Living Lightly: Grass clippings

A Column Promoting a More Earth-Friendly Lifestyle

By John L. Turner

As mentioned in the May 2023 “Living Lightly” column, leaving grass clippings on your lawn is a great way to help a lawn and save you work and a little bit of money.  Research has demonstrated that grass clippings are high in nitrogen — an essential element your lawn needs — and by leaving clippings you’ve accounted for about 25% of your lawn’s annual nitrogen needs, meaning you can buy and apply less fertilizer. 

Clippings can also help your lawn retain moisture, resulting in less water use. It also means you don’t have to go through the laborious process of emptying the contents of the mower bag into refuse bags and lugging the bags to the curb.

And it should be noted that as the Brookhaven Town landfill nears closure, it’s a great idea for each of us to generate less garbage needing to be disposed of as we are the ones, through our tax bills, who will pay for increased garbage disposal costs resulting from the landfill’s closure. So as many lawn care professionals urge: “Cut it high and let it lie.

A resident of Setauket, author John L. Turner is conservation chair of the Four Harbors Audubon Society, author of “Exploring the Other Island: A Seasonal Nature Guide to Long Island” and president of Alula Birding & Natural History Tours.