After mowing your lawn in Virginia, you may wonder whether to leave the grass clippings or bag them. The answer is simple: leaving them is best! Grass clippings are beneficial for your turf because they return nutrients to the soil as they decompose, plus help it retain moisture better since they mostly consist of water. Not only that but doing this is more environmentally friendly than bagging them, as it means less waste going to landfills. However, if your lawn has a disease, you'll want to collect the grass clippings to prevent spreading it to other areas.

Grass Clippings Are Good for Your Lawn

One of the main reasons you should leave the grass clippings on your lawn after mowing is because they're good for it! After all, these clippings will break down over time and release essential nutrients back into the soil. As a result, they act as a natural fertilizer, so your lawn can absorb and utilize them to bolster healthy growth, improve its vibrant, green color, and build up its strength. Additionally, grass clippings mainly consist of water, so they'll hydrate it and help it retain moisture better. With this, your lawn has an increased chance of staying healthy and resilient even during stressful times.

Leaving the Grass Clippings After Mowing Is More Environmentally Friendly Than Bagging Them

Another reason to leave the grass clippings on your lawn after mowing rather than bagging them is that it's more environmentally friendly. When you do this, less waste goes to landfills, which helps reduce their impact. On the other hand, bagging the clippings creates unnecessary waste, especially when there are ways to reuse them to benefit your lawn. By opting to leave them, you're making a small yet impactful contribution to reducing landfill waste and promoting sustainability.

When should you opt for bagging grass clippings after mowing over leaving them?

While leaving the grass clippings on your lawn after mowing is generally recommended, there is one exception where bagging them becomes necessary - when your lawn has a fungal disease. If your lawn is infected with a disease, bagging the grass clippings ensures you don't cause it to spread to other areas and worsen the problem. This way, you can keep it isolated to the affected spots and make it easier to treat.

You can also bag the clippings if you want your lawn to instantly look neat and manicured after mowing. However, doing this means it won't reap the benefits they provide, so unless it's absolutely necessary, you should allow your turf to take advantage of those grass clippings!

Call us today to sign up for our professional lawn mowing service!

If you want to ensure your lawn stays well-maintained throughout the growing season, we are here to help! At Patriot Lawn and Landscape, we offer a professional lawn mowing service, where we will visit weekly from the end of March until mid-November to cut your grass, string-trim, edge, and blow debris off hard surfaces for a clean finish. Our team also follows proper mowing practices, including rotating patterns each visit and adjusting the deck height based on turf type. What's more, we will leave the grass clippings on your lawn afterward to ensure it can benefit from them!

Our lawn mowing service is available to residential and commercial properties, as well as HOAs, in Bristow, Haymarket, Manassas, VA, and throughout the surrounding areas. Call us at (703) 244-7798 to sign up for this service today!