I’ve used this method with much success but the game changer was learning I could go to Sam’s Club and pull “slip sheets” for free- these are the 4x4 plain cardboard sheets that are found between layers of product on the myriad pallets found in the store. I wanted to share this with the GA family! No cutting down boxes and ripping tape off. I fold it in half and pile the cart high!

As someone who works at a plant that produces cardboard, using it for flower beds works great but I would never use it with vegetable or edible gardening. The chemicals that are used to produce the cardboard are toxic and not made for consumption. Keep that in mind also if you live on a well system that it eventually makes it's way into your drinking water.

Who else is sitting here sipping coffee watching Laura plant all these plants? She's a beast in the garden not to mention being a momma. Wow just wow Laura you amaze us!

Paul & Bethany are work beasts !!!!

Have used cardboard and newspaper for years. Highly recommend it to anyone.

I’ve been gardening for 35 years, I wish I had known about using cardboard and compost to make new beds years ago! I used to double dig to work in soil amendments, sometimes using a rotor tiller. Before doing that I’d have to remove the sod! It was SO MUCH work! I love this no dig method!

I’m on a 1/3 acre that’s a blank slate and I’ve done the cardboard method! I think it’s easy and is instant gratification to our space. 10-10 recommend!🙌🏼

I often put down cardboard, leftover straw from Halloween, shredded leaves and then compost to fill new raised beds. It's worked beautifully for me.

As a Girl Scout leader of many years, if you are looking for free cardboard contact a local Girl Scout troop between January and March. They may be willing to save empty cases for you. My troop personally dumps tons of them. You can also reach out to local counsels to help you find one.

I started marigolds inside and this is the first time my seedlings were strong. Our walkway is lined with marigolds and all but 1 survived. So proud of myself. I cant wait til next year now lol

Douglas is back. Also thank you for supporting cardboard use. My neighbors think I’m weird.

Loved and used this method since finding Charles Dowding on KZfaq 10 years ago! The worms GO CRAZY for cardboard😍

I'm just here to say that this is the first gardening video I found my husband watching over my shoulder at the start, he then proceeded to tell me how WE need THAT! I was so excited he finally sees gardening as the great thing it is....... Then he says 'with THAT dozer I'd be doing all kinds of cool stuff! But I could also use that 5 car garage, you know to store the dozer in!' 😐

Sometimes do you just stand with your mouth hanging open in amazement of all Y’all have done !!! It’s incredible !!!🎉🎉

Laura, the cardboard method is a game changer 😊 I’ve also used brown paper grocery bags 2 to 3 layered on top of each other ,especially in my raised beds and it works beautifully , the paper bags break down by summers end ! 😊

You work so hard Laura. There should be a holiday for your efforts and to praise all hard working gardeners creating their color spots of beauty for our pollinators ❤❤❤

Cardboard IS the gardener's friend! (Especially when dealing with noxious weeds like Bishop's weed!) It doesn't eradicate it (nothing does,) but it does knock it down enough to make it doable. I only wish I'd known about using cardboard 30 years ago! Looks beautiful!

I have done this for years, newspaper and paper grocery bags also work great. This is nothing new been using this for years, I actually have cardboard on my walking paths as I type waiting to have rock placed! I have been gardening for 40 years and this is a common method to use in Illinois. Have a great day everyone.

So happy that you're showing this method of using cardboard to block weeds. It works GREAT! Love all your videos with your cheerful enthusiasm and knack for accomplishing huge projects easily. You make anything possible.

Your neighbors really lucked out with you as a neighbor

Charles Dowding a market gardener in the UK I think really is responsible for promoting this method n making it now so popular. His gardens are beautiful n so productive. Check him out! He has written many books as well. Nice man, so knowledgeable.

I have used this method for years and years as I have 100s of acreas of different gardens. It's the best

I have a Douglas kitty too!! Everyone that meets him thinks his name is so funny, glad to meet another one from the rare Douglas kitty tribe LOL. His full name is Douglas Lamar English lol. I got sidetracked, happens easily! Back to your video...thank you for showing us how you did your cardboard. As you said, there are many others saying it works but seeing the lawn vs. woodchips vs. cardboard is really helpful for deciding which route I want to go. 😊

I reclaimed a chunk on our property this winter/spring with this method and now it is our flower cutting garden! The seeds and seedlings are thriving and the only weed that is coming through is bindweed and as we all know, not much is going to suppress that so were managing that manually as it pops up. Bonus when we ordered a new mattress and they left the box. Then I asked what other boxes they had in that delivery truck and they gave me a truckload!

The cardboard method helps me so much. At 61 year old, it saves my back! The earthworms love it too!

I love using cardboard to create gardens- it brings in the worms 🪱 too! ❤ Plus saves sore knees and ankles with arthritis

Laura, you and Aaron are what this country is really all about. I love when I see where you and Aaron are now I I think about Aaron saying how he had to sell his lap top to buy the house. So many sacrifices for where you are today once again I love your hard working attitude. I wish I had half.

I absolutely LOVE doing the cardboard method. I learned about it a few years ago, and since then it is the only way I make a new bed. Not only does it suppress grass and weeds, it holds moisture and attracts worms. My horrible clay soil (so bad you could make pottery out of it), actually improves in the cardboard and compost areas. I have one new bed that I just put it two weeks ago, and it looks great, and I am hoping to get another one cardboard and composted in the next few days. It was so wonderful to see that you use the same method in your gorgeous gardens. Thank you for showing us.

I did the cardboard process a year ago to extend my flower beds in my small track home yard, and it turned out fantastic! You are right when you shared how much labor it saves. Fun to see it done on a larger scale!

I live vicariously through y’all for the start of a lovely sunny gardening season 😆I’m in Scotland and we take a little longer to get going 🙄(wouldn’t be anywhere else though). You keep my spirits up for a sunny Summer 🎉😂❤

Great to show this! I use 12 layers of newspaper overlapped, wet down and then covered with fine mulch in old flower beds. I have purchased rolls of newsprint for this. Also brown paper bags work well. Cardboard works best for grassy areas, but I do soak it down and sometimes put some landscape staples in it, then put fine mulch on top. I like to keep it wet for a couple of weeks because if it dries out a big windstorm can shift it around.

Love watching Laura work. Her method is so efficient, organized and time saving. My kind of style. I sometimes get frustrated watching other gardeners who don’t have this skill and seem to waste so much time and work so unorganized. Must be the type A in me that gets triggered. 😆 But Laura, I could watch all day. ❤

I love the cardboard method. Since you first featured this in your videos, I have used it many times with great success around my yard and garden. I also put cardboard down around my vine crops to suppress the weeds and it works great! I work at a flower shop so I have access to nice large, heavy cardboard boxes that flowers are delivered in. I highly recommend this method.

Many years ago when we built our home; I used to get a gardening magazine called Garden Gate and that’s where I got this idea. You can also use 5 sheets of newspaper paper black and white ink only. It kills the grass and makes great nitro humus for the plants. Works amazing.

I don’t know how I missed this cardboard trick to creating a flower bed. Thank you for GA and GA friends for sharing.😊

Yes the cardboard method works well for sure! Reminder to people to not use the ones with the heavy labeling on them. Example: diaper boxes Breaking down the boxes is a good project for kids to be involved in!

DOES NOT WORK WITH THE DEVILS GRASS - AKA BERMUDA GRASS - but I"m glad it works well for you in your area!

Good morning, Laura ☕️I used the cardboard last year and it worked well! So much easier than pulling up the grass. That border is gorgeous! Paul & Bethany are amazing workers!👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 The cut flower garden is filling up nicely!😍Have a Blessed Day 😊🐈🐈

Moved into our first house, no landscaping on the property. Used cardboard and layed 6-8" of chopped leaves from a trash pile, gathered up old woodchips and lawn clippings. Didnt have a truck, so I lined my Jetta's trunk with a tarp and hailed load after load 😂 it worked great! Had a few cases where wiregrass came through where it was thin, and you'll still have to take a little hand hoe to strip out the violets that grow through but it's SO much easier! Highly recommend. Plant it up densely so you dont have to weed it except once in a rare while. The insect life and variety exploded :D

We use grocery paper! It’s much thinner but we save up when we make groceries. We do not use it on this kind of a scale. We layer it just the same and we don’t worry about tape or staples or print since they are typically plain brown paper.

No questions today...just a thank you. You're truly an inspiration and an encouragement. I have been wanting to do this and I'm currently saving cardboard, but haven't done it yet as I too have been skeptical. You showing this gives me the push to just go for it! Thank you!

I’ve used the cardboard method several times with great success…another thrifty and effective route is newspaper for smaller areas. Again, no glossy or highly inked/colorful supplements, (just black & white newsprint) works great with about a 5-6 layer thickness. Of course wind is a factor with newspaper, but I wet it down right away which helps. Both the cardboard and newspaper methods are eco friendly, budget friendly and effective! Thanks for spreading the word Laura.

The cardboard method, game changer! Used it several times over the last couple of years to create flower beds and currently a bed around a new patio. I make sure minimal print on cardboard and as you said remove tape. I layered it with compost, soil conditioner and mulch. The bed I’ve had the longest contains Hibiscus, A climbing rose bush and several other perennials and is doing fantastic. Lisianthus! I tried several attempts at starting from seedlings in January (inside of course). Out of 24 ended up with one! Slowest growing plant I have ever encountered. Patience is a Virtue I was not gifted with! The one however is looking fantastic since being potted outside about 2 months ago. Cannot wait to see it bloom. I will probably try again next year and now know what to expect.

I did this last weekend to expand one of my borders. My husband was watching me with suspicion, but only after a week, it looks great. My back is also thanking me, it was so much easier than digging up the turf

Cardboard is where it’s at! I’ve had great success with it and zero success with landscape fabric. I feel like fabric encourages growth by trapping heat. I will be using a small flame thrower (for real!) to get at the truly stubborn weeds under the brick portions of my yard. Also have found that comfrey teas and chop ‘n drop nettle teas make excellent fertilizers. I really don’t trust anything from the stores; even those that bill themselves as organic. Basically, all things permaculture have thus far worked well for me. I just received my first Black Pearl Lisianthus seeds and am super excited. They’re so pretty and unusual. It’ll be great seeing how your big collection of them turns out. Best of luck!

I love using cardboard in my garden. It cuts down on weeds, tremendously, and worms love it once it has broken down. So when I shut the garden down for the winter (Zone 6a), I lay the cardboard down and cover with straw/hay, which also breaks down and feeds the soil. Although, I noticed this past winter that since our temperatures did not get too cold, some of the cardboard did not break down, which I took up and put into my compost bin. And these were only small pieces, like may seven total. All the Best to You!

I learned the cardboard method years ago from Eden garden. You can always add more on top later as it decomposes and add more mulch on top. The sod adds nitrogen back into the soil as it decomposes too. Love this method. Kudos to Paul and Bethany Bethany for their hard work!

The cardboard method works very well. I've used this many times, but only for flowerbeds - not in the vegetable beds. Lisianthus is the flower I buy in Winter at the grocery to perk me up. It lasts forever in a vase.

Thank you, Laura and team. Every moment is instructional. I love to start every morning watching GA and reruns on most Saturdays. Thank you to your entire family❤

In South Carolina, I remove the sod, put my chicken run compost full of weed seeds over the rock hard clay, then cardboard, then arborist woodchips. And it's still a fight to keep the Bermuda, crabgrass, and centipede down. In a couple of years it's beautiful to plant in though! I'm super glad this method works for some! So much easier.

I LOVE the music today!!!

I've been using cardboard for years. Works great! We use it in our garden after our first till. We plant, add the cardboard down the rows, and then add some straw. Game changer for us! There are a few weeds around the plants, but it saves us from tilling. By spring of next year, it's all broken down. Our soil remains great. Love this method! ❤ Love your channel!

Laura we used landscape fabric two years in a row. The following year's I was planting new things. I hated when trying to pull weeds etc and getting the fabric. Someone where I live mentioned the cardboard method. It works and you don't have to worry about trying to get up the fabric. I stopped using landscaping fabric 9 years ago. We recently moved with a bigger back yard. I have ordered different things online. I saved the cardboard boxes and removed any tape. We went to the liquor store that had free boxes. We took the tape off and have them in one of our sheds. We used some of the cardboard for plants I had at the last place. So we planted those using the cardboard method. I love how it looks. It looks amazing! We did water our down as we had some gusty winds a few weeks ago. I am sticking with the cardboard method forever. I love how your area looks. I signed up for the wood chips program but never got an email or call. We don't want to use wood chips too close to the house as it can attract carpenter ants. So we used it (we bought) far away from our home. I am going to try and get the wood chips this year. But we shall see.

So excited getting this party started

Good morning! The area that was just mulched over the grass look so nice. Such an easy way to kill off a large amount of grass and make it look fresh and clean too!

I really admire your beautiful gardens, and I'm so jealous at the wonderful variety you have. I have soooooo much trouble here with deer and groundhogs that my choices are limited if I don't want to do all that work just to provide them with breakfast, lunch, and supper. Sigh. Either way, you inspire to get out there and get 'er done!!

Greeting's from Ireland, We live live in a cottage in rural Ireland which we bought over twenty years ago. We have four flower bed's and lot's of pot's in the front garden. I dug up the flower bed's with a spade twenty years ago and planted them. Ten year's ago I picked up a book in a garden centre by Charles Dowding on no dig gardening. A decision was made and we fenced off the bottom part of the back garden and created a no dig veg garden and used homemade compost that I was already using to mulch the front flower beds. Now that I am retired, I have more time on my hands and I'm thinking of creating no dig flower beds out in the back garden. I wont need to buy plant's because early next spring I will be digging and splitting up mature plants in the front garden and planting them into the back garden.

You guys are making good use of that new bobcat!

I've done this for raised beds. It worked really well.

We used just topsoil over the grass, then mulch. And no grass ever came up. But this method looks BRILLIANT!

Good morning everyone! It looks so good! The cardboard under mulch is the best! Blessings 🙏🏻💞

I was always team “sod removal “, the last flower bed I created I did the cardboard method. So far, full success!

I have a lot of elevation in my property. I tried this on a 20 degree slope but my landscape folks asked me to remove it because the sweet peat would not stay in place with it. So, if you have level land it works great but not so well on hills. I am glad that it is working so well for you!

You’re both so amazing. I have to go take a nap cause your hard work made me tired.

This cardboard idea is becoming SO POPULAR!!! Thanks for showing us how its done. 🥰🥰😃 Liz from California

Yes! Any and every alternative to using plastic that leeches into our soil and ground water the better. Thanks for showing the process.

I was working with an older lady on garden beds for all her properties many moons ago and she taught me to do what you are doing with the card board to start the beds and newspaper, paper bags, and recycled paper (junk mail) to lay down for already made beds. Every other year, I add the paper and then mulch on top. It is amazing how fast the paper breaks down. The soil black gold with so many warms.😊

Here in the U.K., my daughter used this technique on her allotment to clear weeds and make new beds and start growing fruit and veg. It’s brilliant! 🧡💚

Cloudless sky when planting lisianthus...looks like swimming weather.... couldn't believe the quail in Hartley clip shown on instagram ❤🎶 might have been drawn by the pond, with its waterfall & shallow end (birds r spreading the word) ...with dream stream might get more songbirds or grassland birds like sparrows. Red winged blackbirds like wet areas & so do winter seasonal to your area...yellow headed blackbirds.

I used this method in small areas and covered the cardboard with rocks! Works like a dream!. Just two or three weeds and these easily pop right out. Thank you!.

Works so well. We've done this for years.

I also did this last year and I see a massive different in the soil now. On the cardboard side (which is broken down of course) the soil is full of live, so many worms and holds moisture very well. Right next to it I have an area where I ripped out the weeds and the soil is much poorer, very light in colour, no rainworms, etc. I will always use cardboard again! So much easier than keeping up with the weeds as well.

Great tip with cardboard on grass. Thank you for sharing.l learn something new with every video. Thank you for sharing it all.

I love the cardboard method. I put it under my woven weed fabric because of Bermuda grass. I did leave the bottom of my raised beds with just cardboard. Some of it will try to come up. Keep digging it it Out. And pull all tint weeds. It’s a pain but I have beds that have no grass. My favorite mulch is shredded leaves for raised beds or shaved wood chips for garlic and strawberries. Or shredded hardwood.

If you live near an ikea, people leave the cardboard packaging in huge bins in the loading area when they load up their new furniture. I often would grab large pieces for my young toddlers and preschool kiddios to make forts and to color and draw on. Bet you could take that same cardboard for this use too. Just another idea of where to source large pieces of cardboard that’s relatively clean.

A hint about removing sod in a suburban area. The best top soil may have come with the sod, or developed with it. If the original top soil was graded off when the house was built. After I removed the sod for garden beds, when i move in, I found, not very fertile, subsoil. A local said the area was hilly farm land that had been graded flat for the subdivision build, leaving only subsoil. It's taken years to build the soil back up in those areas I stripped. I'd done better to have turned the sod over and helped it decompose. The areas I carboarded over, later, have done very well.

I sheet mulched my entire back yard. It’s a good way to go.

In the days when newspaper subscriptions was still a thing, I used newspapers and print flyers stacked 10 pages thick instead of landscape fabric. Did the job better than any fabric at zero cost.

I always love ur choice in music. Ur vids are so nice to watch. Thank u to ur whole crew!

I used cardboard to create a traveled area around our side door, BUT, I put landscape over it to make sure I don't see a weed!

Douglas took the plant label!😊

I used it for years but when I moved to the coast of Washington, we have so much rain, it only lasted on summer and they totally decomposed and the grass was all back before end of the year. So I tried old carpet, which lasted two years and this year the grass has come through it. No stopping grass or blackberries around this country I don't think.. I"ve given up. Now I just plant shrubs and mow up under them the best I can.

Love the cardboard mulch method I’ve seen you do it before super idea I should have done that in my little patch of flower bed my gardener charged me $200 to do it and I still had to put down the mulch after I planted flowers and I was 71 years old with back/ neck pain. 💪

I have used this method and it works great!! Only suggestion is to make sure to remove any staples in the cardboard you don’t want to hit one of those digging.

I have done this and all I gotta say is it is THE WAY to go to rid grass.

I love, love, LOVE the cardboard & mulch method.

Good Job Laura! you work too hard. 💙💛🧡❤💗💓💖💝💙💙❤❤❤❤🌺🌹🌸 The best garden/flower show/video we have. You are # 1 in my book.

Thank you so much @ GardenAnswer for doing a lot of economical gardening.A lot of us are on flower budgets,so it’s great to see these ideas.Thanks again.Y’all are just the Best .

We did this and the grass comes through in short order, stronger than ever.

Cardboard method makes gardening so much easier on us mature gardeners! I don’t have the physical strength to spread compost so I pile all my shredded leaves on top which makes it a little harder to keep wet and break down so I have to make sure it stays moist.

I use this cardboard all the time and have for years now. So easy❤

This is a great method for building new beds, if you don’t have Bermuda. Nothing keeps that stuff from growing back short of strong chemicals! It will even grow across concrete

as someone who see newspaper to cut down on weeds…much cheaper than landscape fabric…this looks great!

This is definitely a game changer in my garden. Tried it last year and I've been very happy about the soil underneath. Loaded with worms! I wet the cardboard down and then put compost and mulch down. My husband thought I was crazy. My neighbors are now trying it.

Just started following. My Mom has been watching for ages. When mom told me about this lovely lady growing flowers for nursing centers i subbed. ❤

We had a terrible weed problem in a garden area under our big walnut tree. The birds would drop seeds of shrubs and other trees resulting in hours of hand pulling each spring. Two autumns ago I decided to lay down cardboard and covered it with a very thick layer of mulched oak leaves. I wet this all down good so it wouldn’t blow away. I now have a weed-free garden and can add compost and grow flowers again. So easy and FREE!

I have always hated fabric. I will definitely use this!

There are a lot of properties on slopes. They look terraced sometimes and you could add stairs, perhaps plant spreading evergreens.

Awwww Douglas ❤❤❤❤❤

Have started to create a new flower bed. And this is my method because of the first video you showed. Thank you for sharing these great ideas.