Most lawnmowers come complete with a clippings bagger. So naturally, you will feel inclined to affix the bag to the mower with every use. But there are a few things you may not realize when you clip the bagger to the mower.
Bagging Deprives Nutrients
When you regularly cut your lawn, and the clippings aren’t over an inch long, it is wise to leave your bag off the lawnmower. That’s because these clippings return certain nutrients to your lawn that can be achieved with somewhat unnatural fertilizing, regardless of how organic the fertilizer may be.
In fact, grass clippings can provide your lawn 25% of its total nutritional needs for the year, consisting of 4% nitrogen, 2% potassium and 1% phosphorus.
But if you don’t cut your lawn as frequently, and your clipping are subsequently larger, they could actually deprive your grass of sunlight, crucial to the fertilizing process.
Clumps are Bad
Not only do clumps of clippings deprive your lawn of sunlight, as they rot they also actually kill the live grass underneath it. If the grass is growing quickly- as it often does in the summer – it is a little more difficult to stay on top keeping your lawn trimmed. To address the issue, evenly raking your clippings across your lawn easily addresses the issue.
If you effectively break down the clumps by spreading the clippings across the grass, you balance the requirements of nutrients and sunlight.
There are few exceptions to implementing the mulching process when cutting your lawn. And if you want smaller grass clippings, which will subsequently break down and release nutrients more quickly, you can actually install a mulching blade. This ensures you never have clumping, no matter how high you let your grass grow.
