daviddsims said:
I will probably start lowering my zoysia in a few weeks by doing the same thing. I have the same mower as you without the bagger. It would be a nice addition to help do this but I have the mulching blades and will just have to rake I guess.
It really depends on how much lawn debris you end up with. I have a fairly large yard, and I would hate to have to rake up all that thatch and bag it up manually. When I was younger I probably would have tried it first, but wisdom comes with age...?
I put the plastic lawn bags inside the bags on the bagger, and press the thatch into them to pack the bags as full as I can without bending or breaking stuff. Then I pull the bags out and goose-neck tie them off before leaving them at curbside.
Our little city has heavy trash pickup every 2nd and 4th Monday, and you can set out up to 15 clear plastic bags at the curb and they will haul them away twice a month. It isn't free - I have to pay a trash fee on my monthly water/sewer bill (~$18) to cover the cost of hauling off the garbage, recyclables, and yard or heavy trash, but it is better than hauling it all to a dump.
My yard creates such a high volume of clippings I do not want to try composting it all, so I just have it hauled away.
I plan to scalp it all down and switch to mulching blades and cut more often to see if I can stop bagging all summer....
Up until now, I wanted to get all the weed seed heads cut off and vacuumed up, so I bagged everything that I could.
One thing to remember - I spread dithiopyr for pre-emergent - I would not want to break the barrier against seedlings.
I may not be able to get away from bagging as a result, but I am still experimenting with best cultivation methods, so only time, and actual results in the field, will tell.... The bagger system cost me $650 to buy, which is also a consideration....
Good luck with your lawn! Here is a picture of my last scalping - this was a "super heavy trash" day, which lets you avoid the 15 bags limit. My trash men hate me, but I keep the bags under 40 pounds - I have to lift them out of the bagger...!