Shredded Paper.

[di]

I normally just add any shredded paper to the compost. Just had a ping moment...maybe a good one, maybe not?

I have a couple of raised beds at the lottie that are really bad at retaining any moisture. I wonder if mixing in a load of shredded paper might help?

[Matt94]

i would dig a trench and put some paper in it then back fill it with soil - ive just done this with my bean trench's - but i should imagine it will be fine to do it with all crops.

[zazen999]

Water it and use it to mulch over the top.

[Sanjo]

I have been adding torn/crumpled newspaper to my bin for a number of years but now I fret over the inks used. Are they really safe. So many papers now are printed with loads of colour pictures and I don't get the broadsheet style. Come to that we rarely buy a newspaper but get quite a few local ones.

[Two_Sheds]

I tried that a couple of years ago Di (putting paper in the soil in the hope it would act like a sponge). It didn't work: the plants on top of it did poorly, the squash actually died, and when I dug it back out again it was all intact: dry and not at all decomposed.

Better as a mulch, definitely

[chris]

I have been adding torn/crumpled newspaper to my bin for a number of years but now I fret over the inks used. Are they really safe. So many papers now are printed with loads of colour pictures and I don't get the broadsheet style. Come to that we rarely buy a newspaper but get quite a few local ones.

Afaik they're all vegetables based inks now!

[Sanjo]

Afaik they're all vegetables based inks now!

Are they all safe then?

[di]

Mulch it is!

Thank you. x

[di]

Are they all safe then?

I don't use anything ultra glossy but my understanding is that all inks used now are non toxic....if I'm wrong, my lottie will need to be decontaminated if ever I leave.

[greenishfing]

When I planted maincrop potatoes last year I planted them with newspaper and comfrey leaves underneath. I can't remember why, one of husband's 'good' ideas I think. Anyway the potatoes were great and there was no sign of the newspaper or comfrey when I dug them up

[zazen999]

When I planted maincrop potatoes last year I planted them with newspaper and comfrey leaves underneath. I can't remember why, one of husband's 'good' ideas I think. Anyway the potatoes were great and there was no sign of the newspaper or comfrey when I dug them up

I think it's a bit wetter in Yorkie than in Suffolk - hence the problem in the first place.

[arpoet]

I get 5 black sacks of shredded paper per month from a local finance company office . I mix it in the compost bins with garden and kitchen waste, also i use it as a winter mulch on top of hos muck and spent and dig or rotovate it all in in the spring.
Mixed loosly with potting compst its ideal in tub and buckets, etc, but it wont rot down if too thick.
Roger

[di]

I think I'm going to start an enclosed pile of mulching stuff. I'm guessing if I mix the shredded paper with grass cuttings etc, it will help prevent it from blowing everywhere. Will also keep me going with grass mulch come the summer when lawns don't get cut so often.

[di]

AND....another ping moment. Because I built one of the raised beds as a salad bar, I've never got out of my head that I can use it for anything else. I've been trying to think where my bag of Pentland Javelin can go...maybe this year it can be a potato bed....and as it doesn't seem to be working as a bed, when they're ready to harvest I can just dismantle the bed.

[zazen999]

I wouldn't mix it Di - I'd layer it. Grass mowings are fantastic for mulching in themselves.

If you mulch with the shredded paper just before it rains, it kinds makes a solid mulch as it sticks together - but pop the grass over the top if you have any and it will seal it up.

Cue my 'mulching with grass mowings' pic again, the flat bit was where we put a couple of barrowloads of mowings and just left the plot over the summer. Both that bit and the bit next to it had been cleared on the same day and left for 6 weeks.