This is how I create new garden beds or enlarge existing ones. After a few months I just pop a plant in right through the newspapers and pinestraw mulch. Every two to three years I layer over another layer of newspaper and mulch. No digging

Here is a link that might be useful: Lazy way to new beds

thanks for the pix, gurley. do you think this method will work with seeds? in other words, should i be able to pull back the pine straw and newspapers and toss a few seeds in?

pat
durham NC

I'm with Gurley. This is my favorite way to create a new bed, no till, layers of newspaper, mulch, and compost. Somehow, the soil beneathe becomes softer too - don't know if it's stuff soaking down from above layers or worms being invited, but it works. If you wait long enough (month or two) for newspaper to dissintegrate, I think seeds should be fine too. I plant bulbs underneathe.

I was thinking of trying this but I don't have any newspapers. Do you think the paper that is used for wrapping glassware and such when you move will work? They have big boxes of then at the box stores. Or I was thinking about pads of newsprint that you can get at arts and crafts stores.

What do you think?

You could use those papers, but then you'd have to pay for them and it takes a good amount. Maybe you have a neighbor who could give you their papers. Or you could always dumpster dive at the recycling places. I know some pepople use cardboard boxes too, but I would think they would be slower to break down. -Ais.

I have quite a few large garbage bags full of plain white paper (packing paper from moving)that will work great for making beds. If you are near Pinehurst you can have them.

Let me know

Termater

I'm going to chime in with my perennial question regarding this subject. Have any of you done this over wild bermuda grass? I have plenty of newspaper collected and a fair amount of leaves etc since I have done it over an area that didn't have any bermuda but I'm chicken to do it where it's taken over and I have alot of ground I'd like to plant that has it.

Shari

You can start asking for brown paper bags at the grocery store. If you tell them to "pack them light" you'll get even more bags. Maybe your friends/neighbors use them too. Good luck,
Linda NC

I just let my co-workers and nieghbors know that I will take thier newspapers. I usually end up with more newspapers than I know what to do with.

I started another major project though and I am having to wait for my paper supply to build up again.

Sheri, I put newspaper and mulch over ANYTHING, grass,vines, you name it. If the offending weed is really bad, such as smilex, then I cover it with plastic and mulch. Nobody but me knows whats under that pretty flower bed.

I just don't have the back and muscle to fight with the weeds anymore so this is my easy way out.

Old newspaper is very easy to find. Schools are a great source, as the ones around here, (Raleigh), are inundated with them, and there are usually recycling bins on grounds just for newspaper.

Bermudagrass is tough to deal with. I've had it grow its way through a foot of compost. You have to get other plants up and running before the bermuda can come back, which will take several weeks/months. Bermuda hates shade and then will only persist at the edges of beds.

I am anxious to try this I have lots of crab and bermuda

grass with lots of weeds. I have some very large cardboard

boxes saved from Christmas. Would the cardboard decompose

enough by spring so you could dig through it for planting ?

If not I think my local paper would have old unsold

editions they will give you for this purpose. I thought

the cardboard might give me more control of these stubborn

grasses. Which do you think would work better?

Thanks,

Dru

I use brand new day-old newspapers that my local Sanford Herald puts out by their dumpster every day for community recycling. The animal shelter uses this source too. I think most newspaper offices have a recycling program... neatly banded piles, free for the taking.

My Bermuda seemed too insidious, not to be trusted even in a shady dungeon, so I dig it out and cart it off before I put the newspaper on top of the clay. Not sure if this is really necessary.

claire

I'll chime in too, My vote goes for corrigated cardboard and the best source I have found is furniture stores.

The furniture store down the road said I can take as much as I want and there is more than I could ever use.

It breaks down relatively fast but you can dig through it for planting if you want. For me so far it has given me great results.

Do you use this method for creating a new, small, vegetable garden. I am moving the location of my garden but I don't have the strength to till anymore. I am going to do square foot gardening.

Thanks,
Sandy

Hello, all! As a newbie, may I say that cardboard works just fine. The first year I was here I double-dug a plot for veggies. A LOT of work! Then I read "Lasagna Gardening" and have been using wet newspaper or cardboard boxes ever since. And this is a WILD piece of land. Cut back what brush/saplings I can and then cover with cardboard, leaves, peat, grass clippings and compost. Plant right down in the layers, putting a bit of potting soil in the hole, then mulching the whole thing again after watering. (May also put some potting soil or compost on top to plant seeds.) I use rocks from the creek for borders, or small tree trunks that were in the way of my garden progress. Have made three herb beds, two large perennial beds and one veggie bed this way. No more digging!

Sorry, Rosebush, but with those accomplishments under your belt, you're no newbie. Way to go!

i come from a gardening family who believed in digging, tilling & toiling to great depths, even if you raise the beds - otherwise, you're wasting your effort. last summer, i tried the lasagna method in a small area - as a test - last weekend, i planted something in there and i was astonished at how well it works! great soil where there was hard-packed clay. and no toiling!

thanks for the tip on cardboard from furniture stores, joefalco. i think i'll be needing it in quantity from now on :)
marsha

I like the term 'Lasagna gardening'. How thick should be the newspaper layer? and other layers? DH spent so much time digging last spring for our vegetable patch, thought I'd help him a little this year (:-)
Thanks for all your help,
kerai

kerai-
8 papers thick then a couple inches of each layer. I use about 4 inches of leaves, but only 2 inches of grass clippings or else they clump together like a mat.
brenda, thanks! I am not really new to gardening, but new to GW and NC, and very new to sowing from seed. I have learned SO much from all of you dear gardeners!

Hi Rosebush,
Thank you for your info. I am going to try it this year!
-kerai