Cardboard vs Newspaper for Sheet Mulching and Lasagna Gardening?

No video

Cardboard vs Newspaper for Sheet Mulching and Lasagna Gardening?

Рет қаралды 21,502

10 ай бұрын

What decomposes faster - newspaper or cardboard - when they are used in sheet mulching or lasagna gardening?
Become a better gardener, Subscribe: www.youtube.com...
Share with a friend: • Cardboard vs Newspaper...
-----------------------
Free Stuff:
Free Garden eBook: 24 1/2 Garden Design Ideas:
www.gardenfunda...
-----------------------
My Books:
Garden Myths:
www.gardenmyths...
Building Natural Ponds:
www.buildingnat...
Soil Science for Gardeners
www.gardenfund...
------------------------
Free Resources:
Garden Fundamentals Blog - lots of gardening information:
www.gardenfunda...
Garden Fundamentals Facebook Group:
/ gardenfundamentals
My Garden Myths Blog:
www.gardenmyths...
Building Natural Ponds Facebook Group:
/ buildingnaturalponds
-----------------------
Recommended Playlists
Seed Germination - Everything you need to know:
• Improved paper towel a...
Garden Myths:
• Epsom Salt Myths - lea...
-----------------------
Cardboard or Newspaper for Sheet Mulching? - How fast do they decompose?
List of Credits:
Images:
All slides and videos belong to GardenFundamentals.com or are public domain images, except for the following:

Пікірлер: 51

@sbffsbrarbrr 10 ай бұрын

Thank you for taking a year to make this video 😁. I use cardboard all the time when I'm expanding garden beds. It does take a year or more to decompose but since the main purpose is to kill the grass and weeds that's fine with me. I start in late summer or early fall, cover the grass with cardboard and cover that with grass clippings, leaves and mulch and edge if there's time. If I want to plant anything in the new area in spring, I just use a utility knife to cut an "x" or a circle in the cardboard. Takes some patience but worth it.

@sarahwbs 10 ай бұрын

I like that it takes a while to decompose. If I use this method I'm using it as a replacement for landscape fabric (which I hate), so I don't want it to decompose quickly, I just want it to decompose *eventually*.

@annebuchanan3200 10 ай бұрын

I agree. I put it down over grass that I wanted rid of, but didn’t want to dig all up. Covered the cardboard with mulch as a path and it worked great. Grass died, kept the weeds away from the path all summer.

@larrysbrain1627 10 ай бұрын

Landscape fabric and newspapers and others are bad ideas, because they don't address the issue: weed seeds. Experience showed me that cardboard, solarization, and a fresh mulch every season keeps all weeds down to a bare minimum. Happy gardening

@brt5273 10 ай бұрын

For years i've been using cardboard for weed suppression. every year I put down a layer of compost and organic matter, a layer of card board on top of that, wet the cardboard to easily make planting holes, plant, and then mulch on top of that. Next year repeat. Works wonderfully

@jimmypautz 10 ай бұрын

I've done this with compost and soil mixed on top of the cardboard (to establish a vegetable garden). I've had it mostly break down in a 2-3 months, so that I can easily plant in it. I think the moisture retention properties of compost will break it down more quickly than just topping it with mulch.

@jesse4530 9 ай бұрын

I had bermuda grass grow right through cardbord and a thick layer of hardwood shavings in 2 months of summer. The cardbord and shavings were still there but the bermuda grew right through it. The plastic landscape fabric is the only stuff that will supress it. But it only supresses it. It still grows under it but wont thrive or spread.

@sandiepetersonsellsraleigh 5 ай бұрын

I am in the Piedmont area of North Carolina and I use cardboard under 6” of my triple shredded pine mulch. We get a lot of rain and the triple shredded mulch keeps its moisture very well. My cardboard is usually mostly gone in 12 months.

@YoomarTuNoOmar 10 ай бұрын

I wonder how much it relates to the region. This experiment took place in Canada and it has a frost season that goes from October to March as far as i know, while I live in a hot tropical climate where even in the coldest season temperatures do no usually drop below 10°C. In such conditions, it may take just a fraction of the time to fully decompose.

@pudellvr 10 ай бұрын

Zones make a world of difference! Down here in SOUTHERN zone 8a that stuff is gone in about half the time. We frequently have temperatures above 60 degrees throughout the winter. Our surface soil temperatures stay in the 50’s.

@GARDENER42 Ай бұрын

I used cardboard last year on my new allotment. Out in the open, the cardboard was mostly gone in four months. I'm still finding fragments of cardboard in the polytunnel 15 months later. What it DID do was as intended; smother most of the weeds. As for planting; I cut holes through the cardboard & planted through.

@jeil5676 10 ай бұрын

I've been saving up cardboard boxes for a year and planned on laying it as mulch in a perennial garden to tackle a very troublesome ground elder infestation. I'm glad cardboard lasts longer so it may be effective over winter and through spring. Hopefully it will help me starve out the pest. I thought this idea might help others who may have similar problems. Thanks for the subject timely video and NEVER PLANT GROUND ELDER, NOT EVEN THE VARIEGATED VAR.! You will regret it. I realize a thick layer of wood chips or leaves might be as effective but I'm hoping this will allow me to use less wood chips, otherwise i would need a full pallet of product due to size of the bed.

@DDGLJ 10 ай бұрын

I always thought lasagna composting was a labor-saving method for converting sod to a usable bed, and that the purpose of the cardboard was not just to provide compost, but also to kill the grass. This takes quite a long time. I’m not sure how folks got the idea that it was a good for much else. However, RED gardens, a large-scale experimental garden in England, used this method and the cardboard broke down so fast (2-3 months) it didn’t even prevent unwanted plants from sprouting. They deemed it unsuccessful- but for another purpose it might be considered very successful. So success really depends why you’re using this method, and where you live.

@youcandoitgardening 10 ай бұрын

These are such good points.

@michaeldossett9046 10 ай бұрын

I think a lot depends on when you lay it. As you say, temperature and moisture. By laying in October of course nothing will happen for several months. Your cardboard didn't take 12 months to disappear - it took one growing season. Have done the same thing here laying cardboard under 6 inches of arborist chips in June. By September or October, it was essentially gone except in a few spots on the edge where it became exposed and didn't stay moist. I suspect that if you had done the same thing in spring, you would find them gone by fall and would not say it takes 12 months.

@judymckerrow6720 10 ай бұрын

Thank you Mr.P . 🎃🍂🍁💚🙃

@AJWGBFX 10 ай бұрын

Here in the rainy north west of england, carboard and 4 sheets newspaper decompose in about 3 months when covered in well rotted cow manure. I wish it lasted longer!! If i want to plant in that are before decomposition, i just blast through the paper/cardboard with a bulb planter. BTW many people still stress about inks in newspaper and carboard. They are made from Soya! The newspaper companies don't want to poison their readers, they have few enough as it is 😂😂

@Gardenfundamentals1 10 ай бұрын

The nitrogen from the manure is what is speeding up decomposition.

@maryannferencak3799 10 ай бұрын

I'm in zone 8b tallahassee fl. I use cardboard covered with manure and compost, topped with several inches of wood chips. I've created several large beds this way in the Fall and when I planted in the spring, I didn't see any cardboard. I think the manure and compost aid decomposition a great deal.

@Gardenfundamentals1 10 ай бұрын

Yes - the manure is adding extra nitrogen which speed up decomposition.

@648Roland 10 ай бұрын

Don't get much cardboard but when I do it gets used as a liner for my leaf mold stacks that are contained by 1/2" galv. square mesh. Much better than chicken wire in the reusability stakes.

@dgblac0 10 ай бұрын

Great video, i really enjoyed watching.

@kafinn5302 10 ай бұрын

Very informative video !

@maureenmckenna5220 Ай бұрын

Have used both. Cardboard takes about a year to fully degrade. Depends on the thickness of the cardboard. Even 15 layers of newspaper is gone within a few months. A note about cardboard. It does attract beneficial worms, but also attracts termites. I have put it near my foundation, but probably will not in the future. There it will be newspaper, but thick as can be. Either really works well for weeds. Free and available, these are both alternatives to landscape fabric which is a disaster for soil and plants like. Fabric forces plant roots to find water at the surface, where its roots grow through the fabric and not down into the ground. The plants grow, but not great. Second, the fabric deprives the soil of nutrients, sun and air. It is permeable, but not very. Over time, and I saw this result in three years, the soil underneath is grey, rutted and looks totally unhealthy. Ripped it out, with great effort, and used cardboard from then on. Found the same result wherever I had put it in. Awful soil. It also does not prevent weeds, which grow in the mulch used to cover it.

@xuyahfish 2 ай бұрын

I put cardboard down to suppress weeds & then add wood mulch on top. The carboard disappears within less than a year, min of 5-6 months. I'm in Zone 6.

@xuyahfish 2 ай бұрын

I've done this every year & use containers bc my soil is full of rocks & boulders. I've found over recent years the soil quality has greatly improved where I've been mulching. By the time my boxes break down, I think the soil will be good enough to plant most things in!

@LLTization 9 ай бұрын

I, am going to line my elevated Trug beds with seriously perforated cardboard hoping the shredded like treatment will speed up the zone 7b process.

@jeanpauldupuis 10 ай бұрын

Because it takes a year to do the experiment, it is good to do many variations in parallel. I'm curious whether soaking the paper in compost tea would affect the results. The experiment would be: brew a batch of ultra-vile anaerobic slime for a month; soak a sheet of cardboard and a roll of newspaper in the slime for a week; finally do the lay-and-cover experiment with the treated materials alongside untreated controls. If treatment makes a difference, the treated materials should disappear much sooner (many weeks sooner) than the controls. Moreover the treated materials should exhibit mycorrhizae vastly in excess of the controls.

@oneirosailing5572 10 ай бұрын

Worms love cardboard, 10b. I always place 3-4 sheets down on the pathways before the rain season starts in September then again in February to keep moisture from evaporating as we don’t have anymore rain for 4-5 months. The winter sheets get eaten incredibly fast during the wet period. (10 cm of straw is placed on the cardboard)

@Gardenfundamentals1 10 ай бұрын

That is a myth. There is almost no nourishment in paper or cardboard. They only eat it if there is nothing better to eat.

@oneirosailing5572 10 ай бұрын

@@Gardenfundamentals1 I should send you pictures during the months of rain, when I lift the cardboard the surface of the soil has many worms. Also in the worm bin I place bits of brown paper and cardboard, they love it and they have tons of other stuff to eat. We don’t see worms after March, they dive down for protection from the heat, the resurface when the soil gets saturated and temperatures drop considerably. I’m really amazed at how quickly organic material disappears in Greece compared to the north of Europe

@Bongwell420 10 ай бұрын

I use both the worms love both of them, its my worms home so I let them decide, shredded is perfect for bed, and whole piece's are great for them to crawl in and lay babies

@Bongwell420 10 ай бұрын

#LivingSoilLife #LoyalToTheSoil

@lorrainedurgee1761 4 ай бұрын

If y don’t want things to grow - like weeds - I use 2-3 sheets of cardboard to walk on - your right about cardboard not decomposing -

@johnnotgiven9219 10 ай бұрын

How much does it rain on them? Or how often is the area watered? One big variable!

@kurks001 10 ай бұрын

I wonder if disturbing the soil to observe the progress slows the decomposition in any meaningful way.

@tumarfa 10 ай бұрын

I'm in zone 8a and put cardboard in some raised beds in April. It's still there after 6 months, only about half decomposed. But besides that, I don't enjoy the thought of ink and bleach etc. from newspaper getting into the soil. On the other hand, I'm not sure what cardboard has been treated with, or whether either of them should even be viewed as harmful.

@Ibis333 10 ай бұрын

I use packing paper. It's cheap (often free) and is not printed on and has no dye or adhesive. It's still bleached but I don't imagine the residual amount of that could possibly be more than what is found in tap water. Four layers is thick enough to kill grass/suppress most weeds with just a small layer of compost & mulch on top. Probably two layers would be enough in a raised bed situation.

@tumarfa 10 ай бұрын

@@Ibis333 Good idea! Thx.

@gimpygardner3377 10 ай бұрын

I wonder if newspaper lasts longer because it is bleached? Cardboard would be more natural fibers. I was an electrician, so I'm just asking.

@648Roland 10 ай бұрын

Do you have any concerns about the inks used on the newspaper having a negative effect on the surrounding soil?

@gimpygardner3377 10 ай бұрын

I think most ink is now soy based products. It's supposed to be harmless.

@lovism6590 6 ай бұрын

I think it would decompose more if you used a more nitrogen rich organic matter.

@domenickmilano 10 ай бұрын

I have a lot of cardboard, Amazon boxes. What’s a newspaper? Lol I use cardboard for that reason

@tvbox6955 10 ай бұрын

Aren't there harmful chemicals in the cardboard adhesive that remain in the soil after decomposition?

@Gardenfundamentals1 10 ай бұрын

very low levels - not enough to make a different when it is used this way.

@TheFixIsIn-fe1jy 6 ай бұрын

I think because the worms like the cardboard better than the paper, it doesn't have ink printing all over it.

@rezganger 10 ай бұрын

what? people put down that stuff and wait??? for many years ive done this: i put down 4 layers of newspaper,1-2 inches of compost,and whatever soil i will grow in. thats it! never had anything grow thru.

@lorrainedurgee1761 4 ай бұрын

I posted this video march 2024

@martingisser273 2 ай бұрын

Disgusting! Newspaper? Garbage! Cardboard? Also garbage! Yuck! Not in my garden. Industrial paper is almost as garbage-y as microplastic shedding plastic sheets. I refuse to start trashing Earth already in my garden. That spot at least should be kept clean. (To suppress weeds from creeping in I use fermented grass and grow counter-weeds. To clear new ground from grass and weeds I do hay/woodchip potatoes.)