Mulching Mowers

Mulching lawn mowers do not have a box and literally double cut the grass so that the grass cuttings are fine enough to disappear quickly into the lawn. Therefore no time consuming box emptying. The downside of permanent mulch or re-cycle mowing is that you will always have a weed problem to some degree or other. If you have a worm problem expect it to get worse!

If this hasn’t put you off then a mulching mower should be considered for several reasons:

• If reducing the grass cutting time is important to you
• If you are doing totally organic lawn care
• If the compost heap is a long way from the lawn
• If the lawn is so large that you can’t remove and dispose of the clippings

If none of these reasons is overly important then a quality cylinder or a rear discharge rotary lawnmower that the instructions allow to be used without bag or box can be used for light frequent lawn mowing without grass collection. Many modern rotary mowers come with a mulching attachment though this isn’t as good a system as the double cut method used by full-time mulching machines.

If you do leave clippings make sure it’s just a light covering and they do not clump. Similarly dry leaves can be mulched rather than being raked and though they can be rather unsightly for a few days do add some useful organics to the lawn as in the image above.

In summer this is also a good way of helping the lawn conserve moisture. Grass clippings do not cause thatch but may cause problems if you already have a heavy thatch layer. See Checking for Lawn Thatch

Always collect the grass cuttings if weeds or weed grasses are seeding. Grass clippings are also attractive to worms so if you are bothered by a lot of worm casts or border land inhabited by moles then you had best collect the grass cuttings.