Get Rid Of Rotting Organic Debris
To get rid of toadstools and fungi, you must understand how these organisms work. Fungi require moisture, darkness, and decomposing material.
To kill fungi and prevent toadstools from sprouting, you must eliminate the source of food. So, if your lawn is full of organic material such as pet waste, dead grass, decaying leaves, and fallen tree branches, you want to get rid of these.
Some of that organic debris might also be trapped underneath the soil. Cutting trees and leaving the roots intact provides the perfect environment for fungi to thrive. Toadstools also like to grow around construction sites where things like timber scraps have been left to rot.
So, sweeping the surface debris is not enough you might have to dig out any buried material to prevent new toadstool growth.
How Much Yard Waste Will Fit In A Roll Off Dumpster
The dumpster size youâll need for yard waste removal depends on how much debris you have. The average yard waste bag has a 30-gallon capacity, and the most common dumpster sizes for landscaping projects are 10 and 20 cubic yards.
A 10 yard dumpster can hold approximately 55-77 full yard waste bags. A 20 yard dumpster can hold approximately 121-143 bags of yard waste. When you call to order, our team will learn about your disposal needs to recommend the right dumpster rental for the job.
Can I Dispose Of Soil That Is Mixed With Other Materials
Dirt mixed with rocks, leaves and other inert or biodegradable waste is not considered contaminated. It can typically be thrown into a roll off dumpster, but call ahead if youâre uncertain about your debris or area restrictions. Note that dumpster services cannot dispose of contaminated dirt, or soil that has been mixed with any other prohibited materials. Make sure your dirt is clear of these materials before throwing it away in a dumpster.
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Yard Waste Dumpster Rental
If you have significant amount of clearing to do you can also rent a dumpster and fill it. The easiest way to do this is find a junk removal company. These companies will drop a dumpster at your house and leave it for an agreed amount of time. When you call them to say its full they come and pick the dumpster up. You just need to tell the, what size dumpster you need. Most companies that do junk removal specialize in debris removal as well. They will handle recycling of all of your yard waste once you are done.
Determine Your Strategy And Plan Ahead
Wishful thinking and motivation are all good to get started, but unless you assess properly the state of your garden and envisage roughly the end result, its unlikely that youll have an easy time sorting your yard, gone wild. Also, its a good idea to inspect your tool selection and see if you need to buy or borrow some extra equipment and supplies.
So, heres what to consider, first, before you start scratching your head about how to tackle an overgrown garden:
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Wood Chips Compost Mulch & Firewood*
FREE wood chips, compost, and UN-split logs are available to White Plains Residents at the 87 Gedney Way drop-off area. Please bring your own gloves, shovels and containers. Logs are un-split, and availability is not guaranteed.
Bulk delivery may be arranged – depending upon availability. Resident must be on site at time of delivery. Call 422-1202 for more information.
Mulch and compost that isnt needed for our city roadside and parks projects is also sold in truckload quantities to landscapers. Last year the City netted $50,000 from the sale of mulch and compost!
How Core Aeration Can Be Used To Remove Thatch From A Lawn
Mechanical core aerators typically pull ¾ wide plugs out of the ground that are between 3-6 inches in depth. Most quality core aerators have tines that can be swapped out for your desired result but the takeaway here is that cores pulled will extend through the entirety of even the worst thatch layers and into the underlying soil.
This is beneficial because it introduces the most air and moisture into and below the thatch layer creating the aerobic environment necessary to decompose thatch efficiently.
Not only do cores help create the perfect environment for decomposition of thatch but they also physically remove a portion of the thatch without ripping up all the grass and root systems in the lawn.
A single soil core pulled that is ¾ wide is removing the same surface area of thatchcompletely. If you were to pull the recommended 24 cores per square foot then a single core aeration session can remove roughly 7.5% of all thatch from your lawn in a single day!
Which leads me to my next point. All of these techniques can manage and remove thatch from a lawn but when they are all done together they work much faster and more efficiently. Its the prime example of 1+1=3.
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Check Your Local Trash Collection Service For Green Debris Pickup
First, it is crucial to check with your local recycling and refuse service to learn about the acceptable debris and how you should handle it. Failure to properly dispose of green waste can lead to fines, an unnecessary cost. Another effective way to get rid of your yard waste is by having your local trash collection service haul it away. Some areas will pick up your yard waste if it is in small portions and bagged appropriately before leaving it on the curb.
Why Not Toss Yard Waste In The Trash
Yard waste, like food scraps, is organic waste that does not belong in a landfill or incinerator. When sent to a landfill, yard waste does not decompose properly and releases methane into the atmosphere. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that the United States Environmental Protection Agency says is at least 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere and contributing to climate change.
While some landfills capture the methane for energy and some incinerators generate energy, organic yard waste has much higher and better uses than being turned into toxic gas for energy.
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How Much Does Dirt Removal Cost
The cost to remove dirt is based on a few factors, including the weight of the soil. Unlike concrete and asphalt, the weight of dirt can vary greatly based on its moisture content. For instance, 2 cubic yards of dry soil weighs almost 2 tons. But if wet, the same amount of soil can weigh around 3 tons. This variability can drastically impact the cost of dirt disposal, so keep that in mind when choosing the right disposal solution for your project.
An Electric Dethatcher Or Scarifier Is The Best Option For Many People
These are great options for people that have rhizomatic or stoloniferous grass types but dont have an excessive thatch layer. I would classify these machines as maintenance machines or power rakes because they do similar work to thatch rakes but without the need for your own physical effort.
Dethatchers typically have flexible tines that scrape the surface down to 1/8-1/4 below grade. They will remove surface debris and loosen or score upper-most layers of thatch without really removing the actual fibrous thatch layer.
The benefit in this is that oxygen can flow more freely into a healthy thatch layer while water and nutrients may be able to get through it more efficiently and get into the soil where the root systems of our grass plants live.
Some dethatchers provide an interchangeable system where the dethatching tines can be swapped out for hard inflexible blades called scarifiers. These basically cut grooves in the thatch layer and are often used in slit-seeding projects. They can usually reliably cut a bit deeper into the soil but because they dont scrape the debris removed is sometimes less than a dethatcher that scrapes the lawn surface and drags material along for the ride.
The majority of electric homeowner detahtchers/scarifiers are affordable for most people and they typically range between $100 and $250. Some machines cover wider paths, some dig deeper into the lawn surface, others provide more power to the yard owner.
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How To Dispose Of Leaves
Autumn comes around every year in most of the U.S., bringing hundreds of crispy leaves for you to pile up and clear away. Especially in heavily wooded neighborhoods, the number of fallen leaves can be too much for a tarp and a couple yard waste bags. Hereâs what to do with dead leaves after raking.
Leaf Disposal Methods and Ideas
Curbside Collection
Some cities have crews to pickup leaf disposal bags or use vacuum machines to collect loose leaves. Keep in mind that this service is often limited to a few scheduled leaf collection days per season.
Compost
Leaves can be composted with other materials like grass clippings or organic food waste. To speed decomposition, shred the leaves into smaller pieces before throwing them on the pile.
Dumpster Rental
When youâre tossing a large number of leaves and other tree waste, renting a dumpster is a convenient way to get rid of it all at one time and on your schedule.
Please note: Burning leaves is prohibited by law in many states.
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How Can I Get Rid Of Contaminated Soil
Dirt mixed with rocks, leaves and other inert or biodegradable waste is not Contaminated soil is tricky to get rid of because so few places can properly treat and dispose of it. Dirt that is contaminated can be remediated and reused or disposed of at an approved soil treatment center. Search online to find a soil recycling center near you that is equipped to handle your materials.
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How To Dispose Of Yard Waste Yourself: Haul It
Many municipalities have yard waste collection sites or composting centers that accept organic materials from the public. Hauling your yard waste to one of these designated areas is an easy and inexpensive solution. All youll need is a way to transport the load.
Check out your chosen centers website for instruction and pricing. Some locations, such as Ramsey County in Minnesota, ask residents to sort leaves and grass from trees and shrubs, and some even offer the service at no cost to current residents.
Recycling A Lawn Mower
Tip: Some of the non-metal pieces, such as rubber tires or plastic grass collection bins, can be recycled as well. Ask for instructions at a recycling facility about which bins to toss them in.
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Practices You Will Want To Avoid When Disposing Of A Lawn Mower
Now that Ive gone through the basic ways to get rid of a lawn mower, I should mention things that you definitely dont want to do. Still wondering, is it illegal to throw away a lawn mower? Disposing of a lawn mower in the wrong way can certainly land you in some serious legal trouble. Also, not taking the correct measures when disposing of old lawn mowers can have some very harsh environmental impacts. Heres more about what not to do:
Uproot The Toadstools By Their Base
Once toadstools sprout, they release their spores and spread them on the ground for new toadstools to grow. To prevent new growth, pull out the mushrooms as soon as they sprout so they will not have a chance to spread their spores.
If you are dealing with just a few toadstools, you can pull each one of them by hand or cut with a kitchen knife from the base. For larger patches, you will need a mow.
Just make sure to pull out the entire mushroom including the stalk and roots. Chucking out the top part and leaving the roots intact will allow the toadstools to grow back again in no time.
Pro tip: Avoid disposing cut toadstools in your compost. Instead, put them up in a plastic bag and throw in the trash to prevent the spores from spreading.
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Curbside Soft Yard Debris Pickup Is Available March 13th
Grass clippings, small brush, twigs, plants and flowers will be collected, curbside, every other week. Place all yard material in paper bags or use a dedicated compost container. Do not mix yard debris with any type of garbage or plastic bags. Questions? Call 422-1202.
Place bags or containers at the curb before 8 a.m. for collection every other week. The pick up schedule is noted on the Sanitation Calendar as BRUSH WEEK.
Why You Might Want To Use A Thatch Rake
Thatch rakes are really awesome at getting tons of surface debris up off a lawn surface so that the thatch layer is more easily exposed. Sometimes collected clippings dont break down as fast as normal because they are sitting on thatch instead of soil so removing them can be beneficial right when you begin the thatch removal process.
Thatch rakes are also the cheapest tool you can buy for thatch management and they can be used in some places that larger machines simply cant reach.
If you have irregular paver stones or grass under a low tree or obstacle a thatch rake can usually reach what the machine cant get to.
Unfortunately the thatch rake is an enormous amount of work to use on a large lawn space and even the most physically fit people around will struggle to use them for long periods of time continuouslyand thats why man made electric dethatchers and scarifiers.
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Leave The Clippings To Settle Naturally Onto The Soil
Let grass clippings on your lawn, which is often referred to as grasscycling. Instead of ranking the grass clippings into lawn waste bags, let them settle back onto your own.
They will provide your Soil with nutrients, making your lawn healthier than it would be when bagging your clippings. Mowing your grass when it is dry and only cut off around one-third of the total blade length at a time to make grasscycling the most effective.
Consider Alternative Lawn Removal Methods
Suppose you want to add new sod to your garden or pour in concrete in your yard where old grass once grew. In this case, you need to remove old sod before you proceed.
However, the good news is that you might not need to cut old sod in all cases.
For example, if you wish to transform your yard with landscaping or plant a garden where the grass is currently growing, you dont have to cut sod. Heres what you can do instead:
- Spray the grass with a glyphosate-based plant killer.
- Cover the grass with clear plastic to solarize it.
- Till your lawn to kill existing grass.
The methods mentioned above are easier than dealing with piles and piles of cut sod. You wont have to buy or rent a machine to remove old sod, and youll save yourself money and effort in the long run.
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Compost In Your Backyard
Turn some of your yard waste into valuable compost to use in your garden beds. Compost also supports the soil food web external link ,which filters air and water as it percolates through, supports healthy plant roots and traps pollutants such as heavymetals and pesticides. Healthy soil is the first step of the popular five-step natural yard care program.
Take It To A Landscape Supplier
If you have a truck and some time on your hands, you can recycle dirt by taking it to a landscape supplier. Some local home and garden centers will accept dirt and soil for a small fee. From there, they can mix the dirt into compost to bed their own plants or, if the soil is high-quality, sell it on their own shelves.
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How To Remove Lawn Thatch: Best 5 Ways To Get Rid Of Thatch Compared
If you have to remove excess thatch from a lawn then you have roughly 5 main ways to get the job done. In this video I will explain the differences along with the pros and cons of using:
As you probably already know thatch layers that are less than half an inch thick are usually normal and healthy. Thatch in the quarter inch range for instance shades and insulates the soil from cold overnight temps and beating heat during a sunny mid-afternoon summers day.
Thin layers of thatch also retain moisture in the soil just like mulch holds moisture in the soil of a garden bed.
Additionally beneficial soil microbes and bugs call the thatch layer home and we wouldnt want to take that away from them now would we?
If however the layer gets too thick it starts becoming a problem for decomposition of clippings, water & nutrient penetration, and oxygen flow. As a result once thatch gets too thick it starts impeding a lawns performance at an accelerating rate if not addressed.
