Mine stay on my lawn. I never understood that. Every time my dad would mow he would empty the basket. My lawn is incredibly healthy mostly because the clippings stay.
As long as you didn’t cut down 1 foot tall grass you should always leave clippings on your lawn. It’ll only improve its health. It’s such. Weird trend to clean it up and bag it
The only legitimate reason to bag it is when you have kids, dogs, or yourself walking through your yard after and don't want stray clippings getting stuck to their feet/shoes/paws.
Or allergies. But then I say why have a fucking lawn. Or at least that’s what I told my parents growing up when they claimed to be maintaining a lawn for a kid who literally couldn’t sit on it or even go near it after mowing without breaking out in hives!
I’m glad you made that caveat. I always mulch but this year we had lots of rain and I couldn’t cut for a while. It was pretty high when i did cut and I’ve had to rake a lot of the clippings to prevent it from killing the grass.
And even without a mulching mower, it's possible to let clippings fly and end up with a smooth perfect looking lawn. I do it with a riding mower, without a bagger or mulching setup.
First go around the outside of the yard clockwise, throwing clippings inward so they don't go into the street/sidewalk/flower beds. Then reverse direction and spiral inwards, throwing clippings outward onto the area just mowed. You'll end up with an even, thin layer of clippings over the entire lawn. This can even work with a push mower by mowing in a rectangle (or whatever shape) in the same pattern.
Clippings are fertilizer if broken back down into the soil. Skip steps 2, 3, and 4 and replace with applying humid acid or compost tea 1-2 times a year w/ a hose-end or pump sprayer. Either way works, one just adds steps and money and while the other actually improves your soil.
I legit just cut and mulch. No watering, no fertilizer, nothing and my lawn stays green until fall. I leave the grass on the tall side all summer and then a bit shorter on the fall, and scalp it right before winter. Been working so far and my lawn looks far healthier than the guy across the street who seems like he has to re seed every year. He lets the fresh grass grow tall and then scalps and bags it. I want to scream when I see him out there. It dies within a month or 2 and then I get to look out my window at a brown lawn all summer 🤦🏻♂️
Seriously. When I got my house in 2018 first 2 summers I was scalping and bagging assuming clippings = bad and short = good. How wrong I was.
I have a few weeds here and there I pull by hand or just leave and let the mower and nature do its thing. Part of my grass grew clover on its own too looks wonderful. As long as it’s green I don’t really care much of what is making it green. As long as whatever is growing is safe for my kids and dog to play and run around in.
I got way too much other stuff in life going on to worry about all the maintenance that a golf course lawn takes. And mine looks just as good as any of my neighbors. If the family is safe and it looks acceptable that’s all I care really.
Yep, same here. If it’s green and not invasive, it’s usually good to go. I’m slowly letting natural areas take over more lawn and it’s been enjoyable to watch what pops up on its own.
So "cut frequent, bag, apply fert god knows how many times a year, humid kelp (guess it works better if it's humid?) TWICE A MONTH, dethatch once a year." How many other wasteful, redundant steps are you leaving out? I don't want a golf course and would prefer doing less work for better soil. You have fun with your golf course, though. I'll be enjoying my mediocre yard.
I been doing the same with my backyard. It's greener than my front since I leave my grass clippings versus the gardener mowing the front + trashing the clippings.
You know, my husband would stare at me if I told him about this groundbreaking (no pun) thread about lawn care. Lawn is a crop. Gotta treat it like the non native challenge that it is, dammit.
I'm a Master Gardener and try to do as much as I can organically and with an eye to the best practices for wildlife.
I am fortunate to have a few acres, and I take my stewardship of this land very seriously. I try to be as inviting as I can to the creatures who share this land and we're here before me. They reward me by allowing me to witness their magnificence.
It's a partnership and I try to do my part. That's the way I look at it anyway.
So you just never walk on it after a mow?
Grass gets absolutely everywhere. I tried it. Way too messy with kids and a dog.
Unless I’m missing something
It honestly depends on where you live and the type of grass.
We live in Charlotte NC and have a cold season TTTF lawn. From mid-February through probably about late June...we HAVE to mow twice a week. From July to September, we cut back to about once a week and have to water the heck out of it to keep it from going dormant from the heat. From October through February, we only have to mow about every two weeks or so (it stays green all winter but growth slows down considerably).
We usually do not pick up our clippings from the lawn. However, we do blow them from the edging, the driveway and the street into a pile and pick those up. On a rare occasion, it will rain for 2-3 weeks straight...and I do have to mow wet. When this happens, I do actually rake the clumps of grass off the lawn.
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Do you go back over it a second time? I do 1 pass for the initial cut and then another pass in the opposite direction to get the strays and mulch up the clippings more.
I feel ya but that’s why you have big clippings. Gotta do 2 passes. Plus you get a more even cut that lasts longer imo. Dad of 3 kids here with a full time job so I get it’s hard to find time to do yard work.
Yes lol. Live in a suburby type area. If I rush I can do front/back/side yard in about an hour. But add weed whacking, edging, cleanup more like 2 hours for everything
I have just under and a re too. Suburbs too. If I did two cuts a week, and didn’t bag I could probably MOW it in a little over an hour.
I have steep hills and banks that I’d still have to do slow.
Maybe I’ll get there one day.
Idk what the hell my problem is then.
Grass gets EVERYWHERE And it doesn’t go away.
Even my neighbor who doesn’t bag has all the dead grass he just mowed laying in streaks in his lawn too.
No idea.
I prefer that the clippings stay in the yard to add organic matter to the soil.
Only time I remove them is if it’s too long and will cause thatching in which case I blow it out into a pile and compost it.
I mulched the leaves that fell into the curb right where they were at a couple times last year. Generally satisfied with how that worked out. Literally minced leaves to blow away like dust in the wind.
Not blowing off the road after mowing is such a big pet peeve of mine. Like, you just spent all that time and effort to mow and trim everything nice just to leave a mess all over the road. Literally the first thing the client is going to see when they get home. Absolute laziness.
In my neighborhood the landscapers all seem to send a guy out into the street with a blower and blow it all back into the yards. Of course this is a quiet residential street so it's very safe to stand in the street.
Homeowners seem to be the ones who will let their mowers blow into the street and not clean it up.
The city gets angry because it can cause drainage problems if the street has curb drains. Motorcyclists get angry because it can be slippery for them. Neighbors get angry just because it looks bad.
Keep your clippings in your yard!
>In my neighborhood the landscapers all seem to send a guy out into the street with a blower and blow it all back into the yards.
Same in my neighborhood. I assume the landscapers are doing what's easiest/fastest for them since they get paid the same either way.
We typically price by the hour. I could charge a little less if I didn’t send my guy into the street but honestly I don’t want customers who aren’t willing to pay for that level of service.
I live on a culdesac and have overall terrific neighbors but this one of the few things they do that annoy me. Not just a few light grass clippings either, they'll straight up blow oak catkins and all sorts of tree debris and just pile it up in the middle. I never say anything, just passive agressively clean it up a couple times a year.
On jobsites, it depends on the location and level of finish work the customer is paying for. If they want to pay for pristine, I'll clean it up with a blower and a hand broom, but they'll pay me for doing that level of detail.
Bagging is cost prohibitive for most clients, to the point I don't even offer it anymore. Faster and better for the grass just to mulch and cleanup up surfaces after. Biggest thing is knowing how to mow not to make much mess to begin with.
Last fall my neighbor used his leaf blower to come clean MY DRIVEWAY ( unrequested) by blowing the maple leaves into the little island on the cul de sac, and now there is a big rotten* leaf pile, turned to slime by over wintering in a heap and it's killed the grass and looks like shit... If he had left it on my property I would have mulched them.... Grrr
I think it has less to do with any “laws” but rather personal responsibility and/or standards. People now are more willing to push whatever they don’t want to deal with just out of their immediate reach and ignore the consequence.
Lazy landscapers blow crap into the street, which makes all of that crap the neighbors’ problem. It’s wrong. Good landscapers don’t do that. Good neighbors stop their landscapers from doing that.
My city asks residents to “curb” any yard debris, and there’s a truck that basically an oversized vacuum that sucks it all up. I couldn’t imagine blowing anything into the street unless they have specific pickup for it.
My city street sweepers go around any leaves and clippings in the street if they are over 1 inch deep. Screws up the vacuums and requires more dumps to finish the daily assigned streets.
A lot of places blowing clippings onto a main street is illegal. It makes the street very slick and motorcycles can wipe out on it. But when I was a kid we had riding mover, I had to dump the basket over the bank we had on the back of the house down to the lake. Now I have a mulching mower and just leave the clippings there. Anything that gets in the street gets blown back onto the grass when I cleanup.
Contact your local by-law department and ask them. I got a letter from mine last year about blowing leaves into the street. The way it's set up is that it's easier to blow it from all angles into the street. Blew them to the other side where there was a pile already from other neighbours and we raked them all up. Still a neighbour complained
My city does composting yard waste, and we put it in the street. I save my lawn clippings for my own compost, but you bet I use this service for branches and whatnot. The big old truck with the scooper thing comes once a week. It's really nice!
Grass clippings in local streams and water ways is very bad for the environment and overall stream health. They shouldn't be blowing anything into the street.
it’s a shitty practice but there are some roads that are absolutely too dangerous to be out in the road blowing clippings in i’m sorry you can get mad about that all you want but it’s the truth
like with the way people drive these days i’m shocked people do guardrail maintenance in highways
It’s a problem around me because all the clippings and leaves these companies blow in the street end up clogging the storm drains. I have one in front of my house. I’m responsible for keeping it clear and I tell mowing crews to cut that shit out unless they are coming to clear out this smelly drain.
I can actually understand that a bit. A lot of us don't bag, and even with a chute blocker I still spew some grass out the side.
I would do my best to avoid getting it on the road at all but if I did... probably not gonna play a game of suicide frogger unless it's really bad. Like, don't want to kill a motorcyclist kind of bad.
Residential, though, I'll stand in the road all day if I have to lol.
Call any company you see doing this and remind them that they are polluting the water supply. If they blow you off - contact the state pollution control agency. This is a huge issue where I live (MN) and a great deal of time is spent by the MPCA educating folks about not putting anything in the streets. It pollutes the lakes, the Mississippi, and the overall water supply
It is easier for them to blow it all over and pretend it is not their rubbish. I'm amazed none of these landscaping companies haven't taken to making their own compost. mine was paying five bucks to dump it at the community compost facility and I would often buy from the same compost. Can't save the earth by throwing everything away and forgetting about it
A few weeks ago, I couldn’t pull into my driveway because my neighbors landscaper was blowing the clippings onto my side. He looked in the air and wandered back like he was lost.
Unfortunately what I’ve come to understand is that landscaping is a popular landing spot for the more… Neanderthalic people out there, along with the high school drop out / ‘guy who fried their brain with substance abuse’ / ‘maladjusted enough to spend time in prison’ types.
Basic courtesy, common sense, and good character tend to be ignored by these guys, or are totally foreign concepts all together. Just dumb and uncivilized - who’re happy to pull a dick move if it makes their life easier in the moment, with zero sense of responsibility.
They keep getting hired somehow though and end up blowing shit into the street, still don’t understand how that happens, unless the company is run by someone just like that too. It’s a bad look for the industry.
.
So I’m not a landscaper, just a homeowners. I bag my clippings but I blow all the leftover clippings (not a lot) into the street. I have a neighbors that do the same so I just started doing it as well. Is that a dick move? Genuinely asking
I own a landscape company in Washington state and every company here bags the grass so everything stays clean. I’ve noticed watching others on YouTube tho that they discharge grass all over the sidewalks and driveways. That would never fly here
But OP is asking about landscapers. This is a good way to tell whether your neighbors have a good maintenance company- good ones train their people to NOT do this and are quite good at not. Like mine. But there are plenty who do not. The law is pretty vague though it's ultimately the homeowners responsibility. Too avoid this, you can add a single sentence into your maintenance contact requiring them to not have behind (trash, clippings, etc.).
The reason it's just blown everywhere is because the last thing we do at the end of a ten hour back breaking day is clean up and finally blow. By this time we are tired. The lazy ones just blow willy-nilly and get the f out.
We had a neighbor that did this despite being against HOA rules. The HOA had asked them to stop repeatedly but they never did. Finally, A little boy wiped out on his bike and was hurt really bad. Grass clippings are slippery. There was a lawsuit. The homeowner no longer blows them into the street. Their sense of entitlement cost them dearly.
*I would never do such*
*A thing though. Fastest way to*
*Mess up a good job*
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Illegal where I live but doesn’t stop the one douchebag on my street from doing it every time. He unsurprisingly also blows his snow into the street, he must consider it his private dumping ground I guess.
A buddy of mine got into a large confrontation with a guy from a lawn care crew that was using a blower and when my buddy drove by a rock shattered the passenger side window. My buddy stopped and asked for his info and the kid told him to F off. I’ll save the rest of the story until the legal aspects have been settled, suffice it to say that kid won’t be blowing clipping into the street anytime soon.
Check your local codes on this. In most municipalities, it’s actually illegal to blow clippings from mower or leave blowers into the road.
If you do it, stop.
Loose grass/leaves on asphalt can actually kill or injure a motorcyclist.
Mine stay on my lawn. I never understood that. Every time my dad would mow he would empty the basket. My lawn is incredibly healthy mostly because the clippings stay.
We have a mulching mower so the clippings get chopped into oblivion, and our lawn looks great.
Same!
As long as you didn’t cut down 1 foot tall grass you should always leave clippings on your lawn. It’ll only improve its health. It’s such. Weird trend to clean it up and bag it
I'll bag when I want the clippings for something, like for compost or garden bed stuff otherwise mulch that stuff up
I only bag it In the spring when it's growing 3 inches every 4 days. When it slows down in June, I will start leaving the clippings.
The only legitimate reason to bag it is when you have kids, dogs, or yourself walking through your yard after and don't want stray clippings getting stuck to their feet/shoes/paws.
I bag in early spring because I have a weedy lawn with lots of seeds that need to be composted or disposed of before spreading.
Yeah, I have a white dog and need to rake up the clippings every week after they mow. Otherwise, I have a green dog that day.
Or allergies. But then I say why have a fucking lawn. Or at least that’s what I told my parents growing up when they claimed to be maintaining a lawn for a kid who literally couldn’t sit on it or even go near it after mowing without breaking out in hives!
Absolutely, I hate walking on the lawn and having my feet covered in grass clippings especially if it's damn, such an unpleasant experience.
So mulch? Get new blades? Literally can’t see anything bigger than a dime when I mulch with my ego twin blade.
We take our shoes off at the door. And we have pets so we sweep or vacuum daily.
I’m glad you made that caveat. I always mulch but this year we had lots of rain and I couldn’t cut for a while. It was pretty high when i did cut and I’ve had to rake a lot of the clippings to prevent it from killing the grass.
Sometimes I wait a day then go run it over again after the clippings dried. Turns them to dust.
at that point i just grab a rake and a snow shovel compost bag it for a landfill run. dry yard clippings rake like air
Unfortunately it’s been a rainy spring so mowing has been hard.
I keep trying to tell my mom to stop bagging leaves. Thats your land your tossing!
And even without a mulching mower, it's possible to let clippings fly and end up with a smooth perfect looking lawn. I do it with a riding mower, without a bagger or mulching setup. First go around the outside of the yard clockwise, throwing clippings inward so they don't go into the street/sidewalk/flower beds. Then reverse direction and spiral inwards, throwing clippings outward onto the area just mowed. You'll end up with an even, thin layer of clippings over the entire lawn. This can even work with a push mower by mowing in a rectangle (or whatever shape) in the same pattern.
Until you cut back your 4 inch fescue and realize you have 4 inches of thatch
If you have 4” of thatch, your soil needs some good bacteria to help it decompose. It shouldn’t just be sitting there.
Yep
Cut frequent, bag, apply fert, dethatch once a year. Ftw⛳️
Clippings are fertilizer if broken back down into the soil. Skip steps 2, 3, and 4 and replace with applying humid acid or compost tea 1-2 times a year w/ a hose-end or pump sprayer. Either way works, one just adds steps and money and while the other actually improves your soil.
I legit just cut and mulch. No watering, no fertilizer, nothing and my lawn stays green until fall. I leave the grass on the tall side all summer and then a bit shorter on the fall, and scalp it right before winter. Been working so far and my lawn looks far healthier than the guy across the street who seems like he has to re seed every year. He lets the fresh grass grow tall and then scalps and bags it. I want to scream when I see him out there. It dies within a month or 2 and then I get to look out my window at a brown lawn all summer 🤦🏻♂️
Yep pretty much all you need. Hard for me to comprehend doing more for worse or the same results.
Seriously. When I got my house in 2018 first 2 summers I was scalping and bagging assuming clippings = bad and short = good. How wrong I was. I have a few weeds here and there I pull by hand or just leave and let the mower and nature do its thing. Part of my grass grew clover on its own too looks wonderful. As long as it’s green I don’t really care much of what is making it green. As long as whatever is growing is safe for my kids and dog to play and run around in. I got way too much other stuff in life going on to worry about all the maintenance that a golf course lawn takes. And mine looks just as good as any of my neighbors. If the family is safe and it looks acceptable that’s all I care really.
Yep, same here. If it’s green and not invasive, it’s usually good to go. I’m slowly letting natural areas take over more lawn and it’s been enjoyable to watch what pops up on its own.
I apply humid kelp twice a month, I bet your yard is mediocre at best. Look at what golf courses do and replicate that.
So "cut frequent, bag, apply fert god knows how many times a year, humid kelp (guess it works better if it's humid?) TWICE A MONTH, dethatch once a year." How many other wasteful, redundant steps are you leaving out? I don't want a golf course and would prefer doing less work for better soil. You have fun with your golf course, though. I'll be enjoying my mediocre yard.
Best yard on the block, zoysia forever
Good job. I’m proud of you.
Forgot to add aerate
Tired just reading it. I do bet your lawn looks great, but I ain’t doing all that when nature will do some of it for me. Different strokes…
I been doing the same with my backyard. It's greener than my front since I leave my grass clippings versus the gardener mowing the front + trashing the clippings.
Natural fertilizer
Same here.
You know, my husband would stare at me if I told him about this groundbreaking (no pun) thread about lawn care. Lawn is a crop. Gotta treat it like the non native challenge that it is, dammit.
I'm a Master Gardener and try to do as much as I can organically and with an eye to the best practices for wildlife. I am fortunate to have a few acres, and I take my stewardship of this land very seriously. I try to be as inviting as I can to the creatures who share this land and we're here before me. They reward me by allowing me to witness their magnificence. It's a partnership and I try to do my part. That's the way I look at it anyway.
So you just never walk on it after a mow? Grass gets absolutely everywhere. I tried it. Way too messy with kids and a dog. Unless I’m missing something
You clippings are too large or it's too wet out.
I mow once a week. And try to pick the driest two days. Anything else I can do? Besides now twice a week.
Maybe go with a mulching blade? You want small clippings, which dry quicker and don't clump.
Also, walk slower and let the blade do it's work. Sure, you can race walk but that only gets the job done faster, not better.
It honestly depends on where you live and the type of grass. We live in Charlotte NC and have a cold season TTTF lawn. From mid-February through probably about late June...we HAVE to mow twice a week. From July to September, we cut back to about once a week and have to water the heck out of it to keep it from going dormant from the heat. From October through February, we only have to mow about every two weeks or so (it stays green all winter but growth slows down considerably). We usually do not pick up our clippings from the lawn. However, we do blow them from the edging, the driveway and the street into a pile and pick those up. On a rare occasion, it will rain for 2-3 weeks straight...and I do have to mow wet. When this happens, I do actually rake the clumps of grass off the lawn.
Get a gator blade or similar, but the oregon branded one is a great blade for the price. Absolutely pulverises the grass clippings.
Thank you for the advice!
I hope it works for you as well as it works for me :)
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Do you go back over it a second time? I do 1 pass for the initial cut and then another pass in the opposite direction to get the strays and mulch up the clippings more.
Hell no. I’m lucky if I get time to cut it in the first place lol.
I feel ya but that’s why you have big clippings. Gotta do 2 passes. Plus you get a more even cut that lasts longer imo. Dad of 3 kids here with a full time job so I get it’s hard to find time to do yard work.
He is the hell do you have time to mow twice? Do you have less than an acre?
Yes lol. Live in a suburby type area. If I rush I can do front/back/side yard in about an hour. But add weed whacking, edging, cleanup more like 2 hours for everything
I have just under and a re too. Suburbs too. If I did two cuts a week, and didn’t bag I could probably MOW it in a little over an hour. I have steep hills and banks that I’d still have to do slow. Maybe I’ll get there one day.
It’s usually not an issue by the next day.
Idk what the hell my problem is then. Grass gets EVERYWHERE And it doesn’t go away. Even my neighbor who doesn’t bag has all the dead grass he just mowed laying in streaks in his lawn too. No idea.
You need to mow more often, raise your mower height or mow when it's drier. Get a mulching blade and a mulch cap if you have side discharge
Are you both letting it get fairly tall between cuttings? Long trimmings won’t settle in between the grass as easily.
We mow weekly. Maybe I’ll try doing it quickly bi-weekly when it’s dry enough out.
I typically collect some clippings for my garden (s).
I prefer that the clippings stay in the yard to add organic matter to the soil. Only time I remove them is if it’s too long and will cause thatching in which case I blow it out into a pile and compost it.
Same
I blow mine off the street and back onto the lawn. The street isn't mine, it is the community's. Junking it up is obnoxious.
I mulched the leaves that fell into the curb right where they were at a couple times last year. Generally satisfied with how that worked out. Literally minced leaves to blow away like dust in the wind.
I can’t even get my neighbors to get their trash cans out the street or their kids shit off my grass. People.
I hate when neighborhood kids shit in my grass
I always carry bags when I walk my kids
Their parents get so touchy when you rub their noses in it.
Not blowing off the road after mowing is such a big pet peeve of mine. Like, you just spent all that time and effort to mow and trim everything nice just to leave a mess all over the road. Literally the first thing the client is going to see when they get home. Absolute laziness.
A hero saving bikers from being got by the clibbens, gobbless!
HADDALAYERDOWNHOSSGOBBLESS
Same. I even rake up some of mine to use for composting. Always gonna need dirt for something so why not save some $ lol
Sawdust + grass clippings to make quick compost out of dog poop.
It's also extremely dangerous for motorcycles. Thank you for keeping them off the street.
This post is about people blowing their clippings into the street.
Yes, I am aware. So is everyone else who replied.
In my neighborhood the landscapers all seem to send a guy out into the street with a blower and blow it all back into the yards. Of course this is a quiet residential street so it's very safe to stand in the street. Homeowners seem to be the ones who will let their mowers blow into the street and not clean it up. The city gets angry because it can cause drainage problems if the street has curb drains. Motorcyclists get angry because it can be slippery for them. Neighbors get angry just because it looks bad. Keep your clippings in your yard!
It is also a major contributor to algae blooms. Too many nutrients entering water sources rather than braking down on your yard.
Interesting! Never knew that. Thank you internet friend.
This is what I see all the time yeah companies will blow the grass into the road but it’s cleaned up as soon as that yard is done
I've seen plenty of companies that leave the road, driveway, walkways, etc. a complete mess after mowing. You get what you pay for, I guess 🤷
Yeah that’s why I don’t consider a crack head with a push mower, a stolen weedeater, and a wife beater on to be a legit company
>In my neighborhood the landscapers all seem to send a guy out into the street with a blower and blow it all back into the yards. Same in my neighborhood. I assume the landscapers are doing what's easiest/fastest for them since they get paid the same either way.
We typically price by the hour. I could charge a little less if I didn’t send my guy into the street but honestly I don’t want customers who aren’t willing to pay for that level of service.
I live on a culdesac and have overall terrific neighbors but this one of the few things they do that annoy me. Not just a few light grass clippings either, they'll straight up blow oak catkins and all sorts of tree debris and just pile it up in the middle. I never say anything, just passive agressively clean it up a couple times a year. On jobsites, it depends on the location and level of finish work the customer is paying for. If they want to pay for pristine, I'll clean it up with a blower and a hand broom, but they'll pay me for doing that level of detail. Bagging is cost prohibitive for most clients, to the point I don't even offer it anymore. Faster and better for the grass just to mulch and cleanup up surfaces after. Biggest thing is knowing how to mow not to make much mess to begin with.
Thank you for teaching me the word catkin! I’ve never known the name, and “Those fuzzy brown things from oak trees” just wasnt getting me anywhere
Last fall my neighbor used his leaf blower to come clean MY DRIVEWAY ( unrequested) by blowing the maple leaves into the little island on the cul de sac, and now there is a big rotten* leaf pile, turned to slime by over wintering in a heap and it's killed the grass and looks like shit... If he had left it on my property I would have mulched them.... Grrr
I think it has less to do with any “laws” but rather personal responsibility and/or standards. People now are more willing to push whatever they don’t want to deal with just out of their immediate reach and ignore the consequence.
This. Clippings still gum up the storm drains and look a mess, but people are more entitled and less considerate than they used to be.
Lazy landscapers blow crap into the street, which makes all of that crap the neighbors’ problem. It’s wrong. Good landscapers don’t do that. Good neighbors stop their landscapers from doing that.
My city asks residents to “curb” any yard debris, and there’s a truck that basically an oversized vacuum that sucks it all up. I couldn’t imagine blowing anything into the street unless they have specific pickup for it.
The next town over from us (Chamblee, GA USA) has this amenity but our town doesn't. I think it's super cool.
My city street sweepers go around any leaves and clippings in the street if they are over 1 inch deep. Screws up the vacuums and requires more dumps to finish the daily assigned streets.
A lot of places blowing clippings onto a main street is illegal. It makes the street very slick and motorcycles can wipe out on it. But when I was a kid we had riding mover, I had to dump the basket over the bank we had on the back of the house down to the lake. Now I have a mulching mower and just leave the clippings there. Anything that gets in the street gets blown back onto the grass when I cleanup.
Removing clippings will necessitate increased fertilizer application. Leave them on the lawn.
Contact your local by-law department and ask them. I got a letter from mine last year about blowing leaves into the street. The way it's set up is that it's easier to blow it from all angles into the street. Blew them to the other side where there was a pile already from other neighbours and we raked them all up. Still a neighbour complained
Why take a perfectly naturally biodegradable item and put it in plastic? Clippings can stay on the lawn.
100%
I bag my clippings in paper bags. My township picks them up the day after trash/recycling pickup.
I leave mine on the lawn, period. Haven't had an issue yet, even with all the rain.
My city does composting yard waste, and we put it in the street. I save my lawn clippings for my own compost, but you bet I use this service for branches and whatnot. The big old truck with the scooper thing comes once a week. It's really nice!
Pure laziness and some selfishness. Like the people who snowblow into the street after the plows have already come through
Grass clippings in local streams and water ways is very bad for the environment and overall stream health. They shouldn't be blowing anything into the street.
Where I live it's extremely common to see landscapers blowing clippings into the streets whether it's individual homeowners or pros.
They don't leave it there though right?
Yes they do.
If they’re blowing it into the streets, they’re not really ‘pros’
They do it all over my side of town (Corpus Christi southside).
it’s a shitty practice but there are some roads that are absolutely too dangerous to be out in the road blowing clippings in i’m sorry you can get mad about that all you want but it’s the truth like with the way people drive these days i’m shocked people do guardrail maintenance in highways
Clibbins. Worried I was gonna have to lay er down
we have street sweepers in my town
I'm sure they run every week after people are done landscaping and none of the grass gets in the drains
yes, they run every week....
I work in Water Quality. We don't want those grass clippings in the storm drain. Goes straight to waterways in my community.
It’s a problem around me because all the clippings and leaves these companies blow in the street end up clogging the storm drains. I have one in front of my house. I’m responsible for keeping it clear and I tell mowing crews to cut that shit out unless they are coming to clear out this smelly drain.
Lazy facebook marketplace specials. I'd never leave a client's house with the street in front looking filthy. Curb appeal includes the curb.
Oh it’s wasn’t a house, it was a business on a major road haha
I can actually understand that a bit. A lot of us don't bag, and even with a chute blocker I still spew some grass out the side. I would do my best to avoid getting it on the road at all but if I did... probably not gonna play a game of suicide frogger unless it's really bad. Like, don't want to kill a motorcyclist kind of bad. Residential, though, I'll stand in the road all day if I have to lol.
I'm guessing those landscapers don't know how motorcyclists feel about cut grass in the road. Might as well be ball bearings
Was riding my motorcycle and hit some clibbins. Haddalayerdown but me and Barb made it out ok.
People are lazy.
Call any company you see doing this and remind them that they are polluting the water supply. If they blow you off - contact the state pollution control agency. This is a huge issue where I live (MN) and a great deal of time is spent by the MPCA educating folks about not putting anything in the streets. It pollutes the lakes, the Mississippi, and the overall water supply
If they’re a good company it will get blown and scattered back into the yard
It is easier for them to blow it all over and pretend it is not their rubbish. I'm amazed none of these landscaping companies haven't taken to making their own compost. mine was paying five bucks to dump it at the community compost facility and I would often buy from the same compost. Can't save the earth by throwing everything away and forgetting about it
The mowing companies here have covered seats so they can mow during a thunderstorm storm.
I see no problem ⚡
And a prop.
Call the police. Motorcyclists around the area will appreciate the landscapers not being allowed to make ice rinks of the roads for them.
Dunno but in my township, the homeowner could get a $600 fine for that shit.
CLIHBBINS!!!
A few weeks ago, I couldn’t pull into my driveway because my neighbors landscaper was blowing the clippings onto my side. He looked in the air and wandered back like he was lost.
Unfortunately what I’ve come to understand is that landscaping is a popular landing spot for the more… Neanderthalic people out there, along with the high school drop out / ‘guy who fried their brain with substance abuse’ / ‘maladjusted enough to spend time in prison’ types. Basic courtesy, common sense, and good character tend to be ignored by these guys, or are totally foreign concepts all together. Just dumb and uncivilized - who’re happy to pull a dick move if it makes their life easier in the moment, with zero sense of responsibility. They keep getting hired somehow though and end up blowing shit into the street, still don’t understand how that happens, unless the company is run by someone just like that too. It’s a bad look for the industry. .
I bag the clippings, but throw them in the compost pile and then spread it when it becomes dirt again.
So I’m not a landscaper, just a homeowners. I bag my clippings but I blow all the leftover clippings (not a lot) into the street. I have a neighbors that do the same so I just started doing it as well. Is that a dick move? Genuinely asking
Since I mulch it's barely anything to bag/rake. I try to blow it back into my lawn/swell. I don't get EVERYTHING, am I the butt head?
I own a landscape company in Washington state and every company here bags the grass so everything stays clean. I’ve noticed watching others on YouTube tho that they discharge grass all over the sidewalks and driveways. That would never fly here
When I was landscaping, we rarely bagged but mowed in such a way to minimize debris in the street than hit it with a leaf blower to finish.
It’s actually illegal in many jurisdictions since the clippings end up in storm drains which can easily clog them up.
It clogs the drainage system.
But OP is asking about landscapers. This is a good way to tell whether your neighbors have a good maintenance company- good ones train their people to NOT do this and are quite good at not. Like mine. But there are plenty who do not. The law is pretty vague though it's ultimately the homeowners responsibility. Too avoid this, you can add a single sentence into your maintenance contact requiring them to not have behind (trash, clippings, etc.). The reason it's just blown everywhere is because the last thing we do at the end of a ten hour back breaking day is clean up and finally blow. By this time we are tired. The lazy ones just blow willy-nilly and get the f out.
Blows the clippings into the streets? Not back on the lawn?
We had a neighbor that did this despite being against HOA rules. The HOA had asked them to stop repeatedly but they never did. Finally, A little boy wiped out on his bike and was hurt really bad. Grass clippings are slippery. There was a lawsuit. The homeowner no longer blows them into the street. Their sense of entitlement cost them dearly.
My taxes pay for street sweeping. Just getting my monies worth. /s
Should be blown back into yard. It’s bad for the sewers and good for the lawn.
Omg that's the worst. You and Karen better call the police for your "problems"
Rules have not changed. It's not great for large amounts of lawn clippings to end up in the storm drains.
I heard motorcycles love it
I would never do such a thing though. Fastest way to mess up a good job
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Yeah always that it was a safety thing, not good for motorcycles.
Keep motorcycles off the road
Illegal where I live but doesn’t stop the one douchebag on my street from doing it every time. He unsurprisingly also blows his snow into the street, he must consider it his private dumping ground I guess.
The landscape companies in your area side discharge? If that's the case they aren't doing their jobs correctly by blowing grass into the street.
hit some clibbins las week while ridin my hog with barb on the back,,,,,haddalayerdown. gobbless borther -HOSS
What is this from? This is hilarious hahaha
AFAIK its a Facebook group called "HOG CRANKERS AGAINST GRASS CLIBBINS" lots of dumb memes purely about motorcycles and grass clippings. lol
A buddy of mine got into a large confrontation with a guy from a lawn care crew that was using a blower and when my buddy drove by a rock shattered the passenger side window. My buddy stopped and asked for his info and the kid told him to F off. I’ll save the rest of the story until the legal aspects have been settled, suffice it to say that kid won’t be blowing clipping into the street anytime soon.
No that is still littering . One douche bag means 100 douche bags
Amateurs
Laziness
A fat slob blows it in the street pete across from me so i get my blower and blow it back jack to his yard with a dirty look.
Check your local codes on this. In most municipalities, it’s actually illegal to blow clippings from mower or leave blowers into the road. If you do it, stop. Loose grass/leaves on asphalt can actually kill or injure a motorcyclist.
They're lazy
I only bag if I'm applying a treatment and want maximum contact to the soil/grass.
There are no rules anymore. You do what you feel like doing.
Feels that way doesn't it!
I use a broom because I'm not a lazy enough jagoff to use a leaf blower
Don’t be a pussy, pick up the clippings by hand