I had a yard or so of shredded copy paper and, just on a lark, I decided to dig it in to a groundcover (Oriental Jasmine) bed that was recovering from the drought two years ago. I'll probably excavate the bed in six months or so, and see what happened to it. I would suggest that you layer it with fill dirt. Otherwise the paper will just compact into something pretty impermeable. I do that digging in regularly with fall leaves in my vegetable bed, and the loam you eventually get is awesome. I probably should shred the leaves first, but I don't bother. Shredded white paper would be functional as a top mulch, I guess, but you're going to litter the whole neighborhood when the wind picks up.

Hi Dicot, Thanks for the info. I felt that I could use pretty much any paper excpet the ones you memtion. I will probaly go to home depot and look at the paper they use for painting a room, paper that keeps things clean. i have used straight mulch before but the weeds always come though it. I know the paper will buy me a year or 2. Dicot I am up in the hills above Palmdale, I grow lilac if ur ever in the neiborhood. I saw that ur in torrance. Take care and any other help would be great. Buck

I assume your going with compost as a mulch? You can put down mulch anytime.. But the thing is if you don't have your soil/mulch contained like a raised bed,etc.. The rain will wash it away,especially if your using compost -now woodchips,leaves,etc, not so much..Thats why some like to mulch after the rainy season, in may-June.. For vegetables gardeners people take the mulch away and let the sun warm the soil, then after they plant they mulch again... That being said I have my front yard filled with compost and I have it contained with decorative yard pavers, soil never washes away, even when the yard pavers fall down.. It also depends on how many roots are in the soil to hold the soil/prevent erosion.. If it is a perennial bed, it's not going to wash away as if no plant roots are holding the soil.. I would contain the bed, so you don't have these erosion problems.. I would also apply mulch whenevers most convienant, don't put to much thought in it... Hope this helps, Joe

When I had a small in-ground garden, I used newspaper mulch. I did it a little differently, though. First, for watering, I laid down soaker hoses. I shredded the newspaper (it's important to use a strip shredder, NOT a crosscut shredder). Then I filled a wheelbarrow with water and mixed in several tablespoons of flour, enough to make the water cloudy. Then I soaked the newspaper strips in the water. I took them out by the handful and laid them down dripping wet, patting them down gently to make sure all the strips made good contact with each other and no loose ends were sticking up. But it was important not to press too tightly, so rainwater would penetrate. I pressed the shreds together more firmly at the edges of the garden, making neat edges. The flour dried into "glue" (like a wimpy version of papier mache) so the shreds didn't blow off. Shreds also allow more rainwater to soak into the ground than sheets of newspaper. (If you think too much rainwater is running off, you can use a stick or thin bamboo pole to poke holes in the mulch. But more holes means more places for weed seeds to sprout, so there is a tradeoff.) You can put a thin layer of some prettier mulch on top for looks if you want. The newspaper shreds are definitely ugly. Earthworms LOVED my garden after I put down newspaper, congregating at the bottom of the paper and in the soil immediately underneath. Weed control was excellent, with nearly all the weeds at the edges of the garden or where I had pulled the paper back to plant. The time spent preparing and placing the newspaper was a great investment, since I had to do very little weeding, even in the heat of summer. To plant, just use your fingers to pull holes in the newspaper right where you want to put your seeds or transplants. You can make planting rows by using a garden knife to cut through the newspaper in a straight line, then pull the newspaper back to expose the the desired width of soil. When you water your newly-planted seeds or transplants, just tuck down any loose edges while the newspaper is still wet. However, it is bulky, so you'll probably need to remove it completely from an area to sow fine seeds or densely-sown plants like carrots and green onions. (You can work it around these plants when their tops are tall enough, but that's a pain. I usually found it easier to just weed the areas where I planted the small plants. But for lettuce it was worth the hassle of mulching after the seedlings got about four inches tall, because the newspaper kept dirt from getting all over the leaves. The lettuce had fewer diseases and was MUCH easier to wash.) The newspaper really shines as a mulch for larger plants. I found it especially helpful for plants that are susceptible to fungal diseases from dirt splashing on the leaves (such as tomatoes, melons, and squash). You can patch the mulch with more newspaper shreds whenever you take out old plants. To refresh the bed after a growing season, remove the soaker hoses, put compost right on top of the old newspaper, lay the soaker hoses back down, and then lay more newspaper on top. (If the old newspaper is still really thick, you may want to chop it up with a shovel, to make sure water will penetrate below it.) If you end up with more newspaper than you need for mulch, shredded newspaper also works well as "brown" material for the compost pile/bin. I plan to use newspaper mulch on my raised beds after DH and I build them this winter. I am already starting to save papers for this. TLDR version: Newspaper mulch is ugly, but effective. It's also virtually free if you can find people who'll save their newspapers for you.