Sawdust and Grass Clippings
Posted: May 06, 2009 10:07 pm
Sawdust and grass clippings . . . . These are two things I always seem to have too much of!!!
Sawdust - DH is a woodworker with a high-tech dust collection system attached to all his tools, so I get at least a barrel of sawdust each month. It just gets dumped out back in a big pile and then I have to deal with it. It's a mixture of wood types . . . walnut, maple, mahogany, pine, and some exotics.
Grass Clippings - since getting a lawn sweep, he loves to sweep the lawn after mowing! So almost every time he mows our large lawn, I end up with a huge pile of grass clippings to deal with. We have the lawn treated 4 or 5 times a year, so there are often chemicals on the grass.
What can I do with these? Are they both "browns"? Or are they a brown and a green that I could mix?
I know decomposing wood steals nitrogen from the soil, how long must I let the sawdust piles sit before I can use them on the garden? Or can I spread a thin layer immediately.
Can I use the grass clippings as a mulch to suppress weeds in the vegetable garden?
What would you do with an endless supply of sawdust and grass clippings??
Sawdust - DH is a woodworker with a high-tech dust collection system attached to all his tools, so I get at least a barrel of sawdust each month. It just gets dumped out back in a big pile and then I have to deal with it. It's a mixture of wood types . . . walnut, maple, mahogany, pine, and some exotics.
Grass Clippings - since getting a lawn sweep, he loves to sweep the lawn after mowing! So almost every time he mows our large lawn, I end up with a huge pile of grass clippings to deal with. We have the lawn treated 4 or 5 times a year, so there are often chemicals on the grass.
What can I do with these? Are they both "browns"? Or are they a brown and a green that I could mix?
I know decomposing wood steals nitrogen from the soil, how long must I let the sawdust piles sit before I can use them on the garden? Or can I spread a thin layer immediately.
Can I use the grass clippings as a mulch to suppress weeds in the vegetable garden?
What would you do with an endless supply of sawdust and grass clippings??