Newspaper mulch

9 Apr '05 2:23 pm

Hi Moosey
Don't you have newspaper recycling bins near you? Why don't you do what I do(or am I just a bit cheeky?)and pinch newspaper out of them. You can never have enough newspaper for a garden. Its great rolled up in balls in the compost bin too, the worms love it.

19 Apr '05 9:30 am

I'm not sure about the recycle place - but the stupid thing is that my school gets class sets of local newspapers delivered every Thursday (I only just found out). So next term I am going to swipe these when they've been used! I need a continuous supply, and we only get the weekend paper.

I've never used cardboard - have you? I'd worry that it wouldn't get wet enough to be useful.

Cheers

19 Apr '05 8:19 pm

I found cardboard to be useless in that it broke down too quickly, even if several layers were put down at once. A thick layer of wet newspaper - overlapped well - has to be the best weed suppressant, better than weedmat, which I think is highly overated.I have also tried carpet, which was okay, but still rotted quicker than newspaper, and clover and couch grass managed to work its way through after a while,also it is harder to get hold of.
The one problem I had was with the terrible nor'westers we had at Peel Forest - if the newspapers dried out, the fences ended up covered with flapping paper, and the bark or sawdust mulch layered itself nicely over the road.So it was hosing time as soon as the wind started to keep everything in its proper place.

19 May '05 3:13 pm

We are in Seattle, WA. We have been using layers of cardboard, then landscape fabric, then mulch on top. It takes all of that to keep the weeds down.
Very interested in trying out your idea of newspapers now.

Ana
http://www.gardennut.com