 Many homeowners and landscape maintenance companies are guilty of sweeping or blowing yard waste, like grass clippings and fallen tree leaves, in the street or down the storm drain. When it rains, yard waste left in streets, on sidewalks, or in driveways will wash into nearby storm drains. Once in the storm drain system, the yard waste can enter local bodies of water without being treated or cleaned.
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The problem
While grass clippings, tree leaves, and other yard waste are natural, they still pollute our local waterways. As yard waste breaks down or decomposes in a local creek, stream, river, or lake oxygen is required. Aquatic life, like fish, need oxygen to survive. If oxygen levels become too low in the body of water, fish and other aquatic life cannot survive.
If too many grass clippings and tree leaves are washed or dumped down a storm drain, the storm drain may become clogged. The next time it rains, or the sprinklers run, the water that would normally flow down the storm drain will be blocked by the yard waste. This can cause flooding, which will not make neighbors, or the city, happy.
In some cities, blowing or sweeping yard waste into streets, sidewalks, driveways, or storm drains is illegal. If caught, you could receive a ticket for this violation. Communities are on the lookout now more than ever for polluters, so handle yard waste properly.
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How to properly handle yard waste
Leave it on the lawn, use it to improve your landscape, or compost it!
Follow the "Don’t Bag It!" Lawn Care and Leaf Management plans for:
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Mowing
The rule of thumb for mowing the lawn is not to remove more than one-third of the grass surface at any one time. With this mowing schedule you no longer need to bag your grass clippings.
| Type of Grass |
Mower Setting (Inches) |
Mow When or Before This Height (Inches) |
| Common Bermuda |
1-1/2 2-1/4 |
|
| "Tif" Bermuda |
1 |
1-1/2 |
| Blue grass |
2 |
3 |
| Buffalo |
2 |
3 |
| Centipede |
2 |
3 |
| St. Augustine |
2 |
3 |
| Tall Fescue |
2-1/2 |
3-3/4 |
| Zoysia |
2 |
3 |
Grass clippings left on the lawn do not contribute to thatch, but return valuable nutrients to the soil. They contain about four percent nitrogen, 0.5 percent phosphorus, and about two percent potassium, as well as the necessary minor elements plants need.
A light covering of leaves can be mowed, without the catch-bag, leaving the shredded leaves on the lawn. This technique is most effective when a mulching mower is used. During times of light leaf drop, or if there are only a few small trees in your yard, this technique is the most efficient and easiest way to manage leaf accumulation. Not to mention, leaves contain 50 to 80 percent of the nutrients a plant extracts from the soil and air during the season.
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Mulching
Mulching is a simple and effective way to recycle leaves and improve your landscape. It reduces evaporation from the soil surface, inhibits weed growth, moderates soil temperatures, keeps soils from eroding and crusting, and prevents soil compaction. As organic mulch decomposes, valuable nutrients are released for use by plants. Leaves can be used as mulch in vegetable gardens, flower beds, and around shrubs and trees.
As an option to raking, a lawnmower, with the catch-bag, provides a fast and easy way to shred and collect the leaves. Leaves that have been mowed or run through a shredder, will decompose faster and are more likely to remain in place than un-shredded leaves.
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Soil Improvement
Leaves may be collected and worked directly into garden and flower bed soils. A six to eight inch layer of leaves tilled into a heavy, clay soil will improve aeration and drainage. The same amount tilled into a light, sandy soil will improve water and nutrient holding capacity. In vegetable gardens and annual planting beds, collect and work leaves into the soil during the Fall. This allows sufficient time for the leaves to decompose prior to Spring planting.
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Composting
What is compost? Compost is a dark, crumbly and earthy-smelling form of organic matter that has gone through a natural decomposition process.
Compost can be used to:
- enrich the soil by adding nutrients
- loosen tight, heavy soils
- help sandy soils retain moisture and nutrients
- add to potting soils for container grown plants
- mulch around landscape plants and gardens
What makes it? Bacteria, actinomycetous, fungi, beneficial nematodes, mites, springtails, wolf spiders, and other beneficial insects break-down organic materials into the rich, soil-like material known as compost. How easily bacteria are able to decompose organic material is determined by the carbon-nitrogen ratio (C:N). All living organisms need relatively large amounts of carbon ("browns") and smaller amounts of nitrogen ("greens"). The optimal proportion of these elements averages about 30 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen.
As a nitrogen source, use grass clippings, food scraps, and ranch manure. As a carbon source, use corn stalks, leaves, straw, paper, and sawdust. Do not use diseased or insect infested plant materials, pet droppings, noxious weeds, meat, dairy products, cooking oil, grease, fat and meat trimmings, and table scraps.
To prepare compost, small pieces of "greens" and "browns", microorganisms, air, water, volume (3x3x3 feet), time, and a small amount of nitrogen are needed. Microorganisms such as fungi and bacteria break down the organic material. A small amount of garden soil or compost can provide sufficient microorganisms. The nitrogen, air, and water provide a favorable environment for the microorganisms to decompose the organic materials and make compost.
Air is the only ingredient which cannot be added in excess. A lack of nitrogen to "feed" the microorganisms will slow the process, while an excess amount is wasteful and can kill the microorganisms. Too much water limits the amount of air (oxygen) available to the microorganisms, inhibiting their activity. As composting occurs, heat is generated, often causing temperatures to rise to 140°F or higher.
How is it made? The most common method of building a compost pile, is in layers. The five steps are:
- Step 1: place a layer of coarse material such as tree branches on the ground
- Step 2: add a six to eight inch layer of organic material such as shredded leaves or grass clippings
- Step 3: add a one-inch layer of manure or rich garden soil
- Step 4: repeat these layers and keep the pile moist
- Step 5: stir the pile weekly during the Summer and monthly during the Winter
It takes about 90-120 days to have ready-to-use compost.
Where is it made? Free-standing in a corner, in home-made bins made of wood, wire fence, rocks, or cinder-blocks, in trenches dug eight to 10 inches wide and one-foot deep, plastic trash bags, or devices bought at stores.
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See what others have to say
City of Bedford [pdf] - Storm Water Ordinance
City of Burleson
City of Dallas - Yard Waste Brochure (English/Spanish) [pdf]
North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG)- Yard Waste Brochure for Homeowners (English/Spanish) and for Landscape Maintenance Companies (English/Spanish) [pdf]
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Sources
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/homelandscape/dontbag/dontbag.html
http://www.ci.arlington.tx.us/environmentalservices/pdf/grassclippings_dontbagit.pdf
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