I do this every year! Lay the news paper flat and cover with wheat straw. I lay it thick, especially around tomatoes. It really holds in the moisture and cuts down on watering. At the end of the growing season much of the paper and straw has begun to rot. After I pull the garden I till all the hay and paper under, plant clover and wait till next year when I start the process over again. Works great and helps build the soil. The earthworms love it!

yep, they say snow here tommorrow night also. not to worried about the new Ws'd containers, they are easy to cover up. I am more worried about the perennials, that have grown 3 inches in the past 2 days with the 60+ degrees. I already lost a few campanulas due to an earlier warm up, then ice/snow

Our "local" Newspaper is now 25 miles away, they closed the local office. I used to get rolls and extras from them when they were in town. FreeCycle/Craiglist hasn't really caught on here for some reason, I had them cancel my membership I was getting daily emails for baby clothes given away or people asking for big items for free, like bedroom suites, with the matresses and box springs! Craiglist, this winter I emailed about 3 woodburners and never got any replies, posted some wants and no replies. It's weird around here, the local school district shredds all paper and pays to have it hauled away, when I asked about getting it for animal bedding , gees.. what a red tape process. When I told the high school about collecting clean yogurt cups and cookie wrappers for a fund raising project where I could get collection containers, free shipping and 3 to 5 cents per item, it was too much trouble. Even when I offered to pick up and ship out. With a 7 week illness, I am way behind, so I hope I can find other sources for newspaper. Beside where I work is a furniture store, maybe they have some larger cardboard.

There's also dye in pantyhose material which may wash out and discolour the dish. Why not visit one of those el cheapo stores and buy yourself half a dozen new lady's handkerchiefs - plain ones. These are a good size for spice bags, and can be tied up with sewing thread or secured with a plastic tag. And if you're like me, you've got plenty of old and worn sheets and pillow cases - cut them up into suitable squares. I picked up a trailer-load of end-of-rolls of teabag paper some years ago - I use that. You just iron the edges together to make bags, and iron in a length of cotton thread to make it easier to remove the bags - just like teabags. You might be lucky to find a health-food store which sells empty teabags. Use 2, one inside the other, for powdered spices.