Mulching Vs Bagging
Did you know that you could be mowing, watering, and fertilizing your lawn all at the same time without even realizing it? The majority of grass blades are made up of water, with the remaining composition comprising of organic matter and nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
By leaving grass clippings on your lawn after mowing, you're essentially providing it with essential nutrients and hydration without any extra effort on your part. While leaving the clippings on the lawn is typically the best option, there may be certain circumstances where you might opt to bag them instead.
In this case, it's important to weigh the pros and cons of each approach to determine which one will work best for you.
Mulching And Discharge
All mowers are capable of Discharging cut grass back onto your lawn. Weather its via a chute on the side or rear.
The Difference in Mulching vs Discharging is Mulching will often need to have a mulching kit installed to stop the grass going into the catcher. This allows your blades to better finely chop the grass and drop them out on your lawn.
Pros:
Cons:
- Heathy For The Lawn – Multching grass provides nutrients and water back to your grass.
- Less Work – Doesn’t require you to waste money on bags or even bend down to empty the catcher. Just push and go!
- Apperance – Mulching will reduce grass blade size therefore leaving better appearance.
- Wet Grass Is A No No – Will leave your yard looking nasty as it leaves clumps of wet grass.
- Tall Grass If the grass is too tall you will leave a thick layer of grass causing build up of disease and pest, so best to keep it short.
- Harder On Your Mower – If your Yard is Quite tall it can tend to be quite tough on your mower and will take a lot longer
Mulching Equipment
Most push mowers will be be able to mulch simply by blocking the chute.
Although I do recommend installing some Mulching blades, as Mulching blades have a more curved shape and a larger cutting edge, enabling them to efficiently cut and bring grass into the mower's deck.
Once inside, the grass is cut into smaller pieces multiple times before being dispersed back onto the lawn. This process creates finer grass clippings that can more easily decompose and provide nutrients for the soil.
When To Bag Clippings
Mulching is fine, however there's a time and a place for it, tall or wet grass are not one of them.
Having tall grass prevents the nutrients and water from reaching the soil, as-well as build-up of dead grass with diseases to breed. Making your clean lawn, look not so clean.
As for wet grass, it just makes mulching a pain as you will be cleaning the underside of your deck more time than your mowing. On top of that it will leave clumps of grass on your lawn.
Bagging Equipment
Basically all push mowers will come with a bag that slots into the back of your mower where the chute is.
Some people will use a rake, but I find that takes to long and is mundane.
So to repeat, you will be mulching most of the time. Other than if your grass is too long, too wet or has weeds that you don't want to be spreading around your yard.
