As you mow your lawn, you'll naturally get some grass clippings built up inside of your grass catcher. Cleaning them out isn't a big deal. However, you may not know what you should do with your grass clippings once you collect a bunch of them. The following are four different ways you can use or get rid of your grass clippings.

1. Bag for Yard Waste Collection

Many areas will give you a dedicated trash can specifically for your yard waste. If you don't have anything you want to use your grass clippings for, then a waste collection bag would be your best option.

If you don't have a can for yard waste, you should contact your garbage company to see if they can give you one to properly dispose of your grass clippings.

2. Compost

Some people will use grass clippings as compost. Compost is a soil you can build up with time as you dump different types of yard waste into it. Compost is especially useful for gardening. You can reuse grass clippings in compost for plants, crops and anything else you want to grow in your yard.

3. Fertilizer

If you need to constantly tend to your property, you'll need some fertilizer. Luckily, you can use grass clippings as part of your fertilizer so you can keep your land strong and capable of growing different crops. Fertilizer enhanced by grass clippings is ideal for farmers, so make sure you consider this option if you grow crops.

4. Weed Control in Your Garden

If you have weeds growing in your garden, you'll want to get rid of them as soon as you can. Once you pull out the roots, you can make a mixture with grass clippings and fill in the spot where the weed was. This way, you can encourage other flowers or plants in your garden to grow in place of the weed.

Make sure you remove all of the weed's roots so it won't grow back in the place where you originally pulled it out.

Grass clippings may seem useless on the surface, but you can use them in innovative ways so they don't go to waste. They could even save you money. You won't have to buy expensive fertilizers filled with chemicals when you create your own naturally from organic materials you already have lying around your yard (literally).

Inserting a grass catcher on your lawn mower can be an effective way to keep grass clippings from turning your property into an eyesore. During the fall, it can also be used to catch and bag any leaves that are on your property. In most cases, using your mower as a leaf removal tool can both save time and reduce your carbon footprint. 

How a Grass Catcher Can Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

Removing leaves while mowing your lawn reduces or eliminates the need to use a leaf blower on your property. A study found that using a gasoline-powered leaf blower for an hour creates more carbon emissions than driving 4,000 miles in a Ford F-150. Although lawn mowers can emit carbon and other materials into the air, they tend to have smaller and cleaner engines. 

How Many Leaves Will a Grass Catcher Hold?

The amount of material that a grass catcher can hold will depend on the size of the container itself. Generally speaking, the catcher unit on a riding mower will be larger than the one of a standard self-propelled walking mower. In some cases, it may be possible to add a large trash or leaf bag to your mower to make leaf collecting easier. 

What Should You Do After Collecting the Leaves?

If you have a garden, you can wait until the leaves decompose a bit and use the dying material as protection for young or fragile plants. You can also use the leaves as fertilizer for grass or shrubs that might need extra help growing back when the weather warms up again. 

It isn't uncommon for towns to open their landfills or designate other locations where bags of leaves can be dropped off. Alternatively, the company that collects your trash may offer to collect bagged leaves on certain dates throughout the fall season. It may be a good idea to check with your town or garbage collection service to determine if there are any bag size or quantity limits. 

It is important to make sure that you collect as many leaves off of your lawn as possible before the winter season begins. Otherwise, you run the risk of killing or damaging any grass that is covered by a thick layer of dying organic material. Allowing leaves to linger on your lawn may also allow water to collect on your property as opposed to draining away from it.