Keep away from plants by at least 6 inches plants or trees. Or they can kill
the plants and get hot enough to burn the bark off the trees.
Gordon C. Nofs
Flint, MI.
----Original Message Follows----
From: list@ginda.us
Reply-To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
To: NAFEX Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [NAFEX] grass clippings
Date: Thu, 29 May 2003 22:17:35 -0400
What with all the rain, my lawn was long overdue for its mowing. So long
overdue that leaving the clippings on the lawn was not an option. (I have a
mulching mower, and usually the clippings just disappear into the lawn.) So
now I have several bags of fresh clippings.
Is it safe to put it directly in the garden? I have strawberries,
raspberries, tomatoes, and asparagus all cheek by jowl, and thought I might
just lay the clippings between the plants to smother weeds. But I'm afraid
I might smother the plants, or poison them with decomposition products. How
about as a mulch around a young apple or cornus mas? I assume it wouldn't
be a good idea around the trees that just went in this spring, but others
are a couple of years old.
The clippings are mostly grass, with a lot of clover and smaller amounts of
other weeds. The grass had gone to seed, but the seeds were still soft and
green, so I doubt they are viable. Right now the clipping are sitting in a
heap in the mulch pile, with last fall's leaves. I'm sure they won't do any
harm there, but they may not do much good. (I haven't had much success with
removing useful compost from this pile, but I do use the leaves to mulch
stuff from time to time.)