Cardboard in the garden- good stuff

10 years ago

I have planted some lettuce and onion plants maybe a little too early because it is supposed to be cold this week.

Mostly I have been digging holes and cleaning up my garden. Where I have used landscape cloth and old carpet on paths I have a job because they have been buried by mulch and grass has grown through them. It is hard to get them out and they didn't work long term. I am realizing more and more that the best thing about cardboard is it doesn't last. You put it down and cover it with some leaves or mulch and it makes that area look good. You have to keep doing it because the cardboard rots but you have nothing in the way the next time you have to redo that area. I get big brown sheets from Sams. I don't like white or colors because I want it to blend in. It works much better for me than newspaper.

Not about gardening - my father escaped to Australia when Corregidor fell in WWII with 17 other men in a diesel boat. The island people helped them because they didn't want the Japanese to win either. The little boat was too small for the open ocean so they maneuvered along islands most of the way. It is an exciting story. Daddy is only mentioned in the book about their journey. It was out of print but has been reissued. It is an interesting story and some of you might enjoy it.

Here is a link that might be useful: South from Corregidor

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Comments (5)

slowpoke_gardener
10 years ago
I would use cardboard also if I had access to it.

I may be getting to the point I will be over run with organic matter. I have hauled 2 loads of oak shavings and 2 loads of oak leaves in the past week. I love the free stuff and I am afraid if I don't keep hauling it they will give it to someone else and then I will run without. It looks as though I have another 5 or 6 loads to haul.

The book South From sounds interesting.

Larry
chickencoupe
10 years ago
I haven't scores of experience but I know the bugs love cardboard. It's disruptive to my watering patterns. I haven't drip irrigation - not even a sufficient length of garden hose. Hopefully, I'll be able to get something this year.

Larry,

I think you're the first I've heard claiming too much. And all those leaves and leaf mold.. Wow!

bon
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As someone raised in organic gardening who has used cardboard gardening for specific areas and types of gardens, I hoped to add some beneficial information to the cardboard gardening discussion. Many replies admitted to limited experience w/cardboard gardening & implied that it was a new concept since it was new in their experience. Masanobu Fukuoka, microbiologist from Japan, questioned modern mono-agricultural methods early in life. His work dates to 1938 & still is groundbreaking today, pun intended! though he is known for no-till gardening. Search for his name and learn the science behind not only cardboard gardening but many other useful techniques to improve the most important aspect of growing.... soil biology. Personally, I have found cardboard/newspaper gardening perfect for changing one's weeds into compost. Some who replied to the previous post described some curious layers and methods to their cardboard process. My method came from the Australian Permaculture texts I studied in 1980s. I lay cardboard on the patch, making certain to overlap the edges so weeds cannot find their way through. Note: all areas must be thoroughly covered. Then I thoroughly soak the cardboard. To the gal who saw her newspaper flying down the street....did you wet it immediately upon application? Next, I cover the cardboard, again thoroughly, with a cured manure. I find my manure from local ranchers or farmers who can verify it is old already. Finally, the icing is straw.... I love tight packed oat straw. My local feed store has bales for $5 each... they weigh 60-80 pounds. I pull the leaves/pages of the bale and gently loosen them over the patch. I cover... you guessed it! thoroughly. If I see grass or weeds coming up through it in a week or two... I do this all over again! right on top of it... a layer cake. The beauty of cardboard gardens in my experience is the soil stays so moist and becomes so rich because the cardboard is holding in moisture and the worms love the bottom side of my cardboard. I find cardboard gardening a fast easy way to quickly change dirt into soil. No pitchforks, no tills, shovels only for throwing manure. And healthy soil has always been my magic ingredient for lush plant growth. I hope this helps clarify some of the many issues listed in replies. Additional information: Masanobu Fukuoka is the author of the seminal work, One Straw Revolution. I have included a link for info on the book if you are unfamiliar with it. Here is a link that might be useful: One Straw Revolution
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before I put a my fence I could circle the hives at a brisk pace. I rarely had a problem. with the fence I have one area about 14' x 12' that's in a corner between the hives & the fence. that's been covered in cardboard & sawdust. it will be planted in ladino, crimson, alsike, & dutch clovers. along the fence will be borage, Russian sage, & comfrey. another hive stand is up against & facing the wood fence. the carpet is on a 3' swath between the hives & a compost enclosure. it's a aged oriental carpet so it should be mostly organic. if it's not a 3' x12' swath will hardly be an environmental issue. creeping Charlie grew right over it but was easy to pull. the key to having cardboard break down is keeping it damp. slits are better than stabs.
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helenh
Original Author
10 years ago
Larry pile it up and let it rot. I would put the leaves in the garden and the shavings on where you walk. Last year I bought a big dump truck load of oak mulch from the guy who sells me wood blocks for firewood. I had to pay more for it than for the blocks. The older it gets, the better it looks. I am only using it for paths because I think it would rob nitrogen. Eventually it all rots though even the blocks if I don't use them. I can get free sawdust but it is eight miles one way so that wouldn't be free. Bugs do live under the cardboard and in mulch but so do earthworms. The cardboard is actually a good trap for cutworms if you can lift it and kill the ones clinging to the underside. I don't think the cardboard is bringing them. They are already there and the cardboard attracts them to its surface.
slowpoke_gardener
10 years ago
Bon, this is the first year I have felt I had more organic matter than I needed. The hay and shavings have to sit a year of more for me to be really happy with them, the leaves I will use the next season after I get them. I have been working hard to get my garden in shape and organic matter stocked piled. I, and the fellows I get organic matter from are between 70 and 80 years old and every few weeks it seems as though there is one less of our group.

Helen, I have to drive 8 miles one way for the shavings and 5 miles one way for the bamboo and shredded leaves, so I guess they aren't free by the time I use them, but I am still glad to get them.

Larry
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
10 years ago
I love cardboard and stockpile it all year long so I can put it down on the ground in the spring.

Larry, You cannot have too much organic matter. Even if you just pile it up and let it decompose into lovely compost, you'll use it eventually. Everything I have ever stockpiled was sitting right there at the time that I did eventually need it. To me, having organic matter piled up here or there is like having money in the bank. This spring I'll be using the last of my big stash of 200+ hay bales that I got in the spring of 2011. Some of them are already nothing but compost and others will serve as mulch this spring, though I think they'll decompose pretty quickly once I cut that baling wire and break them apart. I'm going to miss the security of having that big row of hay bales lined up there waiting for their turn to move into the garden.

Today I was scooping last year's mulch, which now is this year's compost, out of the pathways and up onto the adjacent beds. Now my paths are naked, but I have cardboard to put down on the paths, and hay to put on top of the cardboard, and I'll be doing that all week, depending on whether it is raining or not or cold or whatever.

Dawn

Cardboard in the garden- good stuff

Comments (5)

slowpoke_gardener

chickencoupe

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helenh
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slowpoke_gardener

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Cardboard in the garden- good stuff

Comments (5)

slowpoke_gardener

chickencoupe

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helenhOriginal Author

slowpoke_gardener

Okiedawn OK Zone 7

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helenh
Original Author