask your lawn service to use a push mower, with bag attached, to cover these areas while the faster riding mower (without bag attached) with larger blade swath takes care of the rest. They will want to ensure the height for both mower decks/blades are as similar as possible to not show variations in your lawn height. 

Note: You may want to bag weed clippings or cover them with other debris if you place them roadside so that the seeds are not carried by the wind.

Personally (I have a small lawn and many plant beds.), I dig up the larger broadleaf weeds with a small three-tine heavy metal rake (more of an extraction tool than a rake) snapping the tines below the surface of the weed and removing as much of the root as possible.

Trake

And, I mow using the bag attachment in late winter until later in early spring until I notice very little or no weeds with flowers or seed heads.

Then as we move into the turf grass growing season I mulch only and use no bag.

That's it: Just a little attention, some thought and adjustment and you'll probably see a reduction in weeds.