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Landscape maintenance activities — mowing, pruning, raking — generate yard waste that you can return to the soil, recycling valuable nutrients. It is easy to recycle yard waste. Try a few of these simple ideas to get started.
- Compost or mulch with your yard's clippings to reduce the amount of solid waste in landfills. Consider any plant debris as a useful site resource.
- Leaves and pine needles provide a source of mulch that is a real asset in the landscape, and it is virtually free! If your yard generates more leaf mulch than you can use, compost the material or share some with a neighbor.
- Pruned branches from trees and shrubs can be chipped to speed decomposition in the compost pile, or broken into smaller pieces and simply tossed behind a shrub.
- NEVER dump grass clippings or other yard waste into storm drains or waterways. Such activities are illegal, can pollute water systems and clog municipal street drains. Grass clippings are a significant source of nitrogen, so keep them on the lawn and out of the water.
RECYCLE WHILE YOU MOW
Following a few simple tips is all it takes to cultivate a lush lawn.
- Leave grass clippings on the lawn to decompose and return nitrogen to the soil. Research indicates this practice improves soil fertility, gradually reducing the need for nitrogen fertilization up to 50% without a decrease in turfgrass quality.
- Never mow more than one-third of the turfgrass at a single cutting. This clipping amount decomposes sufficiently to prevent thatch build-up. Mowing grass too short, more than the 1/3, is also stressful and may cause turf damage.
- For procrastinators who don’t mow regularly, mulching mowers cut grass into smaller pieces, speeding decomposition.
- If grass grows too tall between mowings, spread thin layers of clippings behind shrubs or add them to a compost pile. Avoid mounds or clumps of clippings in turfgrass since it may cause damage.
- Sharpen mower blades monthly to protect against disease. Clean cut leaves seal better. Ragged, torn leaf edges are open to disease pathogens.
- Strive to limit turfgrass areas to match your specific goals. Avoid the pasture-effect on residential properties. You’ll mow less, saving time, energy, and money. Where grass doesn’t serve a function, opt for low-maintenance groundcovers instead of grass. Under-plant trees with shrubs and groundcovers.
COMPOSTING
A common misconception about plant care is that plants require fertilizer. Plants need nutrients, but they might not need additional fertilizer. That is because as organic matter decomposes, nutrients are released back to the soil for plants to use. Some key nutrients for plants include nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, calcium, zinc, iron, and manganese.
A great way to supply some of these key nutrients to plants, while also recycling yard waste, is to compost. Enhance compost with yard or kitchen waste materials. As compost decomposes in soil, it releases essential nutrients. Add generous amounts of composted material frequently to soil and it can create the perfect medium for sustained plant health.
Adding Compost to Soil Can:
- Improve soil structure, texture, and aeration.
- Increase the water-holding capacity of soil.
- Help loosen compacted soils.
- Promote soil fertility and stimulate root development.
- Create a favorable environment for beneficial microorganisms, earthworms, and insects that are nature’s “soil builders”.
Composting can be as simple as placing leaves, grass clippings, and small cuttings behind shrubs or in a hidden corner of the yard and letting nature take its course. Chipping or shredding these materials speeds up decomposition and makes the finished compost faster. Homemade or manufactured compost bins allow you to easily incorporate kitchen waste, such as vegetable and fruit scraps, eggshells, and coffee grounds. Numerous types of compost bins are commercially available; many are attractive. Gardening magazines, catalogs, and garden centers are good sources for composting products. Click here for more information on backyard composting.
Composting: the process of converting plant debris into useful soil additives. Micro-organisms drive the composting process. Keeping them healthy makes for faster compost. They need adequate moisture, oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon. The more closely you monitor and manipulate these factors, the healthier the micro-organisms and the faster decomposition occurs giving you rich compost for fertilizing plants and amending soil.
Follow these Tips for Successful Composting:
- Bins are not necessary, but they help keep piles neat, retain heat and moisture, and prevent complaints from neighbors. The minimum recommended size is one cubic yard (three feet square by three feet high).
- Composting can take as little as four to six weeks or as long as one to two years, depending on the size and type of material in the pile and the amount of attention you give it.
- Proper moisture is necessary for the microbes to survive. Covering the pile retains moisture and prevents the decomposing material from getting too soggy when it rains. You should not be able to squeeze water from the material produced at the bottom of the pile.
- Maintaining heat is an important part of composting, so a sunny location is better than a shady one.
- Combining different materials in the pile, such as leaves and grass clippings, will achieve the right proportions of carbon and nitrogen for effective composting. You might know this as the brown (leaves and wood materials - the carbon) to green (grass clippings and manures - the nitrogen) ratio.
- The optimum ratio of carbon to nitrogen (C:N) is 30:1. Too little N and the microbial population cannot grow to optimum size so decomposition slows down. On the other hand, too much N compared to C allows excessively rapid microbial growth speeding up decomposition, but leads to depleted oxygen and causes odors as the excess N is given off as ammonia gas. Too much N eventually leads to microbe declines due to anaerobic conditions.
- Always bury kitchen waste inside the pile to discourage pests and to prevent odor from rotting fruit and vegetables. Frequent turning, which speeds decomposition, also decreases odor.
- For faster composting, turn the pile with a pitchfork or stir it on a weekly basis in warm weather. Stabbing the pile with a length of pipe or rake handle will help aerate and mix the material.
- NEVER place meat, animal fat or dairy products in a compost pile.
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