Let's be honest: If cheeky weeds keep popping out of the ground in attractively designed beds, it can be quite annoying. You have to constantly weed the wild herbs if they don't want them to grow into stately plants. A cost-effective and effective weed barrier is newspaper, which is laid out on the beds like weed fleece.
How can newspaper be used against weeds?
Newspaper can be used as an effective weed barrier by spreading several layers on the prepared bed, moistening them well, planting plants and covering the whole thing with mulch or substrate. This means the bed stays free of weeds for about one to two years and the paper rots in an environmentally friendly way.
Which paper is suitable?
High-gloss printed brochures and magazines are not suitable, only the daily newspaper or cardboard. This material ensures a weed-free bed for around one to two years, which you hardly have to worry about anymore. It rots in an environmentally friendly manner and therefore does not pose a burden on the soil.
How should the newspaper be distributed?
Always use several layers of paper. A single page of newspaper would be too thin and would quickly be punctured by wild plants. If you have decided on cardboard, a single layer is sufficient due to the thicker material.
When laying out, proceed as follows:
- Loose up the soil and thoroughly remove all weeds and their roots.
- Spread newspaper in several layers on the bed. The leaves should overlap a little.
- Wet the paper well. This means it lies close to the earth.
- Distribute the plants to be planted and check whether you like the bed design.
- With the planting shovel you can easily pierce the paper. However, be careful not to make the holes too big so that wild plants cannot settle in this place.
- After setting, cover the weed barrier with bark mulch, wood chips or a thin layer of substrate.
If the bed has already been planted, you can remove some soil, remove the weeds mechanically and then distribute the moistened newspaper between the useful or ornamental plants. In this case too, the material is covered with a layer of mulch or substrate.
What alternatives are there?
If you don't have enough newspaper or cardboard on hand, you can use a special fleece (€19.00 on Amazon) from a gardening store as a weed barrier. However, this is more expensive than paper, which is a waste product in many households anyway.
Tip
Almost all printing ink manufacturers now use environmentally friendly raw materials. Toxic heavy metals as color additives are prohibited. Organohalogen substances such as biphenyls or chlorofluorocarbons may also not be contained in the colors.
