Spring is well underway, and summer is knocking on the door. If you have not being paying much attention to your front yard, now is the time to do so. Your lawn should by now be back to its former glory. Depending on how much you have cared for it over the past few months, it would either be a well-kempt beauty, or an overgrown mess.

Regular maintenance is essential to keep your lawn looking healthy. It also means less work for you when you are grooming it into shape. However, no one is going to blame you if this year has not given you much motivation to keep the yard in order. It is not too late for a good lawn mowing. Among the best tools in a homeowner’s garden maintenance arsenal is a mulching mower.

What is a Mulching Lawn Mower?

In order to understand a mulching mower, let us first understand how a standard mower works. A regular lawn mower takes care of the glass clippings in one of two ways. It either collects them in a disposable bag, or it discharges them to the side. Although discharged clippings also eventually decompose into the soil, but the process takes longer, and the lawn may end up looking messier.

A mulching lawn mower comes with an additional mechanism that chops down the grass clippings into fine mulch. The clippings are then discharged and blown on the soil. The micro-organisms and bacteria present in the soil act on the mulch and decompose it to release nutrients into the soil. This way, the nutrients in the grass are recycled, rather then ending up as waste.

Should you mulch overgrown lawns?

The answer to this is more complicated than a simple yes or no. A mulching mower is essentially a very large blender. The more grass you put in it, the more difficult it will be for the mower to mulch it down. When you mow overgrown grass, you will likely be mowing it very short. 

The quantity of grass that is being mowed in such an instance will be at least twice as much as what the mower is capable of processing. If the mower is incapable of coping with the increased volume of grass it will fail to mulch it well. Additionally, overgrown grass is thicker and does not break down easily. The mulch it forms will create a thatch layer on the lawn’s surface which is slippery and aesthetically unappealing.

Conclusion

Mulching mowers have numerous benefits over a standard lawn mower. They turn the grass clippings you mow into an all-natural, homemade, and free fertilizing solution. More importantly, they prevent you from adding one more plastic bag full of green waste to your local landfill. 

A mulching lawn mower returns essential nutrients to the soil. As a result, your grass grows lusher and healthier. The idea is to mow the lawn often and never mow too short. For overgrown lawns, it is ideal to cut a small portion from the top and mow again in a few days. This will allow the mulch to settle, and also keep the grass healthy.