Tuesday, February 28, 2012

How to Get Free Mulch When You Aerate Your Lawn

If you want to have a lawn that looks great throughout the year, one of the best ways for you to do this is to aerate your lawn on a yearly basis. When you aerate your lawn helps to thicken up your turf. In addition, it makes the roots on your grass to grow deeper so that your lawn needs less watering throughout the year. But did you know that there is another benefit to aerating your lawn with a lawn aerator? Actually, you can get free mulch, simply by raking up the plugs and then using these for compost.
Grass plugs are naturally high in nitrogen. This is because the grass itself contains a lot of nitrogen. In addition there is a lot of useful organic material that is growing just below the surface of your grass. Last year when I put in my gardening boxes I put in about 6 inches of plugs. I got these plugs from aerating my lawn. I went over my lawn a few times within aerator and then raked up all of the plugs. I didn't worry too much about letting them compost, I simply put them all in my garden box, then I added about 6 inches of very good topsoil. Last summer when I planted my garden I had very good tomatoes. I think this was in part due to the plugs that I used in my gardening bed. My potatoes didn't turn out nearly as well as my squash and my tomatoes. I think this has to do with the fact that I used plugs. With plugs,it makes it really easy for the roots of your plants to grow deeply and get all the water that they need. However, it is a little bit harder for plants that have the majority of their growth under the ground. I suggest that if you are using plugs from aerating your lawn for compost that you use them mostly for vegetable plants that grow up above the soil. Using plugs as compost is a great way to allow the soil to drain properly.