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Lawn maintenance: To bag, or not to bag? that is my question.

Redowl

Redowl

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For those of you out there with a love for your lawns, I'm wondering what your stance is on bagging grass clippings when you mow.
I stumbled into a great deal for a pump-assisted bagger for my zero turn, but have never had one before and was looking for pros, cons, and your overall opinion/experience. The price is incredibly good, but is still a decent chunk of change.

Thanks.

R.O.
 
Most of the time I use the mulcher and drop it all back into the lawn. You can't let the grass get too high to do that though. When it is high, like the first time I mowed last week, I raised the mower as high as I could. Normally I would have gone out a day or two later and mowed lower, but it's rained every day since.

I usually only use the bagger when I am picking up leaves, but then I dump them by the house and use the leaf blower/sucker to mulch them up as small as I can and spread them around the plants.

When I was growing up, my mom made me bag the grass 100% of the time so I developed a strong dislike for bagging. I haven't bagged the grass ever since!
 
Regular mows (when grass isn't a mile high and a lot of it) - no bag. Every lawn guy will tell you that and that it puts the nutrients back into the soil

Lots of grass - Bag, cause you are going to have a mess on your hands if not.
 
I mulch whenever possible.

IF the clippings are too much, i just do a second pass with the mower in a perpendicular direction.

THis is my front lawn, which I have taken from dried up clay with weeds to a lush green grass in 2 years with top soil, seeing, feeding, and watering. No sod.

IMAG1256_BURST002.jpg
 
Most lawns down here are St Augustine, bagging that is a nightmare. You have to empty it out every other pass.
 
My lawn is 1.5 acres, and a standard bagger would be a nightmare and very time consuming. And then I would have to get rid of the clippings.......

I have a lawn sweeper for when it gets bad, but I typically only have to use it 2 or 3 times a year. Next weekend will be one of them, since the rain has kept me from mowing this week.
 
non-bagger unless i thach then it gets swept up and dumped once every other yr.
 
Gorgeous lawn jlukes !

My lawn has been a struggle since we moved in. De-thatched a chunk of it this weekend and put down a ton of grass seed. Probably not the proper time to do it, but I have been forgetting to seed for the past 2 years.

Hopefully with a bit of extra work this year I can attempt to get it back to a reasonable state.
 
Mulch. The nutrients from the grass clippings are good for your lawn.
 
I leave the grass on top once a month. the rest of the time I bag it. I've found not bagging builds up way too quickly and needs dethatched at least twice a year with a good stand. I seldom ever thatch, just aerate.
 
Damn Jlukes, your yard looks almost as good as your driver.
 
Never bag almost no matter what. I am a believer in the mulching method and that it is good for the lawn.
 
I bag mine most of the time. I seem to always be fighting a thatch issue no matter what. If I can get it cut back to back with a couple of days of each other I'll mulch it, but that doesn't happen very often.
 
As others have said, ALWAYS mulch if possible. It's good for the grass. I've heard both sides of the argument that leaving the clippings causes thatch to develop faster. I can't say for sure wheather it does or doesn't but I can say I've had a beautiful lawn for years and have always left the clippings. Other than mow and fetilize the only other thing I do is core aerate every fall followed by overseeding. It's worked wonderfully.
 
I've always bagged, but with the kids playing in the yard I want it as clean as possible.
 
Thanks for this thread. Being a new homeowner I am not too confident as to how I should be going about getting my lawn looking good....see jlukes picture above (DANG!). Looks like ill be leaving the clippings from now on. I mowed my parents lawn growing up and it variated between bagging and not bagging but I never gave it any thought.

About a week and a half ago I put down moss killer and it seemed to work well as all of the moss is brown now (which covers most of my lawn. Should I de-thatch and then aerate? Or one or the other?
 
For me it depends upon what your lawn looks like, if you have a beautiful lawn like jlukes I would mulch it. But if you are trying to get your lawn to a better place and you are fighting weeds or crabgrass I would suggest bagging so you ant spread them around.
 
fairband said:
For me it depends upon what your lawn looks like, if you have a beautiful lawn like jlukes I would mulch it. But if you are trying to get your lawn to a better place and you are fighting weeds or crabgrass I would suggest bagging so you ant spread them around.
Click to expand...
This is probably the best way for me to make my determination. I am fighting crabgrass, thick thatch and clover in my lawn. I would like to get my lawn to jlukes' level, but I have a long way to go. Based on that, I'm thinking a bagger would be a good idea for me for a while - I just don't want to waste the money on the bagger if I am going to stop using it in a few years.

R.O.
 
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