I agree. I use no chemicals on my lawn, so the clippings are great on the veggie garden. Everytime I mow, I bag, and the clippings go on the garden. In fall all the leaves get shredded with the mower and put on the garden beds, at least a foot thick. By spring they are well down, and by planting time broken down into nice crumbly leaf mold. I have switched to a no till format for the past several years and it seems to have helped. I don't have nearly the weeds I used to, the seeds seem to stay dormant when they are buried, but once you till, up they come! Add all the organics you can whenever you can! Steve

I'd spread the water on the lawn, mix the solids in the compost - you just have a lot of anaerobic things growing in the soup, not real bad, but not the kind of beneficial bacteria you want - let the compost critters deal w/ it Bill

While I appreciate the feedback, and this discussion is kind of the point of a 'discussion board', I still don't see where my post had "errors". Between the posts of this thread, I have read that between 4-6 layers of newspaper is recommended. Instead of pointing out an error, you actually confirmed my statement. It takes trial and error to find the right amount (i.e. "difficult to control the quantity"). We'll have to agree to disagree about mulch mats and aesthetics. I can only speak to synthetic weed block and hemp mats. The synthetic stuff looks horrible alone, and I don't know anyone who doesn't put something over it. The hemp mats don't need anything over them, unless you don't like the looks. I think that's probably one of the competitive advantages of this product. If it's innovative, that doesn't make it wrong, or "never intended." The website says it can be used alone, so I don't know where the "never intended" comes from. True about gravity. It takes water, wind, foot traffic, or animals to move mulch on hills, along with gravity. I thought that was kind of assumed at our ages. My gravity comment referred to whatever is put on top of the newspaper on a hill, not the newspaper itself. It's spelled out clearly in my first post. No worries about the 'errors' in your post, annpat. Just trying to make a point! The term errors is pretty strong... To be clear, to answer the OP, I have used newspaper as mulch, and it has been successful. There are downsides to using it, just as in any specific type of mulch.

Good to know you don't have drainage issues or potential issues. Power rake (rented) will chew up the zoysia and any stolons. Assuming the Round Up kills it then any rhizomes should be inert. 2. and 3. If you don't bring in topsoil then these questions go away. Why do you think you need topsoil? This is like trading the devil you know for the devil you don't know. Your soil can be improved hydrologically, chemically, and biologically. It's pretty easy. If you get new soil, there's no guarantee that it is "right" for water absorption, chemistry, or biology. You can fix your current soil by spraying it with any clear shampoo at a rate of 3 ounces per 1,000 square feet, applying any organic fertilizer at a rate of 15 pounds per 1,000 square feet, and getting a soil test ($25) from Logan Labs (post the results here for a read). The organic fertilizers we like here are Milorganite, soybean meal, corn meal, alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow), and corn gluten meal. One or more of those should be available at your local feed store in 50-pound bags for under $20. The shampoo will allow the soil to absorb water more freely and go deeper. Water it in with 1/2 to 1 inch of irrigation or rain. The soil test will tell you how much of what to apply, when, how often. Actually you get that when you post the results here. The organic fertilizer will improve the health of your soil. If you think the soil is lifeless, the organics will fix that in 3 weeks. So I'm still trying to dissuade you from adding topsoil. It's a pain in the butt to apply, costly, takes a lot of time, and you don't need it. The power rake will leave your soil ready for planting after you rake up the chaff. Spend your efforts on the shampoo, soil test, and fertilizer. And if you're tempted to use compost, use organic fertilizer instead. The fertilizer costs as much as 15x less per 1,000 square feet to use and is much easier to apply.