Gregg S. Alex: ‘Chop and drop’ for better lawn care with less water

With water being such a hot topic in Utah right now, it’s worth exploring options for reducing lawn irrigation. The obvious strategies involve 1) removing grass from the landscape, 2) only watering on non-windy nights, 3) getting sprinklers set in the right locations and 4) holding off on watering until the grass actually looks thirsty.

But there’s another option — increase the amount of shade your lawn gets. I noticed a long time ago that the grass growing in the shade of a tree is greener and more healthy-looking than grass with no shade. Duh, right? The shade keeps the soil cooler and reduces evaporative losses. But how can we shade the lawn in areas without trees?

The answer is, mulch. Some of the mulch your lawn needs should be from mowing — as long as you’re not bagging the clippings of course. BTW, in what other country on the planet would people annually invest thousands of dollars worth of energy, labor and chemicals on a crop (grass), and then put the end product (grass clippings) in the trash?

We Americans have lost our minds in excess and waste. Hopefully you’re not still bagging your clippings. Anyway, besides leaving grass clippings the lawn, you probably have other free mulch resources around. This is what I want to focus on.

For 10-plus years, I’ve gathered the clippings from my garden, flower beds, shrubs and trees, as well as leaves my neighbors have bagged up, and I’ve thrown all of this on my lawn. I call it “chop and drop” — a phrase I borrowed from permaculturists. Yeah, OK, it’s unconventional and looks odd temporarily. But the fun and deeply satisfying reward comes when I mow over the clippings, watch them get minced into small pieces and in a few days see gravity pull the mulch down to the soil surface, unnoticeable.

If you look at my lawn, you’d never be able to tell it has 10 years’ worth of chopped-up yard waste on its surface. What you would notice if you dug down a few inches, is that the soil is alive, organically rich and thriving.

I’ve been doing this long enough that I’m confident “chop and drop” can reduce lawn irrigation without negative side effects, but with plenty of positive. Besides shading your soil, yard waste clippings will also add important nutrients for the soil organisms that feed and protect the grass. Also, your lawn turns into a giant composter, keeping yard waste out of our landfills.

For a nice, conservation-minded lawn, forget about chemical band-aids and quick fixes the home improvement stores want to sell you — focus on building and maintaining the soil by using “chop and drop.” And look at it this way— when the zombie apocalypse happens, you’ll have a good soil base for growing your own food.

Gregg S. Alex has a master’s degree in environmental science, was in the environmental consulting business for more than 20 years, and has been teaching high school environmental science for the last nine years at Juan Diego High School in Draper.