What to do with grass clippings?

Where to dispose of cut lawn grass, haulm and weeds: ways to use and dispose of in the countryside

After mowing the lawn or weeding the fields, there are large piles of grass that need somewhere to be removed.

And given that grass is constantly growing and after some time gives seeds, it needs to be disposed of, so that it does not spread seeds and do not give new sprouts.

This is especially true for weeds, whose seeds remain germinating for many months after the plant is separated from the soil.

After reading this article, you will learn: what to do with sloping lawns and common grass at the cottage, where to plant for the benefit of the garden and not only and not only, and how to use (dispose of).

Why do you need to get rid of grass clippings?

Despite the fact that grass clippings are a good fertilizer, they can not always be left in the field or lawn, because they spoil the appearance of the area, and their seeds remain germinating even a few months after the separation of grass from the roots.

Vegetation gathered in a pile, if left unattended, poses a serious hazard. There is an active rotating process inside the stack, so the temperature rises dramatically, which can lead to a fire.

In addition, a dry pile is a high-risk fire hazard because it flares up from any spark, so it should only be stored in specially prepared places.

Why can’t it be thrown in garbage cans?

Most companies that provide services for the removal of solid waste (MSW), prescribe a ban on grass and weeds in the containers in the contract with the residents of private houses.

After all, to dispose of garbage, they legally use landfills, whose labor is not cheap.

Therefore, each company pays for the use of MSW, depending on the actual volume, which means that the removal of weeds brings them a serious loss.

Calling a separate machine to remove the green mass, as well as paying for the services of the landfill is expensive, so few people agree to dispose of grass in this way.

Who is in charge of removal and disposal?

If you yourself can not dispose of cut or pulled vegetation, including weeds, it is necessary to turn to those who provide such services.

This is done by companies whose field of activity is the removal and disposal of construction waste from MSW, as they have contracts with landfills for the preparation of waste.

In addition, it can be agricultural or processing companies that use the collected vegetation to produce humus, fuel pellets or other products.

Prices for services

The cost of this service depends on such factors as:

• The duties of the landfill to dispose of solid waste;
• The distance from the place of storage of the collected grass to the landfill;
• method of loading (independent, with the help of workers or mechanized);
• the volume of collected and developed and intended for disposal of vegetation;
• additional services (mowing, collection, or loading);
• the number of requests for this service.

Companies offering trash removal services are willing to work with grass, but at the same prices as the removal of solid waste, and depending on the volume of the container.

A small container (8 m 3 ) without loaders costs 3-7 thousand rubles, depending on the city and the distance from the landfill.

Large container (30-40 m 3 ) costs 20-40 thousand rubles. Services of loaders or loading equipment increase the cost of removal and disposal in 1,5-3 times.

Mowing companies also remove grass, but prefer not to remove vegetation that was mowed by someone else. But it is possible to negotiate with them as well. In most cases the price of removal is 200-900 rubles per 100 m2.

Read more about this and the approximate cost of such services you can read here.

Is it possible to give the grass from the dacha lawn for free?

Mowed grass, as well as uprooted weeds can be given to the owners of farms or private subsidiary plots. However, it is likely that they are very picky about the material they receive even for free.

After all, if they are interested in grasses that can be fed to cows or other livestock, they will first try to find out where the vegetation was cut, as it may contain plants that are dangerous to animals.

Any grass (except prickly weeds) is welcomed by those who use it as bedding for large animals or as fuel. In both cases, harvested vegetation is first dried to stop the rotting process and then stored in specially prepared places.

If it is to be used as fuel, lawn grass and even spike grass, unusable for any other use but obtained for free, are gladly taken.

How can I dispose of it wisely?

Properly disposing of green matter brings not only benefits, but also significant savings, because mowed or uprooted vegetation allows:

• A good natural fertilizer for the garden or vegetable garden;
• mulch
• solid and gaseous fuel
• various construction materials;
• natural fabric.

How to use as fertilizer in the garden?

All vegetation after separation from the root and cell death is exposed to various microorganisms that consume dead organic material.

The waste products of these microorganisms are humic substances (humic substances), which serve as food for plant roots. This transformation is part of the complex process of the organic matter cycle in nature.

In addition, there is a process of natural soil regeneration in which the soil not only receives humic substances, but also improves its structure, thereby increasing the water permeability of the soil.

These processes are at the heart of green matter fertilizer production, so the difference between the natural and artificial course of these processes is that one chooses

• where the plant matter will be decomposed;
• what additional components will be added;
• the rate of decomposition of organic matter;
• the place of application of humic substances and fragments that improve soil structure;
• intensity of the soil regeneration process.

The most popular fertilizers derived from grasses, including grasses and weeds, are:

• compost, including liquid compost;
• humus (hummus);
• mulch;
• liquid and dry fertilizer.

Compost is a mixture of grass with various additional materials that improve the physical and chemical properties of the fertilizer.

After being completely turned over, it turns into humus, with which the soil is filled with nutrients and improves soil structure.

The working time of a full rotor is ten months. So if you need to get the fertilizer faster, liquid compost is made in a barrel.

Liquid fertilizer is partially or completely surplus liquid compost made in barrels. It does not change the structure of the soil, but only saturates the soil with nutrients.

Dry fertilizer is fresh or partially excess plant matter that is placed in holes or trenches before planting seeds or seedlings.

Leaf cover

A foliage blanket is grass that is spread on the surface and serves several important functions.

Such mulch is used to:

• Reduce moisture loss due to evaporation;
• Retain the roots of heat-loving and cold-loving plants;
• Fill the floor with nutrients;
• Suppress weeds;
• Protect plants from snails;
• Improve soil structure.

For this use, every mowed or otherwise green mass is separated from the ground, except for weeds with already matured seeds.

Ultimately, mulching such weeds will cause them to spread quickly in place and depress cultivated plants. In addition, both fresh and dry vegetation, as well as compost of any degree of propagation, are suitable for mulching.

However, it should be borne in mind that bacteria actively consume organic nitrogen and release various acids, due to which the pH parameter decreases, that is, the floor becomes acidic.

Therefore, when using fresh or dry green mass, such mulch should be sprinkled with ash or lime to reduce acidity and treated with a nitrogen fertilizer, such as urea or amofoska.

Also, plants that have been damaged by pests or diseases should not be used for mulch, as mulch or diseases can become crop stones and damage them.

If mulch is used in early summer, just water it down enough for it to completely rewind next season and become a fertilizer. If mulch is done with grass in mid-summer or later, it is advisable not only to water them profusely, but also to treat them with bacterial preparations.

Solid and gaseous fuel production

Plant cells are made up of various carbohydrates, so they are good sources of energy. They can be used to produce gaseous biofuel in digesters, which produce methane gas.

After purification of biogas from impurities, the share of methane in IT increases to 70-98%, i.e. the finished product is suitable for use in gas appliances.

The vegetation is dried and pressed into grass pellets to produce a fixed fuel, which is comparable to pellets and wood briquettes in its ability to keep you warm and can definitely replace firewood or coal in automatic solid fuel boilers.

If there is access to other free or very cheap carbohydrates, such as all kinds of excrement or shredded wood, they can be mixed with grass to produce fuel grains.

Construction Uses

Dried vegetation, mostly straw (because of its tubular structure) has been used since ancient times to make insulation and load-bearing building materials.

The basis of such materials is solid – dried or dried plant stems and sound.

By increasing the volume of sound and adding sand to the mixture, Adobe is obtained, which is used for low-rise construction.

The outstanding characteristics of Adobe are:

• environmental friendliness;
• low thermal conductivity;
• High vapor permeability;
• High sound absorption;
• Low cost of production.

Saman has disadvantages:

• In an environment with high humidity, it quickly loses strength and delaminates;
• Low carrying capacity, so it is suitable only for the construction of walls of one-storey houses with wooden ceilings.

The same advantages and disadvantages are inherent in grass insulation, since the clay in it is binding.

In addition, grass insulation attracts various rodents, so their composition necessarily includes lime, which not only prevents the appearance of these animals, but also protects the plant filler from disease.

Despite the fact that the main parameters of such heating are noticeably worse than those of modern heat and soundproofing materials, it is asked where there is no possibility of using conventional insulation or soundproofing, and heat loss must be reduced and noise level must be reduced.

Therefore, the main advantages of such heating are low cost (everything you need is under your feet) and environmental friendliness (they are made from natural materials).

In addition, the roofs of village houses were made of thatch, because there was no access to slate, brick and other materials.

Even today, thatched roofs are popular among fans of eco-friendly homes and lovers of natural materials.

Such a roof is very sensitive to open fire, but compliance with even the most basic rules of fire safety will reliably protect against fire. In addition, the finished roof can be impregnated with wood fire retardants, which makes it much less sensitive to open fire.

Natural fabric manufacturing

Clothing made from plant materials has been known for many thousands of years, as people have not always had the opportunity to protect themselves from the heat or cold with animal skins, and without clothing their chances of survival were greatly reduced.

Flax and cotton are still the most popular materials for sewing many types of clothing.

Hardy races of forest and meadow grasses, such as:

• Nettle;
• chicory;
• Linen;
• Hemp (the cultivation of hemp is prohibited in the Russian Federation, as it is classified as a narcotic);
• Cornflower;
• Thistle;
• nightshade.

To obtain tissue from plants, proceed as follows:

• Select long healthy stems;
• The selected material is dried;
• The dried vegetation is shredded and ruffled to separate the fibers and keep the weight;
• They are thoroughly cleaned of hard fragments and dust, and then skinned (enjoyed) to separate the fibers completely;
• The cleaned mass is combed to separate all the fibers by length (the shortest are called foam, the middle ones are called patches or combs, and the longest are called TOW).

The separated fibers are then spun into yarn, and the fabric is already woven from the finished yarn.

If necessary, either the individual yarns or the finished fabric are dyed.

Although homemade grass cloth is in many ways inferior to store-bought material, the do-it-yourself screen is something unique.

Forums

A good way to find out where to put your grass clippings is to check out the forums where other gardeners share their experiences.

Here are some of them:

A video on the subject

In this video, the author tells and shows the technology of making fabric from nettles with their own hands:

Conclusion

Extracted from the ground grass is a valuable resource, suitable for a variety of uses.

Proper use of such vegetation will save money on fertilizer or heating. In some cases, it is grass clippings that are the main component for making various natural materials.

From this article, you learned what to do with grass clippings from the lawn and shelter weeds in the countryside, how to use this material and where to dispose of it when it is not needed.

My 3 secrets for using weeds and grass clippings

I have made good use of weeds and grass clippings in the garden and yard. There is always a lot of grass growing along the sides of paths, in rows, and on fences. Implemented the idea and ready to share my secrets with you!

I came up with the idea of using grass to good use, as garden plants and berry bushes grow, and additionally organized a small lawn in the garden, as I needed a lot of grass for the plan. To use the grass, I downloaded it with a trimmer, using a nylon fishing line as a scythe. In this case, the grass cut is shredded, which gives the most efficiency in use. In the spring and summer, I do three grass shredding mows, using each one for a different purpose.

Where to place the weeds: Secret 1. The heat generator.

Our garden greenhouses are beds over which a frame is constructed, covered with polyethylene film or polycarbonate. And if in the late spring cold or even frosts in such a greenhouse grow cucumbers or tomatoes, they can die. It used to be that hot coals in a pot were placed in the greenhouse in anticipation of frosts. Nowadays, extension cords are pulled into the greenhouse and electric heaters are turned on.

Moss grass in the greenhouse

I have been trying to use cut and dried grass as biofuel in the greenhouse.

To do this, at the end of the greenhouse, opposite the entrance, I made a hole in a rut and 40 cm deep and watered with warm water, heats quickly, often heating up to 60 ° C. The heat release helps to keep the greenhouse at night. The temperature is 5-8 degrees above the outside temperature. At the same time, cucumber and tomato plants heated by the arranged heat generator grow and develop much better. And in 2014 such a heat generator helped to keep cucumbers and tomatoes in the greenhouse during frosts from 16 to 3 ° C, from which the plants and tomatoes by that time died.

Over the summer, autumn and winter, the grass in such a pit burns out, decomposes and turns into compost, which the next year is introduced into the ridges of the greenhouse during the spring digging, and the pit is filled with new grass.

Where to place weeds: Secret 2. Mulch for vegetable crops.

Vegetable crops – cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes – are spread over the beds to improve root formation conditions. But mulching, while beneficial to plant growth, increases the duration of moisture evaporation from the soil on the bed to colonize it with weeds.

I mow the grass from the second cut just in time for the cabbage, cucumber, and tomatoes to get hard. I lay the cut and dried grass between the thistles so that the recesses are completely filled in. Before laying the grass, abundantly water the plants. A layer of grass mulch suppresses weed growth, weeds do not need to be fed, it evaporates less moisture from the ground, and the floor does not heat up in the heat. It promotes better growth of vegetables, and I always pick cucumbers clean, and even after the rain they are not contaminated with soil.

In the fall, after harvesting the tops, I cover the mound bunches and cover the grass in the hollows with soil, which decomposes over the summer, fall and winter and turns into compost. The organic tissues produced by the decomposition of the grass mass provide food for earthworms that loosen the soil. The floor becomes more brittle, saturated with air, and its moisture capacity increases.

Where to put the grass: secret 3. Grass vs. weed

In summer, berry bushes become overgrown with weeds – nettles, meadowsweet, hole-leg and others. Mowing the grass between bushes with a tool is dangerous, they can damage the side branches of the bush. Manual removal of grass is tedious, and not always have time for it – other concerns are more important.

Mulch from grass clippings

One day in late August, when I was manually removing the grass between the currant bushes, I noticed that the grass on the lawn after the second mowing was quite grown, and I decided to use it to control the weed between the berry bushes. On the third mowing, I placed the grass in a layer of 10 cm between the berry bushes, not removing the weeds beforehand, but shredding them and pressing them to the ground. In the spring, I noticed that not a single weed appeared between the bushes, and the laid grass turned into compost and organic fertilizer. All of the bushes under which the floor was studded with grass clippings improved their growth. Black currant bushes in particular responded positively, with significantly increased branch growth and larger berry yields. This is explained by the fact that the lower parts of the branches of the bush gave extra roots in a layer of decomposed grass.

И ежегодно третий укос травы укладываю среди кустов ягодников, не позволяя разрастаться там сорнякам и одновременно удобряя почву под ягодными кустами. Подробнее о мульчировании читайте здесь >>>>

Good evening everyone! My name is Alexeyev Yuri Mikhailovich. I am a pensioner, I am 83 years old. I am a big amateur gardener. I have 50 years of experience in forestry. Learned a lot of tree secrets. I will be glad to talk to you!