home & garden. Is it ok to use lawn grass clippings as mulch in a vegetable garden?
Absolutely. As far as weed seeds? One of the advantages of mulch is that it smothers weeds.
Those who say beware of weed seeds are right-on. If your grass is seedy, rather than mulch it you could pile it in large piles and let the worms compost it. If the pile is big enough, it will generate enough heat to kill the seeds.
I would also add that, if you used a lawn fertilizer that has a weed killer like 2-4-D, it may affect your garden plants, but I would think the risk is small. If you compost first, the herbicide should break down quickly.
if you have a thick lawn with very little weeds, yes its ok. if you have a lot of weeds, then I would not do that because the weed seeds will drop in your garden and spread. Even better for vegetable gardens is Hay, or Wheat straw, same thing. It keeps moisture in the soil, keeps weeds from sprouting and attracts beneficial spiders that will eat all the vegetable eating insects.
Grass clippings are all I use in my vegetable garden. I add them throughout the summer and they compost in place. My soil is terrific, with very little effort. Just make sure that you don't turn green clippings in to your soil as that depletes available nitrogen. Once they're dry it's fine. I have a very weedy lawn but haven't had much trouble with weeds in the garden at all. Straw does work great too but the years that I used hay I was overrun with clover. Between that and the fact that grass clippings are free it was a clear choice for me!
