Recycle Leaves and Grass

A County Wide Experiment

In 1994, Montgomery County in Maryland conducted a campaign designed to encourage homeowners to recycle leaves and grass instead of throwing it away with the trash. At the beginning of the campaign, a survey revealed that 54 percent of homeowners thought grass clippings were bad for their lawn. This mistaken belief resulted in 36,000 tons of grass clippings in the trash each year.

This, as well as other findings, helped Montgomery County to design an educational campaign that assisted residents with having a healthy, natural lawn. In addition, it would aid the county in saving $2.5 billion, money that would have been spent on an expansion project to process all the trash being generated by the community.

Why Recycle Leaves and Grass?

Recycling leaves and grass saves money in many ways:

• Up to 25 percent less fertilizer is needed on lawns that are naturally fertilized with grass clippings.

• When you recycle leaves and grass, you help conserve water which can be costly.

• Recycled leaves and grass means less landfill space being taken up with bags of organic material. Fewer bags saves each city money on labor and landfill space.

A Natural Lawn

Knowing how to care for your lawn naturally will save lots of time too. Results of a natural lawn are worth the effort put into learning these methods. Montgomery County launched an ad campaign to educate its residents. Here is what they learned:

• Grass clippings and finely chopped leaves add vital nutrients and organic matter to the lawn, thus improving the health of the lawn.

• Grass and leaf clippings can replace up to 25 percent of costly fertilizer.

• Over-fertilizing does not make a healthier lawn, it just makes more lawn to mow.

• It isn’t necessary to use a mulching mower; just mow one inch when grass reaches four inches tall. The clipping won’t be noticed and will break down within a week.

Watering Your Lawn

The community learned a few other tips as well. Over-watering your lawn not only makes for a high water bill, it can lead to fungal disease. It is better not to water than it is to water wrong. How do you know you are using the right amount of water?

Take a tuna can and place it on the lawn near your sprinkler. When the can is full, your lawn has enough water. The tuna can equals about one inch deep of watering, and the best part is that this only needs to be done once a week for a healthy lawn. More than this just means more mowing.

Mowing Schedule

Speaking of mowing, are you one of those people who think you need to mow once a week. Well, think again! To determine when to mow your lawn, just look at how tall it is, not what day it is.

For grass to be healthy enough to withstand the heat of summer, it needs to be no less than two and one half inches tall. Experts agree than no more than one third of the grass height should be cut.

If your grass is four inches tall, cut one inch. Then leave the clippings to add organic nutrients and act as mulch up to one inch thick. This will encourage grass roots to grow deep and strong, choking out weeds. Who would have thought that less work would make a better lawn?

Chemicals

Chemical fertilizers and weed killers are not only dangerous to the weeds -- chemicals on your lawn are brought into your home on your feet and clothing. Do you really want chemicals in your house?

These chemicals can also pose a danger to children and animals who don’t understand the need to stay off the lawn when chemicals have been applied. Often, chemicals also get washed into your water supply.

Considering these facts, it would stand to reason that you not only save money on not buying harmful toxins, but also in healthcare!

Don’t Forget Leaves

You already know that leaves chopped up with the grass clippings are great for your lawn. Did you know you can recycle leaves and grass throughout your landscape?

A layer of grass and leaf mulch about four to six inches deep is great around your landscape plants. Mulch will keep the soil moist and the roots of the plants will stay cool.

Extra leaves and grass can be composted in a pile or a compost bin to create a nutrient-rich soil amendment that can be used all over your yard and garden. Why pay for costly compost and fertilizers when you can make your own for free?

But What Happened in Montgomery County?

You’ll have a beautiful, natural yard while saving landfill space and reducing chemicals in the environment. That’s what happened in Montgomery County. After their extensive educational campaign, another survey was conducted.

The result was that less than 16 percent of residents felt leaving grass clippings on the lawn was harmful. That is over a 40 percent decrease. Even better than that, yard waste in the form of grass clippings was reduced to less than 9,000 tons. That is a reduction of over 94,000 tons! They did it, and you can too.