Weed-Free Landscaping…

Spring is definitely in the air and you know what that means?  Time to mulch!!  And it’s even more exciting when the mulch is free.  Our local electric company cut down some tree limbs in my back yard and turned it into wonderful, free mulch!!  And when you combine that with newspapers you get weed-free landscaping.  This is a great, cheap and very earth friendly solution to being weed-free.  So grab some newspapers and lets get started…

The before…not so attractive.

I started by stacking the newspapers in thick layers.  I used small branches and bricks to hold them in place.  It was pretty windy!

I didn’t take a pic of the next step but you will need to wet your newspapers before covering them with mulch.

The newspapers will break down over time so make sure you lay them pretty thick and cover them with 3 to 4 inches of mulch.

And the after…NICE!!

I have also found that using cardboard instead of newspaper gives the same results.  But the cardboard does last a bit longer before breaking down.

This is much cheaper than purchasing landscaping fabric.

Any cheap solutions you use when landscaping?