Control weeds with cardboard

[Pat]

I have seen articles suggesting covering the ground with cardboard to help control weeds. I do have an area that I would like to control the weeds and I have some cardboard I am about to throw out but could use in the garden to control weeds.

Has anyone here had experience with the cardboard on the ground to control weeds?

 

[Trellum]

My dad tried it a while ago, and it seemed to help a little, but I'd not say it helped to completely get rid of the problem, at least not a 100% but close enough

 

[Chuck]

It is OK for short term, but then the cardboard decomposes and then becomes compost and fertilizer for a new crop of weeds. And when the cardboard is about halfway decomposed it is very unsightly and impossible to pick up. If used in a place where it doesn't matter if it becomes unslightly, like between the rows of you veggie garden, its great. And if you keep adding more cardboard on top of the old cardboard you will eventually get rid of the weeds.

 

[majorcatfish]

been fighting them for over a decade, far as i can tell it's been a mexican stand off here. i pull spray they still find a way to grow...

 

[Chuck]

been fighting them for over a decade, far as i can tell it's been a mexican stand off here. i pull spray they still find a way to grow...

I find grasses much more difficult to get rid of than broadleaf weeds. On the weeds all I do is keep them mowed so they don't go to seed and about this time of year I burn them. This doesn't get them all but does make them manageable. On grasses I have yet to find a way to manage them without nuking the place with chemicals. I use my propane pear burner a lot on them and it helps but not even semi-permanent to getting rid of them.

 

[SeniorCitizen]

I've found cardboard to be excellent for weed control but in my area wind is often a problem and finding a way to solve that may be more of a challenge than cultivation.

 

[claudine]

I've never tried it and I don't think I ever will. Cardboard doesn't look nice at all. I'd much rather let
little weeds grow than cover the space with something so ugly.

 

[Greenhorn]

In a way it's just another form of mulch. I think I would just stick with something a little more conventional for both astetics and soil improvement. I find if you can get things somewhat cleaned up, then get a few inches of mulch on it.... give it a little time and a little mantainance here and there and you'll be all set.

 

[amelia88]

I think it sounds okay in theory but I too worry about the aesthetics of it and also just how well it would work...like Chuck already mentioned, my worry would be that it would decompose pretty fast and then serve to feed a bunch of new weeds!

 

[IcyBC]

I believe it will work for a short time but like Chuck said, it will become decomposed and then you will have a fertile ground for more weed, lol..

 

[Beth_B]

Agree with the others...I've done it and it works fine short term, like in our relatively short growing season here I use it around the vegetable beds. (But the creeping charlie always finds a way to get past it!)

I've also used cardboard in the perennial beds, then put bark mulch over it.

 

[Pat]

Thanks for the good information. I have a spot in the back that I would like to use to let things like the cardboard decompose with other natural materials from the yard. The space that has the most weeds may not be the best place to use the cardboard.

 

[Corzhens]

I had been to a lake resort recently and near the parking are is a big vegetable garden. The plots are covered with black plastic that has holes where the plants are - eggplant, bitter gourd, string beans and other vegetables. When I asked the caretaker why the black plastic covering of their plots, he said that weeds are discouraged to grown with that black plastic covering so they are saved from the chore of weeding.

 

[Beth_B]

I had been to a lake resort recently and near the parking are is a big vegetable garden. The plots are covered with black plastic that has holes where the plants are - eggplant, bitter gourd, string beans and other vegetables. When I asked the caretaker why the black plastic covering of their plots, he said that weeds are discouraged to grown with that black plastic covering so they are saved from the chore of weeding.

I can see that sort of working but in a hot climate like yours, wouldn't it overheat the soil unless covered over with something that deflects sunlight?

Other things I've used: carpet scraps; which lasts longer than cardboard, and used roofing shingles (my research indicated that old used ones are so degraded they no longer have anything left to leach into the soil. I hope that's true because I'm using them in my main asparagus bed!)

 

[bmcleod19]

That'd be cool and strange if it worked!