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I use newspaper all the time, even to lay down on solid grassy areas to kill the grass. I just lay down the paper, wet it down enough to keep the wind from blowing it away, then cover it with mulch (pine straw in my case).
You do have to make sure you use several layers, though....I use at least 4, but even more would be good, especially if you're putting it over existing grass.
Worms love it, and they enrich the soil for when you're ready to plant.
If you're ready to plant as soon as you put the paper down, then just cut holes in the paper and plant right through it.
When I first moved to my house and was working on making places to plant, I had access to a neighbor's pile of leaves/grass clippings. I would put down paper, then the leaves/grass clippings mix, then mulch....you never saw such beautiful dirt in your life as I found in a few months under all that. And worms as big as small snakes! LOL
I had to haul all that stuff a pretty long way in a garden cart, one load at a time (probably made 10 trips!), as we didn't have a truck then. Now that we have a truck, he's built a shed in front of where I got it and it's hard to get to. Maybe he moved the place where he puts it...I need to go ask! That was some great soil-building material.
Another vote for newspaper and cardboard, with the newspaper being easier to manipulate and plant additional items. Like others, I covered the newspaper with mulch.
Just tonight I was checking beds and noticed a lot of grass had broken through the few beds that did have landscape fabric. The grass had actually created holes in the fabric! Glad I had done most of the areas in the newspaper.
I used newspapers, as most said, it's easy to put and great way to get your ground going. I moved to a new place and will be doing this comes fall to start my garden.
you should avoid colored inks in the newspapers you put down and of course none of the glossy adds and magazines. Just put down several sheets of black and white newspapers.
Cardboard works for me especially for vegetable garden.. Notice where I didn't overlap the boards the weeds are coming through but no weeds/grass underneath the cardboard. And it breaks down by the end of the crop season. Win Win.
For a flower/shrub bed in front of house I would use weed blocking paper and mulch on top..It will Last several years and water will penetrate through to water your shrubs.
Garbage bags horrible idea. Newspapers break down too quick. Rubber mats not good either.
I didn't add mulch on top. Who cares its in backyard.
some people actually have good luck with carpet scraps. They don't decompose or fly away in a gust. They look back but it works and is a good way to get a garden patch ready.
Before you start Find some 4-6 mil black plastic the size of the garden, Cut the grass real short and put the plastic on the ground and keep it close to the soil with weight or spikes. Let the sun shine on it for a few days it will burn off the grass roots and all. after that if you can use a burn torch to remove the residue of the grass. It gets rid of the seeds that are there. Then if you want you can till the soil and replace the plastic to sterilize the soil with the suns heat. if you have the time you might wait a week with the plastic off between the steps so the weed seeds that you just exposed can germinate.
This is the green way of doing it You can substitute roundup for the plastic steps to kill the green plants Just remember that roundup only kills growing plants not seeds.
With the black plastic the soil temp can get to 160 degf during a sunny day. After the second step you can place the plastic on the garden and mulch over it. if you don't want the plastic on the ground ,place cardboard or multiple layers of paper on the tilled soil (my preference) and mulch heavy 3-4" before planting through the mulch. for seed rows spread the mulch and plant in the trough.
If your preparing next years garden plot place your compost-leaves-grass clippings between soil and mulch. they will breakdown during the late fall/winter/early spring.
with cardboard/paper after the first mulch you don't need to till again just add mulch and nutrients on the top. Checkout the "Back to Eden" method on You Tube.
Everyone should do this. There is a spiritual aspect to the video that you can take or leave, but the method is sound and also works for athiests, agnostics, pagans and heathens.
I took wispy, defoliated, yellow-leaved citrus growing in terrible Houston gumbo and turned them into dense, stout, dark-green, productive trees with this method. After my raised beds really got going I've had the most incredible tomatoes, dino kale, chard, brocolli, spinach, etc. etc. It works.
About the black plastic, I've known timber farmers in East Texas that did something similar after felling all their standing timber. They lay a down an enormous amount of black plastic, poke their pines into the proper dispersion, then plant watermelon at the base of every pine. The heat and moisture retention of the plastic makes the pines grow a bit faster, chokes out all the weeds and trash tree volunteers and makes the watermelons grow to giant proportions. By the time the plastic degrades, the pines have enough of a head start to shade out any competition.
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