Paper and gardens

Fending Off the Weeds With Newsprint

I also picked up some cottonseed meal, a good fertilizer if you’re starting a new garden the no-till way — which basically means using newspapers to smother the grass and weeds without resorting to herbicides, and then adding a few inches of compost and planting right through it.
The advantages of not tilling are many. Weed seeds are not brought to the surface of the soil, where they readily sprout and grow. You don’t churn up earthworms and countless other organisms that will aerate and enrich the soil just fine, thank you, if you feed them compost and leave them alone. And since gas-powered tillers not only pour hydrocarbons into the air, but also release CO2 when they churn up the soil, leaving them in the garage is a good way to cut down on your carbon footprint.

Newspapers and cardboard were used to start new garden plots last year - with great success. Used for my new berry patch and even for my potato patch.
The only problem is that we canceled our newspaper subscription. May have to visit my neighbor's recycle bin for a few weeks.