Lawn Care for a Thicker Greener Lawn with a Mulching Lawn Mower

posted on Monday, August 26, 2019 in Dealer News

A high priority for many property owners is achieving a lush, green and overall healthy-looking lawn.

Sticking to some of the basic rules of thumb like never mowing more than a third of the length at a time, as well as knowing when to dethatch, aerate and feed your lawn all make for a great starting point. But what can really help your lawn stand out among the rest is the practice of mulching your yard with a mulching lawn mower. In this case, we’re not talking about the material you use to fill in your flower beds, but rather, the very thing you mow and possibly dispose of on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, grass clippings.

What is Mulching and How Can it Improve my Lawn Care Strategy

Grass clippings, or grass mulch, is highly beneficial for the health of your soil and appearance of your yard. Mulching lawn mowers take in material like all mowers do, but instead of distributing it to a bag, the mower continues to cut the clippings and other small debris, releasing them once they’re fine enough to be absorbed by your yard. At the ideal size, the clippings blend in easily with the grass and can barely be noticed. Grass clippings that are too long take more time to break down, and therefore don’t offer the same benefits as those that have been cut to the appropriate size. Before you decide to stow away your mowing bag, make sure your mower has a mulch mowing setting or compatible parts. Simply removing your mower bag without the right functionality can sometimes be problematic for your yard health if your blades aren’t sharp enough or the length of the clippings is left too long. This can contribute to clumping, thatch buildup and may create other conditions that cause lawn disease.

The Top 3 Advantages of Mulching Your Lawn

First and foremost, mulching your lawn creates healthier soil, which in turn creates a healthier lawn. That’s because grass clippings are densely packed with nitrogen and provide other vital elements like carbon that are absorbed by the ground, all of which improves the quality of your soil and grass. All the nutrients you’re returning to the ground act as excellent fertilizer. This of course brings us to our second top reason for using a mulching lawn mower, it feeds your yard more economically.

When you choose to mulch your clippings, you won’t need to purchase or apply synthetic fertilizer nearly as often as you would if you were strictly bagging the clippings. Further, it can even help prevent weed growth. This of course also means you get to have a shorter chore list, which brings us to our final reason for favoring this technique. When you utilize this method, there is no raking, bagging or disposal to be done. Depending on the size of your property, this can save you a considerable amount of time. And who doesn’t love having a job done well, more quickly?

Lawn Care and Mulching the John Deere Way with MulchControl™

John Deere’s exclusive MulchControl™ technology makes mulching your lawn easy work. Each of the three decks are designed with superior mulching in mind and are created to provide a high quality, precise cut with redistributed clippings that won’t be seen on the lawn. Plus, it’s incredibly easy to activate. Depending on the mower model, you’ll either be able to set your mower to mulch from the deck, or even more conveniently, with one touch on the dash from your seat. This unique technology allows you to mulch when you want to, and bag or side discharge when you don’t without any fuss. Find out which models are compatible with the John Deere MulchControl™ kit here or come pay your local Sunshine Dealer a visit for more information.