Wet newspaper to control weeds

Pat

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I saw this tip on keeping the weeds under control and thought I would pass it on. I have know about layering news paper to control weeds but I didn't know to use wet newspaper.

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Wet newspapers and put layers around the plants overlapping as you go; cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic; they will not get through wet newspapers. (this really works!)
 
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This is an interesting idea. It's the first time when I hear about using wet newspapers. I wouldn't do it in my garden though. I like weeds:) Also, every new little plant that I notice is like a surprise gift:D
 
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I like some weeds too but for the most part I don't want them to overwhelm my garden. I use this method or try to. The weeds tend to look for light through the cracks and find their way out but it is pretty effective. On top of this I use about 6 inches of straw. Some of my gardens need this barrier like the newer ones, the older ones don't seem to.
 
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Although I think it a great tip Pat especially as I've heard of many people saying that both newspapers and cardboard work wonderfully well at suppressing weeds - it is unfortunately - even though I often have an enormous quantity of weeds that spring up every now and again - not one that I will be able to make use of - mainly because I don't have any newspapers - as neither I nor anyone else around here actually read newspapers anymore and come to think of it - haven't seen any for sale recently either :D
 
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This is a really witty tip! Love it! I might actually give this a try in the future :) Thanks a lot for the tip, Pat, I don't think I'd have ever come up with such a good idea on my own, lol. Awesome tip!
 
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I've always laid mine out and then watered them down. I don't know if handling wet newspaper would be any easier for me or not. I might give it a try though, who knows?
 
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i have heard people doing this, but I would rather just use mulch to control the problem. It works just as well, but if you are on a budget this is the way to go.
 
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This won't be much help for the weed problem in our garden as most of the weeds are invading our lawn and I don't want to kill what's left of our grass. However I also get quite a lot of weeds growing in the pots with my bonsai and pre-bonsai trees, so I might experiment with the idea in a couple of the pots where I've got stubborn weeds which keep coming back as quickly as I can pull them out.
 
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I have tried putting down a couple of layers of newspaper and wetting it, but it dries and gets blown around in the wind. I have even put bricks down to hold it in place and still had it eventually blow off the area I was trying to protect. I have been looking for my origami book to see to to make this postcard mat to see if I can cut newspaper strips and connect them in the same way and then lay the mat down.
 
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This is an interesting idea. It's the first time when I hear about using wet newspapers. I wouldn't do it in my garden though. I like weeds:) Also, every new little plant that I notice is like a surprise gift:D

Claudine, you crack me up! I admit i love seeing the pretty little flowers on some wild plants, and I think it's pretty cool when plants many people think of as weeds turn out to be edible or even medicinal. I wish I had more time to learn about positively identifying some of those useful plants that grow in my area.
 
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I don't know how comfortable I would be doing this around edible plants, I would worry about the ink leaching into the soil. Around just the outer flower beds it could be worth a try. I think it would stay put until the squirrels start digging. Do you think that there is any danger of the newspaper starting on fire if it gets to hot and gets to dry? I would hate to have the mulch burning up. I use the black landscape cloth most of the time. While it is true that weeds can grow it is not so much that they come thru, it is more that they grow above the fabric but they have shallow roots and you can pull them out easily.
 
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Claudine, you crack me up! I admit i love seeing the pretty little flowers on some wild plants, and I think it's pretty cool when plants many people think of as weeds turn out to be edible or even medicinal. I wish I had more time to learn about positively identifying some of those useful plants that grow in my area.
What can I say, weeds are pretty:D
I'd love to learn how to identify useful plants too. Unfortunately, many of them look slightly different in real life than in photographs. I wouldn't want to poison myself.
 
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What can I say, weeds are pretty:D

A lot of the weeds in my pots actually turn out to be baby trees which I move to their own pots. I let them grow for a while until they're big enough to turn into bonsai.

Because of this I don't like to pull my weeds out until I've identified them. By that time the undesirable weeds are so well established that it can be difficult to get rid of them.
 
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That's a wonderful surprise! I'd love to find baby trees in my pots:)
Some of my weeds turned out to be miniature ferns. I didn't get rid of them, they grow next to my roses:)
 

zigs

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Looks like the newspapers would make great root runs for Bindweed :D
 

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