Mulching with grass

Top half of bed was mulched today, the bottom half a week ago

I first came across the idea of mulching with grass from a Bob Flowerdew book, 'The lazy Gardener' I think. His point of view was why waste energy taking it to the compost when you can just place it in the border whilst mowing. Grass is full of nitrogen and great for improving the soil.

 

This isn't a border but my veg patch. On empty ground I layer it several inches thick as I find that it shrinks down pretty quickly. The photo below shows a bed I mulched after the first cut, about a month ago. It has almost entirely disappeared into the soil.



 

This bed was mulched thickly with grass clippings about a month ago.

I find that it does an excellent job at keeping down the weeds whilst the soil is bare. When the plants are in I tend to use grass with a more sparing hand either thinly spread or making sure that a small area around the plants themselves are kept clear, apparently grass can burn if it's applied too thickly but this has yet to happen with me.