silvergoldmagazine.ca
HOUSE + HOME
NEWSPAPER MULCHING
– Photos and write-up by Kevin Lee Jacobs
This morning, during my weekly jaunt to the dump, I
decided to go through other people’s garbage. And I found
what I was looking for, too: lots of newspapers. Let me show
you how old news is good news when you want to make weeds
instantly disappear:
Pictured above (right) is the weed-choked, north-end of
my Woodland Garden. This is a damp, shady area where
common white vinegar — my favorite weed-killer for fullsun situations — would have little effect. I’d pull the growth
by hand, but without some kind of suppressant, more weeds
would appear in short order.
But newspaper — applied thickly — will smother those
weeds for an entire season. The paper will also keep any buried
weed seeds from germinating. This technique, which I call
“Newspaper Mulching,” is very easy to do.
First, lay newspaper over the weeds. Be sure to apply it
thickly, as shown.
I don’t worry about black-print versus colored-print.
Why? Because these days, all newspapers use non-toxic
pigments. Even the glossy pages are coated with a non-toxic,
biodegradable material.
Of course, a big wind will kick up just as you start to work.
To keep the pages from blowing away, spray them with water.
Damp paper stays in place.
Finally, cover the newsprint with 2-3 inches of mulch. I
mulch with shredded leaves because I have a stock pile of
them. Composted wood chips make a fine mulch, too.
In my experience, newspaper makes a better weed-suppressant
than regular mulch alone. The paper blocks out the light that
plants need for photosynthesis (the conversion of sunlight into
sugar). But water can penetrate the paper, which means worms
and other soil organisms are not compromised in any way.
As a matter of fact, newspaper feeds the soil. Worms eat
the decomposing material, and then release it as nutrientrich matter in their castings. Worm-castings are nature’s
soil-conditioner.
You can plant right away in a bed that’s been newspapermulched. Simply plunge a trowel through the paper to make
a hole (damp newspaper cuts very easily). Then plant your
seedlings.
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Newspaper mulching has been my salvation on many
occasions. One spring, the raised beds in my herb garden
became choked with weeds just when I wished to plant my
crops. So I simply laid down the paper and mulch, made
small cuts in the paper, and then planted away. That summer,
not one weed pushed its way through the paper-barrier.
A wise journalist once proclaimed “Old news is no news.”
But if you’re a gardener who hates to pull weeds, you will
find, \