This project was to clean up my flower beds around the base of my house. We needed to weed it... AGAIN! Its seems we can't keep them weed free and the weeds grow so fast. We also can not seem to keep them watered enough. They dry out too fast. So the solution is to kill the weeds and mulch. We don't like to use chemical weed killer and we can not pay for commercial mulch. Our solution? Newspaper and lawn clippings. We have a very large lawn, a riding mower and a bagger to catch the clippings. We'll put this to work for us.
First, we pulled most of the weeds out by hand. Notice that the dirt is like clay, which does not hold water very well. The plants will suffer for that.
We then placed 3 sheets of newspaper on the ground, over lapping the edges. We wet the paper as we went along to keep it from blowing away.
Then we would dump the bags of grass clippings on the paper and we spread that around making sure to get under the plants, but not right on the plant stem. I then soaked the grass clippings with water, so they would settle into place and water the ground at the same time.
A few days later the grass clippings are turning brown. They are also pressed tighter together.
My thinking is that the newspaper will work as a weed block for a little while and the clippings will hold the water on the dirt to keep it moist (also, the clippings help hide the paper) This should encourage worms too. By the end of summer, I imagine the weeds will be getting through. I will wait until the fall when the flowers die back. Then I will cover the whole area with paper again and cover the paper with the fall leaves I will need to mow up. The old mulch will then become food for the worms and nutrient for the ground. By next spring the flower bed soil should be in tip top shape. Good for the plants and worms... and good for my water bill. I'll let you know how this works out.
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