Gotta Garden

Monday, February 05, 2007

Garden Tips: Throw Away Catalogs No More

Joe Eck, from the Horticulture symposium I previously posted about, mentioned this during the Q & A that followed the presentations. He said they use all the catalogs that arrive in the mail on their garden pathways. They put them down and cover them with a layer of straw. A year later (or whenever), they lift the straw and have earthworm enriched soil to add to the beds. Then, the process begins again. As to the ink, he said it is all soy based now. They even use magazines which surprised me. It's worth trying, don't you think?

4 comments:

RUTH said...

we use newspapers in our bean trench but never realised magazines were ok. I was worried about the ink.

Nickie said...

thats old news! I use anything (great for paths too, to kill grass) I throw down cardboard, magazines, newspapers, cover with wood mulch and have my paths without ever having to remove any grass.

Nickie said...

thats old news! I use anything (great for paths too, to kill grass) I throw down cardboard, magazines, newspapers, cover with wood mulch and have my paths without ever having to remove any grass.

Gotta Garden said...

Hi ruth: I, too, have only used newspapers (for years) carefully sorting and throwing out the slick paper ads...However, he and his partner are superb gardeners and say the mags work great. I knew most newspapers used soy ink but was unaware that the others did as well.

Hello ggg: I don't believe I said it was new...I was just passing it along because there are some folks who are unaware. I've heard the questions at forums, lectures and classes. I did find, as I mentioned above, the addition of the slick papered publications interesting. I was under the...mistaken...impression that those were not recommended. However, having seen the beautiful pictures of Messrs. Eck and Winterrowd's gardens, one can only conclude they know what they're doing in spades...haha, no pun intended.

On the AHS Robin, I've even seen old carpet recommended for paths...from very fine daylily gardeners. To each his own.

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