Know the yard waste rules

As spring approaches, the city is reminding the people of Halifax to follow the new organic waste rules when fixing up your yard in preparation for the season.

Only large paper bags or a green bin will be accepted for curbside collection of excess leaf and yard waste.

The switch from plastic to paper bags for excess leaf and yard waste is part of a number of amendments to By-law S-600 Respecting Solid Waste Collection and Disposal, that came into effect last August.

Grass clippings will not be accepted with yard waste. Which begs the question, what’s the best thing to do with your excess grass?

Local garden and yard experts agree “grasscycling” by leaving the clippings on the lawn is a great way to maintain your lawn and dispose of the excess grass.

“If you’re going to use a power mower or an electric mower, make sure it mulches,” said Lynn Brooks, president Atlantic Canada Master Gardeners Association, in a phone interview.

“That’s the best way.”

Leaving grass clippings on the lawn returns valuable nutrients, including nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, to the soil, which reduces fertilizer requirements and encourages earthworm activity.

“It’ll if help we have a hard winter,” said Michelle Muis, who works at Coastal Cuts Lawn Care, a landscaping company in Dartmouth. “It helps protect some of the grasses.”

“In a year where we do not have a lot of snow, dog urine creates a lot of problems.”

Leaving grass on the lawn as mulch is not the perfect solution, however.

Muis said leaving mulch on the lawn is beneficial to maintaining your lawn, but only if you regularly mow, having big piles of clippings on your lawn can actually hurt your grass.

She recommends mowing your lawn once a week and keeping it about two inches in height.

“It’s important to maintain the health of your lawn,” she said. “The more unhealthy your lawn is, more weeds you’re going to have.”

Brooks does not recommend placing all of your grass clippings in in a backyard composter. Once you put too much grass in the compost, the decomposing grass creates heat and sends off an unwelcome smell.

“It’ll go away eventually, but … if you keep adding to it, it may get worse,” she said.

“You have to be able to work (the grass clippings) in with what you’ve already got in there.”

Brooks added grass clippings could be used as mulch for shrubs and gardens.

“If you’re putting it around your plants, it would act the same as any other mulch,” she said. “The only thing you have to be sure of is that you’re using grass and not weeds.”

Brooks said if weeds end up in your grass mulch and you put it around some other plants, you are basically spreading the weeds.

For more information and tips on effective grasscycling, visit: www.halifax.ca/recycle/grasscycling.php.