I had the same question and either can't find the thread back or there was no answer, may have been another forum.

My inclination is to pull the worst of the colored pages and not worry about the others. I don't have time for that much fooling around.

Unless somebody tells me differently, that's what I'll do, guess paper works better than cardboard, have plenty of the latter.

As to the pine bark, sorry for your disappointment. Maybe you can find somebody else with a truck. You must need an awful lot. I just drop the back seat in my little Honda 4-door and load up the back, surprising how much I can get in there, probably not enough, use 5-gal buckets, boxes, huge old quilt, whatever, maybe a couple trips. I hauled 12 bags of city compost in one trip but they sell their mulch in bulk, and I wouldn't use theirs anyway. Some do to no apparent ill effect.

Aliska, I don't really want to put unbagged mulch in my car. First it hardly holds any bagged mulch, but unbagged in there would be a waste. And they sell by the yard, which I am sure wouldn't fit in my car. Thanks for trying though. The big pine bark comes in bags, but not the mini. I have a Pontiac Sunfire. It's like a baby Firebird.My trunk is not very big, and it's not high. That's the main problme with getting big stuff, is the trunk is not high, so it does ot fit much. I only was able to fit I think 9 bags of dirt in there. I don't have much time to be fooling around with the newspaper, but in carefully looking at mine, most pages have tons of color. I don't see the necessirty for all this color, but I guess they think it sells papers.

One idea... you might trying to see if any of your neighbors will go in with you on an order of the minimim yardage that they will deliver. I know around here it is three cubic yards. Quite a lot, but if 4 people need some... it may work.

You might also trying asking Costco/Sam's Club/Lowes/Home Depot/Container Store/World Market/any store with glass items or any large store for their recycled paper that they get things packed in. You should try to hit them on the days they receive their shipments (you'll have to ask). Sometimes they are even nice enought to stack some up for you to come get. And FREE...

I wasn't exactly suggesting that you should put it in your car. I was basing it on what I would do if there was no other way, and it's too hard to find help because people are just too busy with their own lives. I'd use 5 gal buckets or a huge old dirty quilt.

But what is the alternative? Put it in a pickup, somebody has to shovel it all in, here they weigh B4 and after, then you have to unload the stuff in a huge pile and work from that.

Whatever you do, good luck. I could use a pickup myself but can't justify the extra expense. I'm not talking a fancy new one either.

After I wrote that, my neighbors were working in their yard and had a ton of the stuff newly laid down. Looks good. I didn't ask how they got it here.

Wow -- no one told me not to use colored newspaper. That must be why all my seedlings are so vividly colored!

Nancy

I was doing some yard work today and noticed that the previous owners of our house used empty plastic bags for week control. I have seen many empty bags of sand, dirt, you name it. Then they put the mulch on top. My guess is that they ran out of weed paper. I plan on using those large brown paper lawn bags you get at Home depot - I have a lot of them and we cant use them here in MN for refuse pick up. hope this helps...

Thanks for the great idea on getting paper, Fairy Soap Girl.I will call around. Would the colored newspaper poison the dirt? Alas, most of my neighbors do not mulch or care about their yards like I do, so sharing would not work. :( Even the ones with nice grass, don't really have flower beds. The only one with flowerbeds to speak of are a couple who bought and fixed up a house and are trying to "flip" the house, but their small bed doesn't need mulch. Barbiescraps, what do you mean by the large paper lawn bags? What are lawn bags? If I could ask home depot if I knew what they were. Maybe somethign we don't have in Florida?

missylin, you should visit the composting forum or maybe do some online research. From what I've read on that forum, most newspapers these days use soy-based inks, so you should be able to place colored papers in your garden. I do. (Just not the shiny papers.) At any rate, you could call your paper to find out whether their inks are soy based or not.

The things I add to my compost pile = newspapers, cardboard, paper towels, hair, shellfish shells, old produce, unused produce, dried cat food, dryer lint, coffee grounds, tea bags, grass clippings....where to stop? The list is enormous. Now, I've just started so-called "lasagna" gardening to make new beds. As I understand it (still learning the details), you lay down a thick (2 to 3 inch) layer of cardboard or newspapers (to smother existing weeds or grass), then a layer of "greens" ie, coffee grounds, old produce, whatever, then another layer of "browns" ie newspaper, dried leaves, etc. Must check on what you top it with. But then you should be able to plant right in it. Or something like that LOL.

Have you tried calling your electric co,Ours delivers a big load free to keep it out of landfills.Also alot of the tree cutter companys would love to have a place to give their mulch to.I have a big pile now and will call tomorrow for another pile.It keeps down weeds well,breaks down and enriches the soil.
moonphase

I decided to revive this thread because I'm ready to lay down some newspapers in one place, some cardboard elsewhere.

Today I called around, got ahold of someone in the printing dept of the newspaper that prints our local freebie (I don't subscribe any more, got tired of all the inserts and mess). But I have a large pile of the freebie one I save up because it is useful for all sorts of other things, and if the pile gets too high, put the excess in the recycle bin.

Anyhoo, this guy sounded like he knew what he was talking about and said the soy-based inks are deceptive as they do have some petroleum in them, and the regular colored pages, he couldn't say for sure or I wasn't paying close enough attention (was so surprised he returned my call and so nice about such an odd question). I do pull the shiny colored inserts.

So I guess what I'm looking for is anyone who uses the colored pages and what their experience has been with them, just got done folding bunches of them for a border, would hate to take all the colored out, about half of them are that way on one side, the other, or both.

What's really wrong with using colored newspaper? I have a large section of garden where I used it, and my seedlings are growing fantastically well.

Nancy

Nancy, I hope nothing and thank you for responding and sharing your experience. That settles it. I was worried if the ink contains petroleum (deadly to soil for years in larger quantities if not dug all out and replaced) or other chemicals, even the black ink for that matter, it could leach into the soil and adversely affect my plants, soil, worms, micro-orgamisms, etc., over time.

I didn't think it might be an issue until I read a few different forums where it was discussed, some take out all the colored pages. My instincts were to just do as you do until I got to wondering about it.

missylin,

You have a Home Depot there....well up here in the North you can rent a dump bed pickup from them. My brother has a 1 ton Ford PU I use, but if not I'd be renting that truck from HD.

Don't know what they charge though.

FWIW

It is okay in Canada to use colored paper as they use vegetable dyes for the last 10 years or so altho the myth persists. You can probably find out by phoning the newspaper and asking.

I saw this ad the other day in my Hobby Farms magazine -- and thought of you. You might want to check it out. They sell pine straw mulch. I've seen it said here on the forum that it is ideal for daylilies. Maybe this could be your answer?

www.pinestrawdirect.com

I saw this ad the other day in my Hobby Farms magazine -- and thought of you. You might want to check it out. They sell pine straw mulch. I've seen it said here on the forum that it is ideal for daylilies. Maybe this could be your answer?

Here is a link that might be useful: Pine Straw Mulch

Sorry about that. The server kept rejecting my messages. I assumed they never went through.

Nancy

missylin -

I guess this wouldn't help you this year but throughout the year I get my groceries only in brown paper sacks. I store them up all year and then in the spring I lay them out between my plants and mulch over top. I get roughly 5 or 6 bags a week so that gives me plenty to work with. It really controls the weeds.

Christine