Proper etiquet for blowing grass out of the road?

[DANSLAWNCARE]

Hey, I Recently Moved To Springfield,missouri From Upstate New York. I Had A Small Mowing Business There And I Wonder Why People Down Here Leave There Clippings In The Street. It Is A Wide Spread Practice All Around Town. I Just Can't Imagine Doing This When I Mow Someones Lawn. To Me This Looks So Crappy And It Overloads The Sewer System. Returning The Clippings To The Lawn Also Returns Some Nutrients To The Lawn. If Anyone Knows Why They Do This Here I Would Really Love To Know The Reason. Thanks

[CHEESE2009]

Lawn care business tips

This is getting out of hand lol... MOW THE YARD #1 TRIM THE YARD #2 - (trim areas your mower couldn't reach and the perimeter) BLOW THE CLIPPINGS #3 (now you actually have something to blow) Don't blow before #1/#2..... why bother? I mow, trim, and it honestly takes 2 minutes or less to blow the clippings back onto the yard. There is nothing to be scared about. If the chute of your tractor or walk behind leaves a trail of grass - just raise it upwards so it scatters evenly... I use a bungee on the tractor to keep the chute up. The difference is amazing! Anyway, some people trim before they mow - it works, but personally you want your trim job to be 'level' with the cut your lawn mower made. _____________ Fact; If you blow clippings onto the street, it looks awful - though it soon fades away after a day or two depending on the quantity of it. The blower does require some skill to hop grass over curbs and back onto the lawn, once you master it - there will be nothing to ponder about. I hope this was informative!

__________________
Keeper of Peace
Security Officer Cheese2009
Gopher Security Central (G.S.C)
4th Floor, office 112

[psparaco]

Originally Posted by CHEESE2009

If the chute of your tractor or walk behind leaves a trail of grass - just raise it upwards so it scatters evenly... I use a bungee on the tractor to keep the chute up. The difference is amazing!

Ok i have to ask. When the chute is up. Isnt thwe chute not only there to direct the grasss but also as a safety precaution? If you use a bungee to keep the chute like its not even on. Does it pose a risk to injury and also does the grass rain down on the lawn instead of leaving a clumping trail? I think i may have to try this on my lawn first before doing it on someone elses lawn. We are professionals and if we do something considered not safe. how do we look to our customers? Omg he doesnt have his chute down. what if the blade it a stone and the chute wasnt there to deflect it towards the ground verses flying up and taking our that huge bay window. Just a thought scott. Not targeting you. just trying to be efficient and safe at the same time.

Paul

[CHEESE2009]

Originally Posted by psparaco

Ok i have to ask. When the chute is up. Isnt thwe chute not only there to direct the grasss but also as a safety precaution? If you use a bungee to keep the chute like its not even on. Does it pose a risk to injury and also does the grass rain down on the lawn instead of leaving a clumping trail? I think i may have to try this on my lawn first before doing it on someone elses lawn. We are professionals and if we do something considered not safe. how do we look to our customers? Omg he doesnt have his chute down. what if the blade it a stone and the chute wasnt there to deflect it towards the ground verses flying up and taking our that huge bay window. Just a thought scott. Not targeting you. just trying to be efficient and safe at the same time.

Paul

Very good question. The chute is a deflector - though in all seriousness, I've run over just about everything possible on purpose (lazyness) and nothing bad has happened.

I don't believe the lawn mower has enough power to really launch anything hard enough to make even the slightest dent.

There are no cons that I notice by tying the chute upwards. You will have NO clumping... and you would think the lawn was bagged - as it looks so clean and the clippings scatter so well into the lawn you couldn't even rake them up if you tried.

I noticed that most objects heavier then a blade of grass always tend to shoot downwards.

Damage to anything but your blades is extremely rare.

As for the scattering of grass, if it ends up on the street or any random part of a property grass shouldn't be - a blower will finish the job.

I've done lawns like this for awhile and I'll never lower the shoot again.



Facts:

A chute is always on the right side of your mower, which means you will only be facing it away from a house if you need to do the perimeter. The only time you're closest to the house is when you do the next pass/line/stripe over, which will give you enough room to be certain the majority of objects will not fly far.

Even without the chute, objects that fly out tend to aim downwards, which give them less airtime.




In other words.... raise your chute to get rid of one big problem.

I highly recommend it... It will save you loads of time if.


When I used the chute, the look after cutting lawns was as if clippings were just floating on top of the lawn - awful... Id try to blow them to scatter them around, but doing that doesn't even come close to raising my chute.. The customer wont notice if you bagged or not.

Give it a try on your lawn, its addictive.

[mark123]

Originally Posted by CHEESE2009

... I don't believe the lawn mower has enough power to really launch anything hard enough to make even the slightest dent. ...

I ran over a baseball earlier this year and I watched it fly so fast and so far. All I could think of is "when is that going to stop?". After it hit the ground it just kept rolling and bouncing. It was surely a homerun ball. If I wasn't so frightened that it may hit someone I would have put my hands in the air and run the bases. That would have surely killed someone had it hit them.

I've also launched a 4" diameter stone though my truck window. Imagine catching that in the teeth.

Deflector down for me. It's just too dangerous in my opinion. Expensive, too.

[jasonw]

How about using a bag on the mower? Thats what I do. What little falls out from edging I blow back into the lawn.

On that note you know what really PISSES ME OFF??? When I am driving my freshly waxed car down the road and some stupid idiot is blowing dirty and grass onto the highway on everyone's car. God I just want to run them down, happen at least once per week around here from the same company

[CHEESE2009]

Originally Posted by jasonw

How about using a bag on the mower? Thats what I do. What little falls out from edging I blow back into the lawn.

On that note you know what really PISSES ME OFF??? When I am driving my freshly waxed car down the road and some stupid idiot is blowing dirty and grass onto the highway on everyone's car. God I just want to run them down, happen at least once per week around here from the same company

LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

I thought you wrote. "some stupid dirty idiot" hahahahahahhahahaahahahahahahahahaahhah

today is a good day

[jymie]

Originally Posted by psparaco

Ok i have to ask. When the chute is up. Isnt thwe chute not only there to direct the grasss but also as a safety precaution? If you use a bungee to keep the chute like its not even on. Does it pose a risk to injury and also does the grass rain down on the lawn instead of leaving a clumping trail? I think i may have to try this on my lawn first before doing it on someone elses lawn. We are professionals and if we do something considered not safe. how do we look to our customers? Omg he doesnt have his chute down. what if the blade it a stone and the chute wasnt there to deflect it towards the ground verses flying up and taking our that huge bay window. Just a thought scott. Not targeting you. just trying to be efficient and safe at the same time.

Paul

When you use the bungy cord on the chute, your not supposed to raise it all the way up, if you roll over a stone or some other object that could go flying at say a car for instance, not good. BUT, if you raise the chute, all you really need is to raise it no more than an inch, that will be enough to spray the clippings over a larger area so they will not clump.

[cruzgardening]

Hey guys i had the same question when i started and i realized that bagging is indeed a good way of doing things faster it takes less then 20 seconds to take off the bag trash it and put it back on unless you are really lazy lol i bag most of my clippings and only in large properties, 2 of mine, do i leave the chute semi opened yes grass gets scattered everywhere but i use the blower to make it into little piles with the other debris that might be in the property and just rake it up after im done yes it takes a few more minutes but its worth the effort.

my clients love the fact i use the blower around their property to get rid of any debris and i have never scattered debris to the neighbors property rather i get some of their debris and clean it up so they dont complain later on

happy Cutting

[Steve]

How do you dispose of the clippings when you are bagging them? Do you take them with you or leave them?

Also, what is your view of bagging the clippings vs. mulching when it comes to lawn health?