Another Garden Tip Using old Newspaper

In my last post I talked about using newspaper to lay out paths that would remain weedless. Well last night in my Temple food crop class I learned another trick involving newspaper and gardening. We were constructing plots that were going to be used by members of the community, the problem was that all of this sunshine and rain has promoted weeds. The weeds completely covered these gardens with some being knee high. We started by dividing the big plot into individual ones using newspaper and wood chips to lay out paths. After words some students started to pull the weeds by hand but this would have taken days to complete. My teacher than showed us this trick. We started by removing any thistle, this is a particularly mean and tough weed that will poke right through any layering on top of it. Thistle is easy to identify by its fuzzy appearance and if you have any in your garden it is recommended that you get rid of it as soon as possible before it takes over. After the thistle was removed we completely covered the plot with newspaper, going at least a few sheets thick and making sure to carefully over lap all the corners of the paper. Then we just covered the newspaper with a layer of finished compost or top soil. This method will fry all the weeds underneath of the paper turning them into nutrients for the garden. When planting the plants in the garden you just cut a hole through the newspaper. The newspaper will allow water to seep through it to your plants roots. Some seeds such as lettuce can even be tossed right on top of the topsoil and the roots will go right down through the newspaper. This is an easy method that avoids pretty much any weeding and is especially good for areas such as a lawn that is being converted to a garden for the first time. The newspaper will compost by next year and you can do the same thing over again.