How to Make Mulch from Shredded Paper

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http://www.waysandhow.com Looking for mulch for your garden? Use our tips to learn how to make mulch from shredded papers. The most popular materials for making mulch are leaves and twigs. However, used and shredded paper are also perfect for making mulch, since paper is basically made from trees anyway. It is still a type of organic mulch material, just like compost, hay, and straw. Here’s how to make mulch with shredded paper. - waysandhow, diy, diy video, how-to Watch our New Uploads 7 days Earlier, Now on Vessel: http://www.vessel.com/WaysAndHow

Comments

I want to watch the video but the voice is not easy to listen to

Bit contradictory to advocate using an herbicide to kill weeds and then fertilizer to "make sure that the soil remains healthy." An afternoon pulling weeds would be far more beneficial to the earth, and the gardener. You're also not going to kill off weeds in the morning and plant a flowerbed in the afternoon. Herbicides take time to work, and then need to break down in the soil before anything you want to live can be planted. Granted, it doesn't actually say that's what you can do, but it implies.

Also, I'm not sure the science behind paper mulch adding too much nitrogen to the soil is accurate. I'm not an expert, but I believe paper and cardboard (carbon-rich materials) tie up nitrogen in the soil temporarily as they break down. Adding grass clippings would add nitrogen (greens are nitrogen-rich materials) back to the soil. But fresh clippings, unless mulch cut by the lawn mower (not the big pieces shown in the video) have a tendency to get slimy and form a mat that prevents air and water reaching the soil.

I'm not sure what the "neutralizing effect" of using paper (carbon) and grass (nitrogen) is. The concept of putting things on the soil is to enrich the earth...hence using materials that work together to break down into something greater than the sum of their parts, i.e., compost. If one wanted to neutralize the benefits of things placed on the soil, then something inert, like gravel or plastic, would be the choice. If I go to the trouble of shredding paper and cutting the grass, and then putting them on my beds (which I wouldn't, since I compost everything) I don't want all the benefits in those amendments to be neutralized.

Mixing the clippings and the shredded paper would probably be a better solution. Overall, the final suggestion of making a compost pile is the best idea. It's not an instant fix, and there is no "plant in the morning and mulch in the afternoon" but it would be a far better solution for soil health.

Also find it a bit ironic that all the photos with explanations of applying "paper mulch" show bagged redwood or red dyed wood chip mulch being applied. Not a shred of paper in sight.

All in all, this is a very simplistic (and not in a good way) video that leaves out so basic, but crucial, information.

Thanks for this, but isn't paper carbon, not nitrogen?

I use shredded paper as a mulch and it works ok for me, thanks for sharing the video.

I'm being creative, being creative, being creative! La, la la la la. -.-

Fird!