Here is the simple, cheap and sustainable way to handle weeds that you have been searching for!
Plants and weeds CANNOT sprout if they are covered with a thick layer of newspaper! (But the soil beneath can still get adequate water because it will permeate through.) This method truly has no down-side.
Directions:
1. Water the bed deeply
2. Place a single layer of ordinary newspaper all over the weeds and in-between the good plants. Like so:
3. Spray all the newspaper down to prevent it from blowing away.
4. Top the paper with mulch. 3 inches of leaves or wood chips or any other mulch.
According to A Garden For The House:
I won’t have to deal with weeds in this bed for at least one season. Another bed I mulched with newspaper remained weed-free for two years in a row.
And here’s another great benefit to newspaper mulching. As the paper decomposes, it (and also the shredded mulch) will provide abundant food for beneficial soil organisms. In fact, if you are cursed with crappy, inert soil, try the newspaper routine as described above. Within one year your earth will be teeming with worms and other soil-building friends.
As a side note, you could use cardboard for this, as well. However, newspaper is a lot easier to work with when you are trying to maneuver it around the plants.
Have you had success with weeds with another method? Please tell us about it! If not, we would be happy to hear your worst weed horror story, too. 🙁
Thank you to agardenforthehouse for this awesome tip! See their site for more pics.
Did it
Did it too, but did nto work
did it and does not work
i use old cracker barrel maps and put mulch over .. works for me, have done this for years
I tried it and they still came up
I have use several sheets of paper and also used cardboard boxes from fridge or wash machine. It looks nice at first but it starts to brake down and the weeds come threw buy the next year!
Ruth Conlin Murphy
I do this every year, and have been for about 20 years now, but instead of mulch in the vegetable garden, I use straw. Some weeds pop thru if the newspaper layers come apart, but since the soil is so moist, weeds pull out easily.
In addition, you water less because the paper/straw keep the ground moist.