"Hey Mom! That guy just put our trash in his Jeep!"

Having a big garden in a small yard has its upside in beauty, produce and not having to mow the lawn more than a couple of times a year. And when the lawn has to be mowed, it just takes a few minutes.

The downside is that you have no grass clippings for mulching in the veggie garden to hold in the water and hold down the weeds.

Fortunately our city has a lawn waste recycling program and has priced trash high enough (and recycling low enough) that plenty of people in the neighborhoods with the big green expanses of grass curiously collect all their clippings. They then neatly package them for gardeners like me to pick up...if we can beat the recycling truck to their curbside.

So tonight I made two quick trips out and picked up ten bags of clippings. Six went into the home garden, and four will go out to Perkins.

When scrounging the neighborhood for grass clippings, I have learned to properly molest the bag before deciding to take it home. The bag must be nicely heavy, but not too heavy. It must be soft and not pokey. Most importantly, it must be warm from the composting grass clippings inside.

Just think, all that slow-feeding nitrogen and cozy heat going to the landfill when there's a mound of zucchini on Sweet Street hill that would love the hug of a pile of mulch.