Sometimes, it can feel impossible to get rid of weeds in your garden. While there are many different tips and tricks to preventing weeds from growing, what ones really work?
In a post to the subreddit r/gardening, one user asked for advice on his friend's suggested weed prevention technique.
"My friend told me to put paper down with mulch on top to keep the weeds down this year," the caption read. "Good idea/bad idea?"
The image in the post shows a garden of bleeding heart flowers with some pieces of blank white paper in the mulch.
Weeds can be a big problem for your garden as they can increase the number of harmful pests and compete with your other plants and flowers for water, causing you to use more water to keep your plants alive. American households already use about 320 gallons of water daily, with 30% focused on outdoor use.
The amount of paper in the world is also climbing. According to Statista, the U.S. used about 64 million tons of paper and paperboard in 2023. However, only about 65-69% of paper was recycled in 2023.
Paper can help control weeds and acts as a great way to save water and keep paper out of landfills. Unlike dangerous herbicides and landscape fabrics or plastics, which can leak microplastics into the soil and water and prevent proper sunlight and water from getting to the roots of plants, paper can safely decompose in the garden.
Many commenters agreed that paper or newspaper works great.
"It's a good idea," one commenter wrote. "Paper and mulch will not smother the soil, but will probably work on some annual weeds. Try it this year and see how it works."
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Mowing the lawn 🏡 "It's really the best you can do since weeds will happily grow on top of landscape fabric," another agreed. "The trick to keep them from blowing away is to wet them down after you place them and a handful of mulch."
Other commenters shared their experiences with other treatments.
"Stay away from landscape fabric, that stuff is a nightmare to deal with when you have to pull it out, which you will have to pull it out eventually," one commenter wrote.
"Corrugated cardboard works pretty well for me although it won't smother mature dandelions, they will punch right through cardboard and mulch," another said.
Check out our guide on rewilding yards for more native gardening tips.
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