Newspaper Mulch

[joz]

(I don't know if this is better in the Composting forum, but most of my questions relate to the plants rather than the soil, so.......)

I just cut 3 new 2' wide rows along the fences in my backyard for a veggie garden. My backyard, and two of neighboring yards, are rather overrun with weeds, particularly against the fences (chain link, so great for trellising peas or cukes, but also great for weeds to climb and everyone to argue about which side of the fence the weed originates on and whether or not a weedwacker can reach it... blah blah blah).

I decided to mulch with newspaper, to try to eliminate those weeds and prevent them creeping back into those beds. I trenched a bit along the "front" of each bed and tucked the newspaper down, and then ran the paper up the back fence ~6" and laid some 2x4's on to hold it against the fence.

I know you're supposed to use a pretty thick layer of newspaper to keep the weeds down. How thick? How many sheets? Spread out, or piled together and then laid on?

I'm concerned that water won't penetrate the paper sufficiently to reach the roots below.

And I'm concerned that the paper that dries daily (it's pretty hot/sunny in New Orleans) will eventually become crusty and impervious.

AND I'm concerned that any veggies in lower spots may drown in the collected water before it soaks in and dissipates.

(I didn't do a very good job smoothing the bed before the paper went down, which I didn't notice until the paper went down, and moving a bunch of soggy newspaper is rather difficult.)

I was considering creating (squishing into the fluffy bed) wee pools between the plants, so the water could collect there and then gradually soak into the ground around the plants.

I am planning on putting some pinestraw mulch atop the newspaper, because neither I nor my neighbors want to look at that much newspaper in the yard.

Any thoughts, or links to previous discussions, would be most welcome. The searches I ran didn't turn up much in-depth info.

 

[patandchickens]

No, water won't go thru the newspaper real well until it is in a state where it isn't doing all that much good as a mulch anymore. So IME if you are going to use a significant amount of paper or cardboard as mulch (not just in terms of thickness but in terms of width) you should figure you're going to have to do extra watering, either by hand at the hole where each plant was planted, or with a drip system underneath the paper.

A drip system is by far the best approach IMHO. But hand watering works too. You will not be *losing* as much water with the paper mulch on, at the same time as you're also not gaining as much rainwater, so the difference is not as large as yo might perhaps be concerned about, especially once plants get going and their roots get reasonably deep.

Pine straw mulch on top will be a good addition btw, you may even have to put some branches or boards or something on top for the first couple weeks til things settle down, to keep the paper and pinestraw from blowing awry.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Ridgerunner]

I use two to three layers of newspaper as part of my mulch. If it dries out, you can have a problem with rainwater running off instead of soaking in, but I seldom have that problem. Being in New Orleans, you are going to get more afternoon thunderstorms that I will, but you can also get some pretty good spells of hot and dry.

I cover my newspaper with mulch. I suspect pine straw will work fine. I usually use wheat straw, dried grass trimmings, or year old wood chips. Wind can blow it off an scatter the newspaper, (I had a problem with that around my cabbage and broccoli last spring) but it is surprising how well it does usually stay in place. As Pat said, you might need to put something on top of it to hold it in place. I used strips of wire that I cut from the bottom of my cattle panels that I use to support my tomatoes. Worked great.

I usually don't have a big problem with it drying out under the mulch. If it does get dry, it is time to water anyway. I have not had a problem with water standing on it. It soaks through pretty quickly once it gets moist and mine usually stays moist under the mulch.

It does tremendously cut down on the weeds and helps a lot with the grass. Grass like St Augustine with those runners will go under it and come up through it, but the newspaper helps a lot. With it mulched like that, it is usually not too hard to pull grass and weeds out as long as you don't let it get set up.

I much prefer the newspapers to the black landscaping cloth. The grass roots especially will grow in that and when you pull the grass, the whole cloth comes up.

I just leave the newspaper and mulch in the garden. It has disintegrated by the end of the growing season and I just turn it under when I am ready for the next year's crop.

 

[joz]

Paper's been down 2 weeks now, with a thin layer of pine straw mulch on top. I need more pine straw.

I have this really aggressive grass in my yard, apparently. It's kinda like monkey grass, but finer. 3-6 blades pop in each shoot, and several shoots sprout from a gnarly little root running laterally in the soil.

This grass pokes up through the newspaper (4-8 layers). Stabs a li'l hole and just pokes right up. Crazy. It's also growing UNDER the newspaper and keeping the paper ~3" above my soil.

Freaky.

I'm also having a hard time watering... general watering barely makes it through the top layer of pine straw, nevermind to/through the newspaper. I poked the hose right up against each plant yesterday, hoping to get water through the hole in the paper mulch. My soil does still seem damp under the paper, tho, so I suppose it's working. I'd know better if the slugs would lay off my seedlings.

Next time I do this, I'll run the drip irrigation on the beds first, then plant, THEN put down the paper around the plants, and the mulch on top (twice as much as I think I need). I think I'll try straw next time... I believe the slugs came in with the pine straw.

 

[thistlebloom]

Joz, what's monkey grass?
The grass your having trouble with sounds suspiciously like bermuda.
Crushed eggshells do a good job of discouraging slugs and snails.
Also putting boards down for them to hide under during the day and then scraping them into a bucket of water with a bit of vinegar in it, will help cut down on them.

 

[joz]

Monkey Grass / Liriope:

I don't think it's Bermuda Grass... that stuff appears to be like Centipede Grass, where the blades erupt sort-of individually from a runner that's above ground.

I'll try to get some pictures of it tonight when I get home from work.

 

[silkiechicken]

I used newspaper as a mulch/weed barrier around fruit trees. I laid them down so water funneled to the root of the tree. I'd say the circles were about 8 feet in diameter, with a square foot of uncovered area around the root so water could get to the tree.

As for thickness.... I had about a yard worth of news paper stashed away. The stacks of paper were mounded up about three times the thickness of a sunday newspaper. Perhaps 1.5- 2 inches thick solid of newspaper laid down in roofing style going down to the trunk, and then with an additional 3-4 inches of mulch on top. So far so good, and only some grass creeping in from the edges.

 

[ashleyjames222]

I am glad to read your post thanks


Daily Express

 

[trunkman]

Joz, I don't know what you would call the grass in the second picture but you never get rid of it, I've been fighting it in my raised beds for years! Although I have to admit I kind of enjoy pulling it just to see how long a piece I can end up with without breaking it...

 

[SweetMissDaisy]

Joz, I don't know what you would call the grass in the second picture but you never get rid of it, I've been fighting it in my raised beds for years! Although I have to admit I kind of enjoy pulling it just to see how long a piece I can end up with without breaking it...

We have that grass here, and it is IMPOSSIBLE! And I don't recommend pulling it bare-handed. I've sliced open fingers pulling that stuff. Argh!!!