mulch or bag?

what are customers wanting? i prefer to mulch. its easier and faster and dont have to worry bout disposing of the grass.

[psparaco]

Lawn care business tips

back in the 90's i used to bag all my lawns. sure it was time consuming but it was the 'in thing'. this day and age i mulch i dont carry a mower that bags. if they call you and its extra long. you tell them you have to charge to have it cut and a separate fee to have it raked and bagged. mulching contributes to about 30% of the total fertilizer need for the lawn from what i have read on here and various other sites. so that lowers the need to add fertilizers after the fact.

[jasonw]

Bag, every time no question.

[mark123]

Bagging is more work for less benefits. I don't see the upside. The only time I bag is to pick up leaves in the fall or if I prune a house that is also a mowing customer, I'll pick up the prunings with the bagger and throw 'em in the truck.

Well, I do bag one lawn because she gets it fertilized 6 time per year and it grows about 9" per week. It's totally ridiculous. I could probably sell the overfertilized grass back to a company and they could turn it back into fertilizer.

[lukus223]

Always bagging. I depends on the type of grass you are mowing. I talked with our mower shop and commercial product supplier and they both agree. In southern Oregon you can not mulch. The grass holds too much moisture and you are going to need a rake and bucket every time. We have a Rye & Fescue mix here.

Wish I could mulch as managing the disposal of all the clippings is half the battle around here.

[Steve]

How do you get rid of all your grass clippings? Should you offer both services and charge more for one over the other?

[lukus223]

Originally Posted by Steve

How do you get rid of all your grass clippings? Should you offer both services and charge more for one over the other?

We do it a couple ways. In some areas a "green" can is offered with your garbage pick up. We discount that amount from the service if the customer will subscribe and let us use it. Saves a lot of time as we can just dump in the green can and the trash haulers take it away every week. In the surrounding areas, this service is not offered. We have to haul away the grass and other debris and take them to the dump. At the dump they offer free disposal of "green" debris. They use it to make compost they sell. It's expected around here to be included, so we just have to factor it into our pricing.