Reply #12: I use grass clipping as mulch only where I am not actively growing

[Curmudgeoness]

plants and want to keep weeds out. From what I have read (but have no experience with it), green grass decomposing will pull nitrogen away from the plants. Up thread someone said not to use it in a compost pile, but I also use it there---just not 100% grass clippings in there and I get beautiful compost. It just takes a long time for it to get beautiful but I am in no hurry.

I would prefer to just mulch the grass and leave it on the lawn, but I am too lazy to mow often enough and the grass clippings are too thick by the time I mow and just clump all over the lawn. My 30 year old mower is not a "mulching" mower, so I don't know if that would make a difference, but that would be my preferred use of the clippings.

For mulching, I use the leaves from my oak trees (too many huge ones, lots of leaves). I bag them in the fall, leave them overwinter, then mow over them and catch them after they are mulched. They look great and appear to be good for the garden. Then they are worked into the soil at the end of the season.