Easy Natural Weed Control with Paper and Mulch
Weeds donāt have to take over your garden or your time, I promise! Using this easy natural weed control method with paper and mulch changed my gardening life, blocking weeds as well as improving the soil. Instead of constant pulling or relying on chemicals, simply lay down a barrier that works quietly in the background, keeping weeds down in garden beds in a low maintenance, budget friendly way.
ā© What readers are saying…
“LOVE doing this, recycling as well as helping myself and the weed control. In Oregon, weeds will grow ANYWHERE, even in the asphalt. But this method that I finally tried after reading your blog, Jami, is cost-effective (ie CHEAP), it works, and YOU feel good for doing it.” -AndiW
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Do you fight weeds in your garden? (Hello, doesn’t everyone?) Do you ever feel like giving up on gardening because of the weeds?
There were definitely times I felt like giving up, mainly because I’ve always gardened organically and in the beginning so many of the articles I read emphasized hand-pulling weeds as really the only way to get rid of weeds. That or try smothering them in a “thick mulch” and hope they won’t poke through in a few weeks (nope, not here in wet, mild western Oregon…).
But after years of trial-and-error, I’m here to say unequivocally, that there are ways to fight weeds that don’t involve chemicals. I’ve discovered how to minimize weeds in the vegetable garden, the corn patch, and in permanent gravel paths and patios. But the most life-changing (at least in my gardening life) for me have been the easy steps I use to control weeds in our garden shrub and flower beds – and not just for spring, but for the whole year!
That’s right, with the simple technique I outline below you won’t have to worry about weeds again until next spring. AND every year after that the weeds you’ll have to deal with will be less and less. Really!
In only a couple of hours you’ll be done with most of the maintenance for your flower bed – all that will be left to do is water and enjoy the blooms.
The Secret to Natural Weed Control in Garden Beds
Well, it’s not that much of a secret, since written about it and told everyone I know. The technique involves:
Paper (or cardboard) and Mulch
Yep. And every time I write that, I swear I hear angels singing (I mentioned it’s garden life changing, right?).
Why use paper and compost mulch for weed control?
- Itās the NUMBER ONE way Iāve found to have nearly weed-free beds with the least amount of work, money and time on my part and ā this is key ā for a long time. No expensive chemicals or reapplications through the season ā we just do it once and weāre done for the year.
- It enriches the soil and feeds the plants. By using a garden compost, Iām feeding the plants and helping the soil as it breaks down naturally over time. See that photo above? Iāve never added any type of fertilizer to this bed other than the yearly (or every other year, a-hem) topping of paper and compost ā itās 9 years old and the plants love it. This goes for roses, perennials, shrubs, everything.
- It helps keep the soil moist during the summer months.
- It creates a clean and tidy look. I love how it immediately makes our yard look finished and ready for the season.
- It compounds over time. The first year you do this to a weed infested bed, you will only have a few straggling weeds to pick out during the growing season, but with the next springās rains youāll see a number trying to return. Never fear ā layer again and the next spring youāll see less weeds, and so on. If you do this yearly, it compounds, smothering existing weeds and seeds, not allowing weeds to set seed and even keeping pernicious weeds like violets in check until eventually, you may be able move to an every-other-year cycle.
How do I know that it compounds over time? Here’s proof from our previous cottage garden in early spring:
Previous papered-and-mulched part of the garden.
The side garden that didn’t get papered-and-mulch the previous year.
On the left is a flower bed that was covered in paper and mulch the previous summer (we use garden compost as a mulch, which I explain below). As you can see, there are just a few weeds here and there which are easy to pull thanks to all the mulch, with more concentrated around the stepping stones where I obviously didn’t take the time to lift the stones to put paper under them (a-hem).
On the right, for comparison, is the other end of the same bed, but a part I didn’t get covered the previous year. We ran out of the compost mulch and I never finished the bed – in fact you can see on the bottom right exactly where we ran out of the paper and mulch close to the stepping stones. There are some plants in all the weeds on the left of the stones, but most of the green is little baby weeds, plus those early spring “poppers” (aka, bittercress) I hate.
Don’t let this happen to your flower beds – follow these five steps to organic weed control and make your life easier!
Paper & Mulch Natural Weed Control Video
You can watch the video we made about this technique and then read on for more details on the steps.
Natural Weed Control with Paper and Mulch in 5 Steps
Below I outline the simple steps to do this in your own garden and then I answer the many questions I’ve gotten over the years about this technique, so be sure to check them out to see if your question was answered.
Step 1: Gather your materials.
- Garden tools: trowel and small hand rake, a small shovel, (my favorite shovel since I discovered it- the smaller square size is perfect for perennial beds) and a metal rake. You’ll need a good set of pruners, too, to cut back any plants that need it. I also always use a heavy duty kneeling pad and carry my tools in my favorite hard-sided garden tote so I don’t have to run back and forth when I forget something.
- Paper or cardboard (the secret weapon!) – and LOTS of it. Use anything you can collect easily: newspapers (you’ll need lots of layers, one will break down too fast), brown paper bags (cut and opened up), or cardboard (since it’s thicker, use cardboard only in areas you don’t want to plant any annuals, like under trees or between large, established shrubs. It does last longer, so you may get away with an every other year application). Don’t have a way to stock up on paper? Buy a big roll of brown paper like this at a home store for cheap.
- Mulch. You’ll need enough mulch to cover your area at least 2-inches thick. You can use what our local landscape company calls “garden compost” like we do (don’t use homemade compost for this, though, unless you know the weeds have been killed with heat like commercial compost), bark chips, tree trimmings, pine needles, and even straw (though it won’t look as good in flower beds).
Pros & Cons of Different Mulches:
Purchased Garden Compost:
- Pros: The brown color of the mulch garden centers call “garden compost” gives your beds a nice rich dirt colored finish. It also feeds your soil as it breaks down acting as a fertilizer – and in fact it’s the only fertilizer I’ve ever used on my beds (strike another thing off the to-do list!). We buy it in cubic yards with our truck, if you have only a couple beds, you can use bagged compost (the best quality you can afford).
- Con: It is more soil-like, so can grow more weeds than bark. If your area stays moist or is near areas where weeds blow in, this can be an issue.
Bark Chips or Tree Trimmings:
- Pros: Easy to lay (lighter weight) and tree trimmings can even be free. Weeds do not sprout in wood chips as easily as compost, making this a good option for moist, weed-prone areas.
- Cons: Doesn’t feed the soil on it’s own, as it takes nitrogen to decompose, though it can work if you spread it with another nitrogen source.
Straw or Grass Clippings:
- Pro: Easy to get and apply and inexpensive or free.
- Con: They break down really fast and don’t look very good around flowers and shrubs, so are mainly for vegetable gardens.
Local Mulches like pine needles, cocoa shells, and more:
- Pros: Some of these are abundant and cheap. If you live in an area where these any of these are available, definitely look into them.
- Con: They are very localized. And you need to know what they do as they break down so you’ll know how to amend your soil.
Step 2: Trim shrubs and perennials, then lightly pull weeds. I like to wait until late winter or early spring to do this instead of the fall, since the dead growth helps protect plants from frost damage and provides habitat and seed heads for the birds (okay, there’s no way I’d find time in the fall to do this with the vegetable harvest coming in, but I like the bird excuse better!).
Step 3: Trim the bed edges by trenching a grass edge or cutting the grass near a permanent edge. The bed pictured on the left has cement edgers, but many of our other garden beds are just grass like above. I use a either a pointed shovel or a manual grass edger to cut a trench along grass edges, pull out the sod pieces, and compost them.
TIP: Try to pull the roots of the perennial weeds like dandelions, but for the annual weeds just pull any big ones so that won’t allow the paper to lay flat. The paper layers will kill any little ones left. Yes, this means you do NOT have to pull all the weeds, just cover those guys up. Yay!!
Step 4: Start layering the paper– your secret weapon.
Step 5: Lastly, cover all the paper with mulch. The more mulch you use, the better it will suppress weeds – a 2-inch layer is minimum.
Points to remember when laying the paper:
- The thicker you layer the paper, the more weed-blocking it will do– I like to use 4 to 6 layers.
- Don’t use shiny, colored ads- just regular newsprint (which may have color, too- that is OK, just not the shiny paper). Note on the ink: the ink in newsprint is soy-based now, so it’s perfectly good to use in our organic landscapes like this (as well as ink on cardboard).
- Overlap the edges of the papers a good inch or two- the idea is to not give an opening for the weeds!
- If there is wind, keep a hose nearby and spray the papers as you lay them to keep them stable before adding the mulch.
- If the ground is dry, water well first- like, if you didn’t get to it earlier and it’s already July (not that I know about that, a-hem). Then spray the paper as well. The mulch will help hold in the moisture for that time of year.
- Lay the paper under soaker hoses, if you use them and then add compost to kind of cover the hoses.
Laying the compost is where the magic happens and you go from weedy mess to clean and tidy – it’s such a great feeling of accomplishment – especially because you didn’t have to pull all.the.weeds. Better yet, it will continue to look great for months!
Newspaper and Mulch Weed Control Q&A
What if I want to plant something later in the season?
It’s easy! Simply push aside the mulch where you want to plant, use a trowel to cut into the paper and bend it back (like a book cover). Dig a hole, place the plant in it and fill with dirt, tamp it down like you normally would. Then replace the bent over paper (tearing if needed to fit around the new plant) and cover with the mounded mulch. No problem.
Note: This isn’t as easy with cardboard, as I mentioned, so cardboard should be used in areas you won’t want to do any other planting.
Can you do this around trees?
Yes, this weed control method can be used around trees, too, instead of buying expensive “tree rings” or using plastic edging (than invariably gets nicked with the mower…). Here’s how to adapt this technique for trees:
- Lay a LOT of layers of paper (10-15 layers) right over the mown grass in a loose circle, tucking the sharp corners in on the outside as needed and leaving an inch or so bare around the trunk.
- Cover with 2-3 inches of mulch, but don’t mound it up to the trunk.
Have you had trouble attracting slugs with the cardboard/newspaper method of weed control?
No, we have the same amount no matter what I do, lol. Plus the weeds are worse than the slugs.
Is this something that you have to do every year?
Yes, if you make it a yearly habit to lay the paper and mulch you will have less and less weeds to worry about. It builds on itself, feeding the soil and discouraging weeds. That said, there were always areas I didnāt get to every year and they were every other year and it was still good! Just do what you can, knowing that it will help you the rest of the season for sure.
I am wondering if you have any recommendations as to where I can find the garden compost that you refer. Does this come bagged, or do you buy it loose?
For smaller beds, you can buy it by the bag, but it would be too expensive for larger areas. Call landscape products company and ask if they sell garden compost by the yard. Thatās how we get it. It can be delivered for a fee, too.
What do you suggest for beds with fall or spring bulbs in them. I assume bulbs cannot push their way through the newspaper. So should I skip the newspaper in those beds? Or if I do this technique in the fall, should it be OK by spring?
Yes, if you lay the paper in one season, the bulbs wonāt have a problem coming up the next. Iād only use newspaper for beds with bulbs, though, and save the cardboard for areas you donāt want anything to come up for awhile.
How many layers of paper is really ok around trees? Their roots need oxygen right? I actually did use newspaper in several gardens and around trees last fall, but I worry about suffocating them.
Unless you live in a very dry climate, the paper starts breaking down right away, so Iāve never had a problem. Plus the roots go out much larger than the little circle we do ā basically just to make it easier to mow around- so most of the air and water gets to the roots. What you really want to make sure is that the mulch doesnāt pile up around the trunk.
Just wondering if I need to fertilize will I have to pull the paper back and then do over or will fertilizer make it thru the paper?
As the paper and compost I use as mulch break down, it feeds the soil, so I rarely add extra fertilizer, but if you need to, you can add it right over the paper, as it really starts breaking down pretty quickly. If the paper is thicker and you feel you need to pull some back around the plant, you could do that as well.
All of my plants in my flower beds are spreading perennials. Will the newspapers hinder the spreading of my plants?
Yes, to some degree they will but I haven’t noticed it to any large degree since it all breaks down. I usually put the paper up as far as I can against the perennials ā it means thereās still weeds within the perennials (I have NEVER found that planting thickly deters weeds completely ā they still find a way to grow, lol), but I just hand-pull those. The paper starts breaking down pretty quickly ā you can always go with thinner layers to just get the new spring weeds. Youāll have to play around with it and see what works best for your beds.
What do beds look like with wood chips?
Above is an example of my mom’s garden in early spring that we covered in cardboard and free tree trimming wood chips (you can see more details on the clean up here, including how full of weeds it was!). This is an area that is constantly moist (from deer auto sprayers all season long), so the regular compost didn’t work to keep the weeds down. Even two years later, there were just a few weeds that needed to be pulled!
If you put wood chips down over the newspaper last year, do you have to remove all the wood chips to put down more newspaper the second year?
Wood chips actually last for a couple of years. In my momās garden, there was only a bit of hand-weeding in certain areas needed in year two. Year three needed a bit more and some of the chips were broken down enough to do the layering right over the top. In other areas, we raked wood chips up in an area, laid new cardboard/paper and raked them back, adding more as needed.
Do you have any more examples I can see?
Sure! Here are a few more areas around our previous home’s yard and our farmhouse’s garden to hopefully inspire you:
Laying paper and mulch with soaker hose. You can see in the top left the area that still needs to be done, as well as the left side of the stepping stones.
I love how the new layer of paper and mulch makes the bed look so fresh again, even around established plants in the spring,
This clean and tidy look is what motivates me to get out there and get the beds cleaned up. That and the fact that I know if I get it done, I won’t have to do it again for another year!
I promise that if you use this paper and mulch technique for weed control, your gardening life will be changed forever just like mine was! Do let me know if you use this and how it works for you, too.
More Weeding Tips
- How To Keep Weeds Out Of Your Garden: Simple Organic Techniques
- How To Lay Wood Chip Garden Paths For Weed Suppression
- How to Plant a Garden the Easy Care Way
This article has been updated, it was originally published in March 2011.
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Thanks for this!
Big question: I have an area where dock has gotten pretty bad. Will the paper+compost/mulch work for killing dock?
Thank you!
Yikes, that’s pretty invasive. I think you’ll need to try killing it with black plastic first – a few months under solar heat may do it, though you’ll probably need more like a year. And then you’ll still have to dig some roots out. Only after the perennial weeds are removed can you lay the paper and mulch over the annual weeds.
Hi! Thanks for a great article. I really enjoyed reading it. I’m currently about to flip my grass yard into an organic food plot and searching ways to organically kill the grass. I’m definitely against using newspaper as it is load with chemicals and therefore against my organic policies, but I’m curious about your take on uncoated, unwaxed, tape ridden, minimal black ink cardboard as organic covering. Thoughts?
Kindest,
Trish
I haven’t heard of the cardboard you’re talking about, so I can’t say.
While we all have to make our own decisions, this article from permaculture.com states:
“Regarding the use of newspaper and cardboard, both can be useful materials used in organic crop production for suppressing weeds, retaining moisture and adding organic matter to your soil. NOP regulations allow the use of newspaper or other recycled paper as an āallowed syntheticā with the provision that it be āwithout glossy or colored inks.'”
Have you had trouble attracting slugs with the cardboard/newspaper method of weed control?
No, we have the same amount no matter what I do, lol. Plus the weeds are worse than the slugs. š
I am so glad to have all this information. I also live in Oregon, and not all sites’ information and suggestions work for our area. Thank you for being here!
Glad you found this, then, and hope it helps you!
Hi Jami, This weed preventer method is interesting, but what do you do the second year? If you put wood chips down over the newspaper last year, do you have to remove all the wood chips to put down more newspaper the second year? Thanks.
I mainly just use compost to feed the soil as well as act like a mulch and it breaks down enough that I just layer on top. Each layer just makes better soil. š For wood chips (in areas that don’t stay weed free with the compost), they actually last for a couple of years. In my mom’s garden, there was only a bit of hand-weeding in certain areas needed in year two. Year three needed a bit more and some of the chips were broken down enough to do the layering. In other areas, we rake wood chips up in an area, lay the cardboard/paper and rake them back, adding more as needed. Hope that helps!
you need to make sure you turn your mulch every spring or it can start it’s self on fire. Just had 2 different home have fires due to this in Dayton OH area. Our ex son in law who does landscaping also told us of this happening. It can also draw termites, not for the wood it’s self but cool damp areas are home to them
Thanks for bringing this up, Juls – I hadn’t heard of it, but did a little research and there much debate on 2-3 inch layers of mulch causing fires, and most seem to be attributed to cigarette butts (https://laidbackgardener.blog/tag/can-mulches-ignite-spontaneously/ and more). If it does happen its very rare and certainly would be according to where you live and garden (we’re pretty moist in the PNW).
As for the termites, any mulch can draw bugs but I feel the benefits outweigh the cons. š
Hi Jami,
I watched your video on the 3 step method to controlling weeds. I’ve never used this kind of mulch before…didn’t even know that it was a mulch! Would you recommend the use of this method on a strawberry patch? I have a terrible time keeping this area relatively clean of weeds. What are your thoughts?
Btw…Your DH made me laugh….a little dry humor to bring it home!
I have used a similar mulch to this for strawberries, Dee. Our landscape center has a “barnyard compost/mulch” that I typically use for vegetables as it has manure in it for the heavier feeding plants. I have not lined it with paper, though. If you are having a hard time, I would definitely try it though. You can also cover the paper with straw or clean grass clippings – that might be better to keep your fruit clean.
Hello I just found your site and I Live in Ontario Canada I already have flower bed but I would like to know if using your newspaper method is something that you have to do every year thank you so much I love reading your site so far.
Thank you
Hi, Michelle and welcome! Nice to have you reading. š
Yes, if you make it a yearly habit to lay the newspaper and mulch you will have less and less weeds to worry about. It builds on itself, feeding the soil and discouraging weeds. That said, there were always areas I didn’t get to every year and they were every other year and it was still good! Just do what you can, knowing that it will help you the rest of the season for sure.
Hi, Jami – Great blog post, and I’m looking forward to following your blog. I’ve been renting the past 10 years so haven’t done much gardening in that time. Still renting, but I decided to plant a “tower” vegetable garden this year (can’t bend and kneel like I used to). It’s a great concept; I just hope it works! I also have a small raised bed at the back of the yard that I want to seed with bee and butterfly flowers. It looks like it hasn’t been planted in years, and it’s filled with compacted earth and weeds. Do you think this method (using newspapers to cover the compacted earth, adding a couple of inches of planters soil, and then a few inches of compost on top of that) will work for planting seed as opposed to plants? Thanks so much for sharing your experience!
Welcome, Mary! I’d say you can definitely use this method – as long as there’s room in the bed to make the layers on top of what’s there. Also you’ll want to dig out any perennial weeds like dandelion, violets, etc that have deep roots as they could just bide their time and come back. Grasses and small shallow weeds can all be covered. Use many layers of paper – or even cardboard since you won’t be digging through to plant a plant – to really give time to kill those weeds.
Dear Jami;
Thank you so much for sharing your sweat and tears with us so that we may be spared (teehee). I have put the commercial weed barrier paper down and still seem to have weeds/trees etc that poke thru it. I am to the point you describe…..reconsidering if I love gardening or if it’s masochism setting in! Especially with this ol’ nurses’ back of mine.
I am raring to go with your ideas. I think my biggest mistake has been been to economize on the mulch. I just have to accept that nothing is “dirt cheap” anymore including dirt.
Again I thank you for the free advise that you have so generously given to us all!!
Debbie
You’re so welcome, Debbie! I hope it helps save you time (and your back!).
Hi Jami,
I just stumbled upon your page regarding weed control in the garden, and I really like this idea. We live in Cape May, NJ and I am wondering if you have any recommendations as to where I can find the garden compost that you refer. Does this come bagged, or do you buy it loose? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you, Rose Walsh
For smaller beds, you can buy it by the bag, but it would be too expensive for larger areas. Call landscape products company and ask if they sell garden compost by the yard. That’s how we get it. It can be delivered for a fee, too.
Excellent! Thank you for the kind response. Appreciate the help through your blog and insight š
Hi Jami,
Thank you for the great help with this. I live in the greater Portland area and look forward to trying this technique! What do you suggest for beds with fall or spring bulbs in them. I assume bulbs cannot push their way through the newspaper. So should I skip the newspaper in those beds? Or if I do this technique in the fall, should it be OK by spring?
Yes, if you lay the paper in one season, the bulbs won’t have a problem coming up the next. I’d only use newspaper for beds with bulbs, though, and save the cardboard for areas you don’t want anything to come up for awhile.
I think you’re going to like this, Kerri!
I had never thought about using newspaper to prevent weeds from coming through. My aunt is looking to buy weed control supplies so she can get right on it before spring sets in. I think I will talk to her about considering using newspaper this year as well.
I’d really like to use this method but I need a bit more advice. We’ve bought a house with lots of flower beds that have tons and tons of flowers and other plants. It was so beautiful for awhile but I wasn’t able to keep up with the weeds and grasses and the beds are being taken over. How can I use this method when there are hundreds of little plants to work around? There are literally hundreds of irises with their exposed rhizomes. Can I even cover up those rhizomes? I’m at a total loss. All I do is weed and I’m still losing the battle.
Ah, Cari, I feel for you! That’s discouraging for sure. This will absolutely work to keep your weeding down, but you do have to make a decision about removing some of the plants to affectively do this (it’s harder to apply the technique mid-season when everything is full-grown). And if there are grasses, you can’t ignore them or leave them growing in the plants, as they will just get worse. Especially the irises – I just had to dig up a section of my iris bed to try and remove all the grass roots and replant. You’re right about the paper-and-mulch with the irises, though – it doesn’t work as well on them, though you can cover the rhizomes for awhile and they’ll be fine. By next spring, it should be disintegrated and maybe helped keep the weeds away. In regular years, I weed and then add a thick layer of mulch without the paper in my iris bed.
That said, it will be a lot easier next year in early spring to paper and mulch before the plants start growing (you’ll be able to see the tops of the plant mounds to paper around)- and when you do it then, it keeps most of the weeds away the rest of the season, so you can just enjoy it. š
Egg shells are excellent for keeping tomato worms away from your plants because they do not like to crawl across them, it hurts their little feet. TRY IT!
We grow our vegetable garden in raised beds. We mulch with grass clippings. They keep the water in the soil and my garden is practically weed-free. Where it used to take an entire day to weed (it’s a big garden) I can now weed the whole thing in 15 minutes a week. Grass clippings are free and compost in by the next spring. We don’t use chemicals on the grass so we’re completely organic. They provide a nice uniformity to the look of the garden as they dry like straw. Saves a whole lot of work!
I love raised bed gardening, it’s the best, isn’t it, Deb? What do you use on your paths between the beds? More grass clippings? Just curious, we use both gravel and straw in different areas, but they both have their own pros and cons. š
Actually, we patterned our harder after one we saw on P. Allen Smith’s show on PBS. We started with our tilled garden, laid out landscape timbers to form 4 foot wide beds, leaving enoug hspace between them to accommodate the width of our lawn mower, and laid down sod. Our garden is simply beautiful, there are no spaces between rows to weed, and I rarely need to put my feet in the dirt to harvest or care for my plants. I can garden barefoot! It’s an investment in money and time to do it this way, but it’s a one-time outlay. This year we are building an irrigation system so watering will be almost automatic as well. That has been our weak point in past seasons. I expect much higher yields and hope to provide the majority of our food this year. Thanks for the section on food preservation, by the way. Your readers have offered some great time saving tips. This is the first year our entire garden will be grown from seed, started indoors as it is still quite cold here in Ohio. The great thing about gardening is there is always something new to learn and try, and no matter what, the results are delicious and healthy!
That does sound beautiful, Deb!!
Hi I just found your site and was curious if you know if the newspaper will help control ant issues? In florida we have serious fire ant problems so I tend to stay away from mulch but I’d the newspaper helps control them I would definitely be using mulch much easier on the pocket book!
Hmm, I don’t know Dawn. I would think that paper wouldn’t keep them away though – can’t they just cut through it? We don’t have them here…
Great ideas! I just moved into a house that has beds entirely around the house and then a small bed in the back yard off the patio. I just finished the small bed and didn’t use any plastic or landscape fabric because it’s always such a pain to add plants. I just mulched very heavily and figured I could control the weeds in this small bed by hand. But the rest of the beds are too large to do this with and I’ve been searching a better way. So thank you for this….I’ll be using it!
If I used mulch instead of compost, do u think id have to remove it to put newspaper down every year?
The newspaper breaks down in a year (mostly) and cardboard makes it about 2 years, JoAnn, so if there was any mulch left (there are all kinds of mulch and I use the compost as mulch here, but I’m assuming you mean bark chips or the like?), then yes, you’d have to rake it up to reapply the paper to get the benefit of smothering the weeds. A finer mulch would need to be reapplied at that point anyway, which is why we do both at the same time. š