Newspapers as weed suppressant

My favorite use of newspapers after the reading is done is to keep the weeds down in the garden.  Newspaper works as well as any black fabric you buy on the roll.  Newspaper is available for the asking,  breaks down slowly (especially if you add multiple layers) and adds a bit of carbon back into the soil (so you're amending the soil at the same time).

I had a mess in this flower bed at the end of our deck.  The iris tubers and daylily bulbs were so thick that they were going to be too crowded to bloom the beautiful flowers I'd come to expect each spring.  So I threw caution to the wind, dug all of the bulbs out of this bed area and then replanted only a handful, leaving plenty of space for these to grow and divide and muliply over the next few years.

The only problem with this project was that I now had lots of space for all the weeds to thrive and grow, too.  Newspaper was the answer...and it really does work like a charm.

If you don't subscribe to a local newspaper, ask a neighbor or a friend who does subscribe and may be willing to save some for you.  Give it a try and if you're up for the challenge, take some photos and share them with me.  I would love to see some other folks using this inexpensive and earth friendly way of keeping those weeds down!