Are you tired of cutting the grass? I understand! I’ve been cutting grass this weekend and it’s a lot of work – yet when you start considering the potential benefits of all that green growth, it makes the process

Here on our tropical homestead, we have huge grasses which grow like crazy during the rainy season. This last week I made a video where I cut the path leading down to the river and share why grass is great:

Seriously, that video is worth watching just for the stupid song.

Which you can download here for a donation of any amount, just in case you want to irritate a date or alienate your neighbors.

I know in the past I’ve urged people to tear out their lawns and plant trees and gardens instead, yet if you’re stuck with grass you might as well use it.

Grass is the Green Activator

Add freshly cut grass to the compost pile and it will kick your composting into high gear. Even if you leave a pile of grass on the ground, it will get white and hot inside, often within hours of cutting. Microorganisms love to eat grass clippings.

Grass is Full of Good Stuff

In the JADAM method, AKA Korean Natural Farming, wild grasses are a common ingredient in the anaerobic compost teas used to feed crops. Grass is good at getting nutrition from the soil – cut it down and use it in the compost or in “teas” and you’ll take the grass’s hard work and give it to your vegetables and fruit.

Grass is Good Mulch

Dad used to use grass for mulch regularly. He’d mow his St. Augustine grass lawn with a bag on the mower, then empty the bag of grass clippings into the food forest and various beds around the back and sides of the house. As the grass clippings rot, they feed the soil; even while acting as a ground-cooling mulch.

Grass is Good for Animals

Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms calls himself a “grass-farmer,” even though he’s known better for his chickens, cows, pigs and other meat animals. Why? Because the grass underpins everything else. Without healthy grass, you don’t get healthy animals.

Grass can be transformed into steaks and mutton. Chickens will also eat grass as part of their diet. Plus, you can cut and dry grass and use it for feed and bedding in your coops and pens.

Conclusion

Though I’ve talked disparaging about lawns in the past, there is a place for grass. It’s a renewable resource for your farm or homestead with multiple applications. If you’ve got an area which isn’t used for growing food, letting it grow some grass you can harvest for other applications isn’t a terrible thing. I may prefer forest, but there are places – like the path I string trim in my video – where grass makes sense.

Let it get some height and cut before seed heads form, if possible – then feed it to something that produces food.