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fabricator2009

cardboard in the garden

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fabricator2009

I recently read a thread where someone was using cardboard in the garden. Never heard of this. What is it used for? Weed control? Fertilzer?

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64s

I've used cardboard and layers of newspaper for weed control.

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bmuone

I had a neighbor that used newspaper to try to stop weeds. He was the editor for the little town newspaper so he had TONS of newspaper to use. He did not cover the paper with enough dirt so when the wind blew hard most of the newspaper went flying.....mostly across my yard. Only good thing was that in a day or two the wind changed back the other direction and he got all his newspapers back. He did not keep up with his garden and gave up. Thank goodness.

Dayton

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posifour11

The wife puts down our old feed sacks and covers them with hay the animals wasted.

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DOC in Kentucky

I cover the garden with old newspaper and wet it while appying so the wind doesn't blow it away. Then I cover it with straw. No weeds and the straw helps keep the soil wet. Been doing it for years and now all the neighbors do it too. When the season is over I rake it all into a pile and burn it then rototill it into the soil for next year. Very effective and cheap wee d and moisture control !!!  My grandpa taught me this trick.

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MaineDad

A lot of people do this to control weeds. People also use cardboard for whats called "Lasagna Gardening" - Where you build layers that eventually breakdown into humus.

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KC9KAS

Weed control, holding moisture in the soil, and earth worms consume the cardboard. Worms are great composters.

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sscotsman

My wife and I have been using newspapers to help "build" new gardens..

it really works great!

We bought our house a few years ago, and have been building various flower and vegetable gardens in portions of the yard that were previously just lawn..

 

Lay out the edges of the garden, mow the grass inside the garden really short, then I usually also hit it with the weed-wacker to really "scalp" the grass down,

but I dont bother to dig out the grass..

Lay down newspaper pieces 3 to 4 "sheets" thick, hose it down as you work so

the breeze cant pick it up..then when a section is covered, lay down a thick layer of mulch to cover the newspaper..

To plant individual plants, just dig through the newspaper and stick the plant in..then cover back up with mulch..

(or lay the newspaper up to the plant trunks, if plants are already in place)

 

(This newspaper system also works great for "weed control" in an already existing garden, because you just bury and smother

all the weeds with the newspaper..Very few weeds are strong enough to break through! the grass never does..)

 

Within a year, the grass underneath is dead..we have found that leaving the grass and its roots in place

really seems to "improve" the soil after a year or so..the grass and the newspaper decays and adds good nutrients to the soil..

its a great system! :) easy, cheap, and really keeps the weeds down..

(even with the newspapers, you still need heavy mulch for weed control though..) We are sold on it..

we use it all the time..

Here is a series of pics showing the process..this is a smaller garden I made, created straight out of the lawn,

a peony patch for the wife:

 

In this case, I did remove sod for the "trench" around the outer edge of the garden,

but didnt remove the grass in the garden itself:

 

i-4wLNNcv-L.jpg

 

The trench was intended to be the "hard border" between the grass and the garden,

I would use the weed-wacker to "edge" the garden by running the weed wacker vertically along the trench..

 

i-xbbxN7w-L.jpg

 

i-S28zWWz-L.jpg

 

i-cH25jDw-L.jpg

 

i-hhsWCdR-L.jpg

 

i-kJb4DGD-L.jpg

 

The "trench" alone works ok..but I like to have more of a "physical" border between the lawn and the garden..

We have an invasive lawn weed called "creeping charlie"..(also called "ground ivy")

it really lives up to its name and "creeps"..it quickly leaves the grass and creeps into the mulch of the newly planted gardens,

So the following year I installed a more physical barrier, with landscape timbers:

 

i-Ljn35b7-L.jpg

 

That seems to keep the creeping charlie at bay, and its easier to use the weed wacker to keep it out..

but the grass never comes back up through the paper! New dandelion seeds will of course sprout in the mulch,

but with a thick coarse mulch they are easily plucked out..but weeds from "underneath" are virtually eliminated..

 

Scot

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