- Mowing the lawn: advantages and disadvantages
- Mulching the lawn: advantages and disadvantages
- The conclusion: mow the lawn or mulch?
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A well-groomed lawn needs regular trimming. But which is actually better: mowing the lawn or mulching it? We compare both methods.
The question of whether it is better to mow or mulch your lawn triggers heated discussions among many hobby gardeners. Some are merciless advocates of mulching, others have never had it and will never try it. Prejudices often play a major role in these discussions. Some only know mowing, others only mulching. Right at the beginning we can tell you one thing: you cannot recommend one or the other in general. Depending on the lawn, location and soil conditions, mulching or mowing may make more sense. We look at the pros and cons of both methods objectively.
Mowing the lawn: advantages and disadvantages
Mowing a lawn generally means shortening the lawn with the help of a lawnmower, where the lawn clippings are caught and collected in an attached grass catcher.
Advantage or disadvantage: Disposal of the grass clippings
Disposing of grass clippings can be quick and easy in small villages where the public compost heap is just around the corner. In this case, disposal would definitely not be a reason to decide against mowing the lawn. Increasingly, however, there is a decline in the number of shared composting sites in municipalities, so that the transport route can be significantly longer and more complex. This argument for mowing the lawn with a basket is therefore not generally valid.
Disadvantage: loss of nutrients
Another disadvantage of mowing the lawn, which is important from an ecological point of view, is the loss of nutrients collected in the grass. As the lawn grows, nutrients are drawn from the soil. If you can't imagine how many nutrients grass contains, think of a cow that can theoretically live on cut grass alone (plus the help of rumen microbes) and even produce small amounts of milk from it. If the mowed lawn clippings are disposed of, many of the nutrients contained in the cut grass are lost to the lawn and the soil and can only be replaced by fertilizer.It makes the most ecological sense to save on the transport route when disposing of the lawn clippings and at the same time reduce the transport for purchased fertilizer by closing the nutrient cycle in your own garden. If you don't want to mulch the lawn, you can compost the grass clippings yourself on a compost heap and then use the fertilizer in the form of compost for flowers or vegetables.
Advantage: Clean appearance of the lawn
An optical advantage of mowing is of course that it always looks clean when freshly cut. After mulching, it takes a day or two before the mulched lawn clippings are no longer visible. However, if you already argue with the optical component, you should also consider that the mulched lawn has a significantly greener and he althier color due to the better supply of nutrients.
Advantage: Less time required
The biggest advantage of mowing and at the same time the most important reason against mulching is the frequency of these two measures. Anyone who mows will probably have to spend a little less time on the lawn, since the lawn is allowed to grow a little longer between two mowings than with mulching.
| Pro Mowing | Contra Mowing |
| Lower Frequency | Nutrients are lost |
| Lawn looks "clean" | Mowed lawn must be additionally fertilized |
| Grass clippings can be composted by yourself and used as fertilizer for flowers. | Mulch provides nutrients to the soil (like fertilizer), improves soil life and soil structure |
| More sensible in certain soil conditions (see mulching) | Less drought resistant in summer |
| Grass clippings must be disposed of |
Mulching the lawn: advantages and disadvantages
One speaks of lawn mulching when the lawn is cut with a special mulching mower. This device does not have a grass catcher, but shreds the cut grass and then spreads it over the mowed lawn as 'mulch'.
This method is becoming increasingly popular. On the one hand, because it is becoming more difficult or longer for many peopletakes to transport the lawn clippings to a public composting site. Furthermore, because the ecological awareness of this method is probably increasing.
Benefit: Lawn and soil benefit from nutrient reflux
For lawn, soil and nature, mulching is definitely the best form of lawn clipping. The nutrients bound in the lawn clippings remain where they came from. The mineralization of the lawn clippings, i.e. their rotting, promotes soil life. Mulching has a similar effect on the soil as fertilizing with compost. The nutrients contained in the lawn clippings slowly become available again for the soil and lawn. Just like compost, mulching improves the soil structure in the long term and allows the soil to dry out less quickly in midsummer. Mulch can only be compared to commercial fertilizer to a limited extent. Both forms of fertilizer provide nutrients for the lawn. But mulch is much more valuable for the soil, and therefore also for the lawn and its roots.
Disadvantage: More time required
Unfortunately, there's a catch to this seemingly wonderful method of mulching. The principle of mulching only works if the lawn is not covered with mulch. The result is that the lawn does not receive enough light, the mulch rots poorly and the lawn literally suffocates. Therefore, the lawn must already be mulched as soon as 2 to 3 cm of lawn clippings accumulate. If you want to mow the lawn to a depth of 5 cm, you have to mow it when it is seven to a maximum of 8 cm long. That means getting out the mulching mower once a week on average.
Disadvantage: not suitable for every location
Locations that are naturally prone to heavy moss and thatch formation due to poor soil conditions are unfortunately less suitable for mulching. These include heavy, poorly draining soil, shady or rainy locations, or at worst a combination of these factors. For these locations, mulching is not fundamentally ruled out, but a cut of a maximum of 2 cm would have to be carried out very consistently and only in dry conditions. Otherwise the risk of the mulch decomposing badly and the resulting promotion of moss and thatch is too great.
Mowing may also be preferable to mulching on very sandy soils. Insandy soils, the soil organisms responsible for mulching are less active. Mulching does not work well, especially in dry regions with sandy soils, which are often very dry in summer.
In those disadvantaged locations, home-grown compost, on which the lawn clippings or part of them are placed, is perhaps the better and easier way to build an in-garden nutrient cycle.
| Pro Mulching | Contra mulching |
| Closed nutrient cycle | Mulching is more frequent than mowing |
| Less fertilization needed | There is a higher risk of moss and floor thatch formation on heavy, shady or moist soils |
| Influences the soil positively (soil life, drought resistance etc.) | Mulching is not well suited for very sandy, very dry soil |
| Beautiful green lawn color due to high nutrient supply | Immediately afterwards no clean appearance |
| No disposal of grass clippings necessary |
By the way: Mulching only partially replaces lawn fertilization. If you mulch your lawn, you can fertilize less regularly or in smaller amounts, but you shouldn't do without it completely.
The conclusion: mow the lawn or mulch?
Despite all the advantages and disadvantages being highlighted, it is not possible to make a general recommendation for mowing or mulching. From an ecological point of view, mulching is clearly advantageous. The time required, on the other hand, speaks more in favor of mowing. Under certain soil and site conditions (heavy or very sandy soil, humid regions), we would rather recommend mowing and composting yourself. Under normal circumstances, the decision to mow or mulch the lawn is probably a question of conviction and the free time that one is willing and able to devote to the lawn.
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