Question
Hello, I do not live on Long Island or even in New York but I hope you can answer a question I have about grass clippings.

Our neighbor does not remove the clippings when he mows. There is a mowing service who comes around our neighborhood and they always pick up the clippings plus in the fall they pick up leaves and ship them away who knows where these end up. Our other neighbor who uses the service along with other friends of ours says that this is the only way to avoid dethatching. The one who does not pick up clippings his lawn is not as neat. He says they do not need to pick up clippings and that it is just an extra thing to worry about. Is there another way to avoid thatch that we don't know about? Because the neighbor who does not pick up clippings says theres not a thatch layer and Im inclined to believe him, I did not see thatch, maybe I just dont know what that is. Sorry this was longer than I anticipated.

Answer
Grass clippings break down quickly and return incredible amounts of Nitrogen to the soil.  If you have a solid organic program -- and only if you have a solid organic program -- you have microorganisms and macroorganisms in the soil that do all the work. Thatch is a problem that people bring on themselves when mow incorrectly or use things like Round Up and Weed And Feed - these one-stop-shopping combination pesticides/herbicides/fertilides do more harm than good, but from the smiley faces on the commercials you would never know it.

Stems and roots decompose slower than grass clippings, but if you mow correctly you don't have to worry about that.

Some people, in their zeal to build up their grass, over fertilize their lawn, especially with Nitrogen.  This is a perfect example of Too Much of a Good Thing.  The blades grow way ahead of the roots, the roots can't support the rest of the plant, the turf weakens, then it gets sick with any number of problems as you probably know.

Soil that is poorly drained or has a low pH also weakens grass. Fine fescue is thatch-prone for a number of reasons, none of which involves whether or not the grass clippings are hauled away -- unless you count the pounds of Nitrogen that are hauled away with it.

More frequently mowing will yield smaller clippings which break down almost overnight.  At this time of year, however, most turfgrass is slowing down, heading for the mid-Summer Siesta, and building up for the big late summer growth spurt.

I can't tell you enough that a solid Organic program (which does not begin and end with putting sugar on your lawn, in response to another question that keeps coming up this week with amazing frequency) is not difficult, not expensive, and not as daunting as it may seem to you.  It sounds like you may be on the fence with that, so to speak, and if so, I hope you will come back with more questions.  It makes a lot of sense to dump all chemicals in the chemical dumpster (not in the garbage!) and let God take over your gardening chores.  You can mow, you can feed, you can weed, and God will take care of everything else.  As I love to say, one is nearer God's heart in a Garden, than anywhere else on earth.