I would think the newspaper would stop the nutrient flow *very* temporarily. As the grass breaks down any N is has to give up will become water soluble and pass through the newspaper with water. However, the decomposition of the newspaper will use N. So, some N may be 'stopped' by the newspaper, but down the road it will be released and enter the soil. I would think that if your soil had adequate N for a month or so it would be a non issue in practical terms. How thick the paper needs to be to stop weeds depends on the weed. For the usual suspects that are sprouting from seed, 4-5 sheets should do it. For well established perennial weeds making their return to the surface who knows. Some of them are quite obnoxious.

How about some GREEN MULCH? right now I have lettuce, chards, onions(for greens) between my tomato/eggplant/pepper plants. So by the time the toms are grown those vegies will be gone. Yet I have a permanent green mulch idea: FENUGREE. i have tried clover but did not work. But fenugreeg ( from alfalfa family) iworks fine. More than anything else, it is also a green manure. Fenugreeg produces nitrogen by its roots(like some beans) so instead of gettinh nutient out , it ads free nitrogen that it gets from air. What's more, its seeds and gree are edible and medicinal too. You can buy the seeds real cheap from any Indo-Pakistany grocery store by the pound. Indians, chinese..use fenugreek and seeds in cooking extensivly....

Jim, About a month ago, I used newspaper in my daylily beds. This was my first time trying this method. So far, it seems to be working much better than mulching without newspaper. I'll try to answer your questions - I used about 20 pages at a time. (I had a BIG stack of newspapers and figured the thicker the better.) 2. Most of my daylilies were already planted. I've added a few since laying the paper down and the shovel cut through the paper easily. The newspaper has already started to break down. 3. I removed all weeds first. 4. It seems to be working on most weeds in my yard. But I didn't lay it close to my lawn grass because my husband would've shredded it when edging the beds. The paper and mulch is back about 4 inches from the lawn. 5. I'm sure I'll have to replace the newspaper the next time I mulch. It is breaking down faster than the cypress mulch I used in the back yard and faster than the pine straw in the front yard. By the way, we used landscape fabric in most of our front beds. And we used rock on top of the fabric. This was all done over 4 years ago. It has done an excellent job keeping out the weeds. But these beds are planted with permanent plants - azaleas and sago palms, etc. I wouldn't try to plant a daylily or any other flowers in these beds because it would be too difficult to dig a hole. Plus, I never know when I might want to move a daylily to a different location. Hope this helps. Kathy

Grass clippings make excellent mulch applied directly to the tomato bed. You just have to keep the green stuff held back a ways from the base of the plant so you don't burn the stem or root crown. As far as nutrient value, I wouldn't count solely on grass clippings. Rather I'd still make my initial applications at pre-plant, planting hole, side dressing through the season, etc. Since grass clippings are basically a source of nitrogen, I use a mulching lawnmower and leave them to feed the turf. The only time I use grass clippings in the tomato bed is when for weather reasons or whatever, I can't cut the grass frequently enough, and the grass gets so high that it leaves windrows when I cut, I let the green windrows dry a day and go back over the yard with the bagger on. I also bag when leaves start dropping, and that goes directly into the tomato bed too.