Ever wondered if cardboard can be a helpful tool in your garden? This video explores both the pros and cons of using cardboard for weed suppression, mulching, and more!
We’ll break down:
Suppressing weeds and prepping garden beds
Potential drawbacks like oxygen and water flow
♻️ Using cardboard responsibly in your landscape
Learn the best practices for using cardboard in your garden and decide if it’s the right choice for you!
#gardening #cardboardmulch #landscaping #howto #gardeningtips
Peer Review from Washington State extension: https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:473ed172-a1e1-4c79-a5dd-ab262935673b
24 Comments
Ok, I have used some cardboard and black weed cloth in my whole yard front and back. One part will be wildflowers the other raised beds. My grass is now dead. I have two truckloads of fine mulch. Do I put that on top of the cardboard? Of course after removing the barrier….and then what? Now I’m nervous! Zone 7, Knoxville, TN Thank you! Do I keep the weed barrier fabric on???
I worked very hard last year to cover my garden with cardboard only to invite MANY rodents, voles, rats, moles – it was awful! After a few months, I just had to yank it all out. When I pulled it up, there were so many tunnels and chewed up roots – I was just sick. I'll never put it in a garden again. I do use it temporarily to kill grass when prepping for a new or extended bed, but not to leave down as a grass or weed blocker.
I use cardboard as the bottom layer of a new raised bed. I also use shredded cardboard in my compost bins and as filler along with three limbs leaves, anything biodegradable in raised beds.
Does the cardboard also attract slugs and snails?
Grey and corrugated cardboard is less processed than the cardboard used for shipping boxes. It’s really just pressed wood pulp, dampened, a little fixative added, and baked. More environmentally friendly.
I just covered a mostly clay bed with cardboard and leaves. Waiting for the spring. If it is still clay then, I will know why. I have never seen one comment from a person saying they had a bad result with cardboard, though.
I live in Tn where there is lots of RED Clay I put Cardboard down every Fall and Mulch My leaves and put them on Top By Spring all thats left is the strips of Tape
that were on the boxes The worms do not like the tape. Early this Spring I saw a Robin pick up a small chunk of Cardboard Moved it over and was eating my worms.
There are lots of worms that live under the cardboard and aerate The soil, My garden is beautiful. I have been using the cardboard 12 years
I live in a tropical area and use similarly to how Dr. describes. It works and makes my life easy.
Are there any chemicals added to the cardboard in its manufacturing process I should be worried about? Like synthetic glues, bleaching agents like chlorine with their dioxins,. What about waxed cardboard is that plastic?
I live in the UK (USA Zone 9b) and am fortunate enough to live by the sea. I harvest seaweed from the local beach, leave it a few weeks for the rain to wash out the salt, then spread it out together with ripped up cardboard (about 50 / 50). I then just run a lawn mower over it all to shred. This mix, spread about 100mm thick on my beds in autumn improves soil quality and worm population a great deal.
I did a lot of cardboard in my garden this year. I topped it with a mix of top soil, twigs and straw, and black Kow fertilizer. Anywhere the cardboard was covered in soil or a rock had broken down within about a month, anything that was sticking out and didn’t get cover didn’t break down at all. I Planted patty pan squash, jack o lantern pumpkins and marigolds, tomatoes from seed over it and got decent to excellent growth and also planted Woodland phlox over it when it was still fresh, that had mixed results.
I live in the Southern Drakensberg mountains of South Africa and use cardboard to suppress weeds (Rividia/mouse-eared-clover) and mulch (along with straw or pine needles depending on the shrub). I'm preparing compost for a red-wriggler barrel and a few truck tyre piles – lots of used coffee grounds, soaked torn cardboard, small sticks, horse manure, kitchen and garden waste. Holding thumbs that the combination works and the wrigglers multiply.
I found earwigs love it. I keep it out of the garden now. My greens and seedlings do much better without those night feeders.
Excellent video, thank you.
Looks like he had a bizarre gardening accident. Spinal Tap.
I use newspaper a lot.
I put wood chips on top of cardboard to clear the weedy annual grasses. For example I did that last spring after my husband took a string trimmer to the grasses. Now that it is fall rainy season, it is easy to plant daffodils or perennials through the cardboard. (We are in a dry summer/ wet winter climate. ) The cardboard covered with wood chips treatment is how
I expand landscaped areas. In the vegetable growing area, I use this same treatment on the paths.
Don't agree with the no nutrients statement – minimal minerals for sure but lots of carbon an essential nutrient of healthy soil and as many here have stated the worms will integrate this into the soil. Higher carbon soil will hold and percolate water so much better. I see cardboard as sheets of worm and fungus pasta!
Zone 6B used cardboard and all paper products under shrubs and trees on shandy soils brfore laying would chips.
After years of repeated proces plants are healthy and growing readily, tthe ssoil is rich dark aand moist, and plantings readily start from seed or transplant.
I think paper much underbeading in gild after vegetative mulch.
I use shredded paper in composting then as a top mulch. Works wonders on plants.
Had a discussion about this last night in the man cave. My thought was cardboard was petroleum based. According to Dr. Google, I was wrong. Sounds like a great idea, at least for the walkways for sure..
I used it in an area where I've always fought vicious briars and found impossible to weed. The only issue I faced was that was also an area where I'd started some ginger lilies which ended up taking over. The ginger lilies were stronger than the cardboard and pushed right up through it. I learned it's very hard to eradicate ginger lilies once they get going!
When you say cardboard in our raised beds vegetables didn’t pull any real weeds for 3 Years place it directly on top of the hard work worked great
Whatever happened to using a shovel and a pitchfork. My garden is thriving beyond belief. Working with 50 cm of great soil. Not 6 inches and a layer of cardboard!
Thank you 😊