How to Use Packing Paper in the Garden
Often necessary when moving or storing dishes, fine china or other breakables, packing paper quickly becomes a nuisance when you no longer need it -- unless you have a garden. With packing paper and gardening skills, enrich your garden soil or protect new seeds from nutrient-hogging weeds. After seeing how your garden is improved, you may never look at a sheet of packing paper in the same way again. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- Packing paper
- Green nitrogen-rich organic waste
- Hoe/rototiller
- Garden hose
- Mulch
- Straw
Instructions
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Shred the packing paper for composting. Cut or tear each sheet of packing paper into 1- to 2-inch-wide strips. Blend the shredded paper with an equal amount of moist, green biodegradable waste, such as freshly clipped grass or fruit and vegetable peelings. Spread a 2- to 6-inch layer of the packing paper-grass blend directly on your garden and till it into the top 2 inches of the soil (preferably during the fall right after you've harvested your vegetables); leave the organic waste to decompose for approximately six months or until planting time.
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Mulch with old packing paper. Tear packing paper sheets into thin strips. Mound the strips of paper around the bases of freshly planted seedlings or bedding plants; for winter use in your strawberry patch, cover up the exposed soil in between plants with a 4- to 5-inch layer of finely shredded paper, recommends Barbara Pleasant, coauthor of "The Complete Compost Gardening Guide." Mist the packing paper mulch with a light water spray from your garden hose to dampen it; this helps keep the paper in place.
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Mark your garden paths and minimize annoying weed growth in between garden rows with layered sheets of packing papers. Spread the packing paper across the paths of your garden in three- to five-sheet layers. Overlap the edges of the papers to help ensure that weeds don't grow up in cracks between the sheets. Spray down the packing paper with your gardening hose, then top it with a 1- to 2-inch layer of mulch or straw for an attractive covering.
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Tips & Warnings
Even though it takes longer to get it ready, always take the time to shred packing paper before composting it. The shredding helps the paper break down more quickly, which speeds up the composting process.
Commercially sold packing paper typically measures approximately 24 inches by 36 inches and is made from newsprint paper. Regardless of whether you have this kind of packing paper or your packing paper consists of old newspapers that you reused, you can still use it in your garden in the same way.
References
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
