Do you have the perfect sunny spot for a garden, except that it is currently covered with lawn? You can make it into a garden spot with a little time and very little work.
Start collecting newspaper. Save the part of the newspaper that doesn't include the ads. The ads are generally made out of a different, shinier paper. Regular newspaper uses soy-based dyes, which decompose quickly and don't harm the environment. Ads on shiny paper may contain petroleum-based dyes which don't decompose for a long time and can be harmful to plants and people
Pick a garden spot. Make sure it gets at least 6 hours of sun if you want to use it for vegetables or sun-loving flowers.
Cover with 4-6 layers of newspaper, and use compost, grass clippings, dirt, or (temporarily) rocks to keep the wind from blowing the paper away. Watering down the paper helps it stay in place, and if it gets snowed on that's fine, too. In six weeks the paper will have mostly decomposed, the grass underneath will have disappeared, and you now have a patch to plant vegetables and flowers in. It works amazingly well and is a good way to recycle your newspaper. If your weeds got away from you last summer, you can use this method to keep them from germinating this spring. Just lay down a layer of paper over the problem spot and new weeds won't grow.
Cover with 4-6 layers of newspaper, and use compost, grass clippings, dirt, or (temporarily) rocks to keep the wind from blowing the paper away. Watering down the paper helps it stay in place, and if it gets snowed on that's fine, too. In six weeks the paper will have mostly decomposed, the grass underneath will have disappeared, and you now have a patch to plant vegetables and flowers in. It works amazingly well and is a good way to recycle your newspaper. If your weeds got away from you last summer, you can use this method to keep them from germinating this spring. Just lay down a layer of paper over the problem spot and new weeds won't grow.
No comments:
Post a Comment