Newspaper was useful once

[Oliver Buckle]

Newspaper used to be so useful. As a boy i would slice up the sheets and sell them to the local fishmonger to wrap fish and chips, he paid a penny a pound for sliced, only a halfpenny for the whole ones. When i first started gardening I would line the trench for my runner beans with it, and it was great for wrapping fruit to store.
That was when it was made of wood pulp, now they use recycled materials including quite a lot of plastic to get it to hold together. I don't want to bury plastic in my garden, and the texture is all wrong for wrapping things. I know that old people always moan about how much better things used to be, but actually I think they really were.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Newspaper used to be so useful. As a boy i would slice up the sheets and sell them to the local fishmonger to wrap fish and chips, he paid a penny a pound for sliced, only a halfpenny for the whole ones. When i first started gardening I would line the trench for my runner beans with it, and it was great for wrapping fruit to store.
That was when it was made of wood pulp, now they use recycled materials including quite a lot of plastic to get it to hold together. I don't want to bury plastic in my garden, and the texture is all wrong for wrapping things. I know that old people always moan about how much better things used to be, but actually I think they really were.

Is this because you too have become old? I have come to disrespect change myself. When I studied for my BS degree we covered the invention and distribution of toilet paper. A financial failure because the customers hoarded it to make rarer things like writing paper. Eventually behavior changed. I hope we never go back on that one because I truly would not know what to do with doo doo.

 

[Meadowlark]

... I don't want to bury plastic in my garden,...

Cardboard which is the latest rage of no till gardeners comes under the same category. Not for me, not now, not ever.