I love May for its giddy colour and promise of long bright days ahead. For No Mow May we’re encouraged to let grass grow wavy and woolly and enjoy the break from the labour (and noise) of mowing. But what if you need to mow, for a garden where playing space is needed? Have you thought about grasscycling?
It’s a term that master compost trainer Craig Benton uses to teach teachers how to incorporate greener practices into school life. His excellent courses, which are funded by local authorities, help get teachers started with composting some or all of their food waste on site and incorporating the rhythm of the work into their teaching curriculum.
Benton estimates that 50,000 tonnes of grass cuttings end up in landfill every lawn season, that’s 5,000 bin trucks full, he explained in a recent online composting workshop for teachers in Meath and Wicklow. Of course grass cuttings can be composted in a pile but they quickly become a slimy, smelly mess being full of water and weighty so they squeeze out the air that makes for a sweet-smelling and efficient compost pile.
Instead he recommends grasscycling or composting the cuttings in place. It’s a circular economy idea: the cut grass provides nutrients for the new grass so you never need to fertilise your lawn. Most parks and golf courses use the method, he explained, because it saves them money and time hauling away grass cuttings.
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The first step for the lawn owner is to rake up the thatch – any dead matter, roots and leaves that mat the floor of the lawn and stop the grass cuttings coming into contact with the soil, where the life in the soil food web is waiting to munch it back into the system.
Then you let the grass grow longer, three to five inches high. And you only cut a third of this each time. This means you’re cutting the leaf of the grass rather than the stem, which makes it easier to break down and melt back into the lawn.
Keeping mower blades sharp, mowing regularly and mowing on dry days will all help the system work better, Benton explained. You don’t need special equipment, just take the collection bag off the existing mower. And one of the easiest mowers to use is the old push mower with the collection bag removed.
If we are managing space for wildlife we should let the grass grow and cut it just once in the autumn, removing the cuttings and seeding with yellow rattle to make space so wildflowers can seed themselves. But if there are areas that need cutting to create play spaces or paths, grasscycling is the greenest way to mow.