Huge amount of grass clippings driving me crazy

[paddock]

A couple of years ago we moved into a house with an old paddock/field in the back. About 1.5 acres.

 

Cutting the grass with our cheap ride-on took literally hours and 30 trips to the compost heap to empty the collector (no exaggeration).

 

Then the ride-on broke down and the grass was getting very long (25+cm high in places), so we bought a (used) commercial zero-turn mower - an Iseki SZ330. The thing is an absolute beast and blows through the grass in about 15 minutes... however it doesn't have a collector and the grass clippings are just insane. Literally tons and tons of them, impossible to rake up and would take hours of leaf blowing to get into a pile, then hours more to collect by hand.

 

I did clear up one small area, but within a few days the grass is grown again and another round of clippings is left lying.

 

A few people have told me to keep mowing over the clippings and they'll disappear but I simply don't believe that's possible. There's so many of them and they are so dense that they're not going anywhere. Plus leaving them on the grass is an eyesore and I bet it's just going to kill the grass underneath.

 

So what on earth do I do? Do I try getting a tow-behind sweeper and hope it picks stuff up? Do I abandon the zero-turn and get another ride-on with a larger collector?

[Steve Bullman]

Don’t pretend to know much about mowing, but does yours have the mulching deck option as mentioned here?

 

https://www.nigelrafferty.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/ISEKI-SZ330-Information-Sheet.pdf

[GarethM]

It's a field not a garden, either get a battery mower to do it almost constantly 24/7 or mob graze it regularly and then mow off anything left.

[NJA]

1. Cut it regularly, the clippings certainly won't kill the grass (fair enough if you don't like the look tho)?

As steve says, mulching mowers are good, I know someone with about 5 acres and you wouldn't really know it wasn't getting collected (they do collect cuttings fom a smaller area near the house)

2. Get a few sheep (or find someone who's got some and looking for areas to graze them, then they'll look after them?)

3.  Maybe don't feel you have to mow it? Cut round the edge, and perhaps some paths through it, and just cut the rest once a year?

4. Do loads of trips to the compost heap... I suppose if you've got that much grass and you want it cut and collected you're gonna have to, sweeper setup will still need emptying?

[nepia]

36 minutes ago, NJA said:

3.  Maybe don't feel you have to mow it? Cut round the edge, and perhaps some paths through it, and just cut the rest once a year?

 

This.  Be nice to nature

[pleasant]

If its a field then i dont understand the issue of a rough finish and grass clippings?

 

If you want to turn it into a useable recreational lawn, then that is understandable, but as with any lawn it needs regular cutting, and cutting quite short. If you do this on a regular basis instead of leaving it to grown back up again, then it will take less time and fewer cuttings. Most large commercial mowers dont collect as in municiple areas they are designed for, a good finish isnt an issue, and not collecting cutting or even mulching (which encourages thatch and then moss) isnt a worry.

 

Very few mowers of the size you have collect as well. There are only two makes that are specifically made for our type of grass and the fact we prefer to collect rather than cut and drop or mulch, and they are westwood or countax. Countax being the premium version of westwwods. They all have a powered collector on the rear and come in cut sizes up to 50" if memory serves. They also have a high cut deck option as well as mulch or side discharge. Being a domestic product they are not priced as high as a commercial machine either.

 

I had one which was a 36" cut with a honda engine for my acre paddock which i occasionally used to collect the grass when we were entertaining and did a great job.

 

Rest of the time i let a farmer graze his sheep in it!

 

C80 garden tractor - Countax

WWW.COUNTAX.CO.UK

The powered grass collector:

 

Extend the use of your Countax with a range of garden tractor accessories

WWW.COUNTAX.CO.UK

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Achieve much more from your Countax riding mower with a range of garden tractor accessories and attachments...

 

 

This set up does everything you need.

Edited May 25, 2023 by pleasant

[arbwork]

either wild flower meadow with cut paths 

long+grass+wild+flower+meadow - Recherche Google

WWW.GOOGLE.COM

 or if it needs to be short mown  grass this 

Robot lawn mower | Find a robotic lawn mower | Husqvarna UK | Husqvarna UK

WWW.HUSQVARNA.COM

---

Explore our Automower® range to find the ideal robotic lawn mower for you and your garden. A perfectly cut lawn 24/7 – no matter the size, shape or terrain.

 

[pleasant]

1 hour ago, arbwork said:

either wild flower meadow with cut paths 

long+grass+wild+flower+meadow - Recherche Google

WWW.GOOGLE.COM

 or if it needs to be short mown  grass this 

Robot lawn mower | Find a robotic lawn mower | Husqvarna UK | Husqvarna UK

WWW.HUSQVARNA.COM

---

Explore our Automower® range to find the ideal robotic lawn mower for you and your garden. A perfectly cut lawn 24/7 – no matter the size, shape or terrain.

 

That wont be any good unless its a lawn to begin with. It wont make a field into a lawn, but it will keep a lawn a lawn which is short, free of multiple rough dips and undulation that you normally see with tufted clumps of course field grass.

Edited May 25, 2023 by pleasant

[Muddy42]

Plenty of good advice here, cut once a year with a topper or similar. Personally I think cutting a field with a ride on or a robot would be hard work or overkill.

 

If you want to create a wild flower meadow, you need to remove the cut grass. If the grass is left it re-fertilizes itself and all you get is strong rank grass.   Removing grass manually is hard work and not viable for all but small areas.  If you are lucky, you might find a small local farmer willing to cut it for hay, with small equipment, otherwise there are cutters with collectors.

[coppice cutter]

15 minutes ago, Muddy42 said:

Plenty of good advice here, cut once a year with a topper or similar. Personally I think cutting a field with a ride on or a robot would be hard work or overkill.

 

If you want to create a wild flower meadow, you need to remove the cut grass. If the grass is left it re-fertilizes itself and all you get is strong rank grass.   Removing grass manually is hard work and not viable for all but small areas.  If you are lucky, you might find a small local farmer willing to cut it for hay, with small equipment, otherwise there are cutters with collectors.

This pretty much says it all.

 

If you don't want stock on it, a cut of hay mid to late June or early July will take the steam out of it and you can just mow and leave the cuttings the rest of the year which will build it up enough to do the same the following year.

 

Be very odd if there wasn't a farmer about who'd take you up on the offer of the grass for hay.