Here's an opinion from one of the more extreme examples of "some climates". The most effective factor in weed control in a hot arid alkaline environment like the Sonoran Desert is water management. Mulch here isn't a weed control material, it's sun and moisture control. That's not going to be much help to a Pennsylvania audience.

Some do not like using newspaper because of lack of knowledge about how paper is made and the false thought that some how poisons would be introduced from that paper.

People I correspond with in the southwest tell me that mulches are essential to growing food crops there. Cacti, mesquite, etc. do well without mulches, but other plants need mulches to grow, possibly not for "weed" control but for soil moisture conservation.

kimmq is kimmsr

I don't think newspaper is as ubiquitous as it used to be.

And as an artist with training in art safety, I have no interest in adding unknown pigments to my soil. The inks may be soy-based, but the pigments in those ink are most certainly not.

I am a huge newspaper mulch fan. I weigh it down with seaweed and cover it with something pretty, like leaf mould or compost or hay. I let myself believe that the dyes were non-toxic.

Worms flock to it. My soil stays moist beneath it and the seaweed "pillows" absorb and release rainwater. I rarely do it as extensively now as I use to.

I find cardboard to be much better.

I use newspaper as a weed barrier. Layers of newspaper, layer of composted manure, layer of wood chips. Breaks down beautifully, and keeps the weeds down nicely.

can you please help ? is green fungus on top of my cooking 35 day old batch of supersoil good like the white fungus? or is it bad and what should i do if it is?

While cardboard/newspaper does prevent light from reaching new weeds, it also prevents air, water and nutrients from reaching the roots of the desirable plants.

Because of those reasons (and many others), I’ve decided NOT to use cardboard/newspaper and to just apply several inches of bark chips.

In my dry, low-humidity climate, newspaper becomes stiff and pushes mulch out of the way, exposing the newspaper. It does not break down quickly. In areas with year round rainfall and humid summers, newspaper breaks down from all the moisture--not here.

unclejdog, you might want to post your question on a new thread to get good response.

Newspaper helps here (sunny drought ridden CA) for awhile. We usually poke some holes so the water can get through. We are in horse country and after a couple of years the weeds come back like crazy!

We were lucky enough to get a drenching rain last week (probably or last til fall) and get our garden mostly weeded . We will be searching for something else more permanent to weed proof our garden beds. Nancy

Obviously, none of you live where Kudzu and Wisteria have gone wild. Both can move underground for amazing distances and show up at the base of that tomato or squash vine that you had so much hope for. A few plants can be guarded but a whole garden - no. Overnight they will entwine your beauty and pull it down (or so it seems).

They both produce their own nitrogen so they can subsist on poor soil but they really love it when you soften and amend the soil. They are the rats of the vegetative community and morning glories are the mice. Morning glories are nearly as bad, taking advantage of every improved inch of ground.

Better here to leave the ground uncovered and maybe mulch immediately around the trunk of whatever you care about but take your hoe to the garden daily to do combat with any stray that you didn't plant.

Now I've learned to leave wide enough margins around everything I care about so I can till/cultivate at least weekly. Tried wide row planting and all 3 denizens took full advantage of it. Don't take take me wrong, I love gardening and look forward to each season but some things that work elsewhere may not work in the Southeast.

Some downsides to newspaper and/or cardboard that I can think of (some of these have been mentioned previously):

- difficult to control the quantity (how much is enough; how much is too much?)

- challenging to place in the wind, especially paper

- a real mess if it gets wet before final installation

- you still have to place something aesthetically pleasing on top, which may move over time due to gravity, water shed, wind, etc.

The benefits have been discussed already, with the biggest being it's cheap!

There are numerous 'hybrid' mulches out there, that straddle the lines between cost, ease of installation, performance, and aesthetics. My favorite is a nonwoven mulch mat: www.woven-earth.com These are made from hemp, cost effective, and [depending on your taste] look good.

Prices http://www.woven-earth.com/shop-online/mulch-mats

The mulch mats, the mulch fabrics, even those made of hemp will still need to be covered by some more aesthetically pleasing material such as wood chips, straw, or shredded leaves, etc. and they will cost you dollars out of pocket. In some 50 years of gardening I have not had a problem with mulches moving due to gravity, although on rare occasions rain fall has and once (a gale) wind did also.

Any mulch material, placed on a slope greater than 10 percent, may be moved fairly easily so some provision to hold that mulch in place will need to be made.

kimmq is kimmsr4

kimmq,

Part of the appeal of these mulch mats, especially hemp, is the fact that you don't have to cover them with anything else, if you like the looks. I have some in my back yard, and I think it's nice looking. As with any mulch, there are some who don't like the looks of it. If you want to cover it with something, then think of the mats as an alternative to synthetic weed fabric.

As for the slope, I agree. There needs to be some provision to hold mulch down. These particular mulch mats are held down with anchors (either metal, plastic, or biodegradable plastic), but the same holds true for newspaper or cardboard, too. At least initially, rocks work fine on paper or cardboard until something is placed on top.

I have not tried anything chipped by tree trimmers (utilities, FREE, or otherwise) cuz I know they don't remove any of the vining weeds (like bittersweet) and just chip up all the seeds on the vines too.

Newspapers aren't very common around here. No one subscribes anymore. It's easier to get cardboard. I like them both and they decompose well in my area

cscrouton has never used newspaper mulch, it is apparent., because her post could not be more error filled.

Annpat,

Curious where the errors are.

Btw, it's cscruton; and I'm a male; and, in fact, I have used newspaper mulch. My father is a print journalist, so getting newsprint was never an issue.

"- difficult to control the quantity (how much is enough; how much is too much?)"

Not really, 4 to 6 pages is ample, more merely blocks air movement into the soil.

"- challenging to place in the wind, especially paper"

Yes, so don't place the paper or cardboard in windy conditions. The same problem will exist with hemp mats or any similar material, wind will blow these around as well.

"- a real mess if it gets wet before final installation"

Wet paper is not easy to work with and tends to tear easily. A number of people have stated otherwise, however.

"- you still have to place something aesthetically pleasing on top, which may move over time due to gravity, water shed, wind, etc."

Newspaper, cardboard, landscape fabric, or other similar weed block mats (including hemp mats) were never meant to be the only mulch material. While they may allow one to use less cover material (wood chips, shredded leaves) they still need that cover to properly function because a thin layer of paper is not going to do what mulches do very well, 1. Aid in suppressing unwanted plant growth, 2. Aid in soil moisture conservation, 3. Aid in soil temperature moderation, and 4. add organic matter to the soil.

I have never seen gravity move mulches, but I have seen rainfall (around an inch an hour or more) move mulches from slopes but not flat planting beds. I have also seen wind
(whole gale usually) move mulches as well as soil

kimmq is kimmsr

Pretty much what Kim just said.

Don't apply in the wind. If it's always windy where you live, yes, don't use a newspaper mulch. (I have laid newspaper in the wind, though. I lay in the direction of the wind with my weight (my seaweed) on hand.) 6 layers of newspaper is always adequate here on my property. Maybe you would need more or less, but it's very easy to figure out. I don't understand your gravity comment, but my newspaper adheres nicely to the ground here in Maine after it gets wet and I have never had it migrate. I have had wood chip mulched paths travel. My yard runs downhill to a lake and sometimes my paths do, too.

A lot of people deliberately wet their newspaper prior to application. They're erring, of course, but, just the same, some misguided people actually prefer applying wet paper to dry.

My reading vision is horrible. I can't even see well enough to see if I misspelled your name. I was surprised to see this morning that I assumed your gender. And got it wrong! Sorry.

Lastly, so what if you have to apply something attractive over newspaper if it means you have a weed-impervious, worm-filled (worms Love! newspaper) gardening season? I cover mine with seaweed and chipped leaves.

I do worry about the ink. I had allowed myself to be reassured about that, but Lisa has made me worry again.

I'm curious, Annpat. Why is it in error to wet newspaper before applying to garden? Wouldn't it make contact with soil better?

Yes, but it's awkward to handle---floppy and wanting to cling to itself. The method has a large following, though.

While I appreciate the feedback, and this discussion is kind of the point of a 'discussion board', I still don't see where my post had "errors". Between the posts of this thread, I have read that between 4-6 layers of newspaper is recommended. Instead of pointing out an error, you actually confirmed my statement. It takes trial and error to find the right amount (i.e. "difficult to control the quantity").

We'll have to agree to disagree about mulch mats and aesthetics. I can only speak to synthetic weed block and hemp mats. The synthetic stuff looks horrible alone, and I don't know anyone who doesn't put something over it. The hemp mats don't need anything over them, unless you don't like the looks. I think that's probably one of the competitive advantages of this product. If it's innovative, that doesn't make it wrong, or "never intended." The website says it can be used alone, so I don't know where the "never intended" comes from.

True about gravity. It takes water, wind, foot traffic, or animals to move mulch on hills, along with gravity. I thought that was kind of assumed at our ages. My gravity comment referred to whatever is put on top of the newspaper on a hill, not the newspaper itself. It's spelled out clearly in my first post.

No worries about the 'errors' in your post, annpat. Just trying to make a point! The term errors is pretty strong...

To be clear, to answer the OP, I have used newspaper as mulch, and it has been successful. There are downsides to using it, just as in any specific type of mulch.

I use newspaper under hay in my vegetable garden. If I had to lament a drawback, I'd say every few years it all does not completely breakdown and I find huge chunks of brittle paper when I rake up in spring. I simply add it back to my compost pile, where it breaks down very quickly. I'm not stymied, but a newbie might be, so if I were giving a class, I might mention that, so newbies aren't discouraged.