How to Mulch With a Hand Mower

Mulching your grass with your push mower is a good idea, because the grass composts and feeds itself through that process. This is much healthier for your grass than using a hand mower with a bagger for that reason, plus it's less work for you and you don't have to dispose of the grass cuttings. You can do it manually or with the right blade.

A Mulching Blade

1. Turn the mower on its side and measure the blade that is on there now. If there are numbers on the blade, write them down.


2. Get yourself a mulching blade at your home improvement or hardware store. Check the numbers against the new blade and make sure it is the right length.


3. Turn the hand mower on its side and examine the bolt that holds on the blade. If you have not had it off before, it's probably a good idea to spray it with some WD-40 and leave it soak in a while first.


4. Determine what size the bolt head is that holds the blade on.  It is safest to use a wrench versus an adjustable wrench due to rounding off the head of the bolt.


5. Make sure the wrench is on the bolt fully and turn it counter-clockwise. It may take some force to get it off. If needed get something over the end of the wrench to give you leverage, like a hollow but strong metal tube.


6. Note how the blade fits into the mower here. You want to make sure you place the new blade in the same way.


7. Bolt the new blade into position. You are ready to go.

Manually

All you do with this method is to mow so that you are mowing over the clippings that you just cut. In short, mow starting on the inside rather than the outside perimeter of your yard. Normally you would not mow over the section to the right of where you just mowed, you would keep moving left.