Shredded paper

[Normans Mum]

Hi
I have a big bag of shredded paper that I was thinking of using a s a mulch around my fruit bushes. Does anyone have experience of using this type of material as a mulch? Is it any good?
Thanks
Normans mum

[arpoet]

I use shredded paper all the time. I get about 5 black bin bags per month from a local office, and I mix it with kitchen waste and garden waste in the darleks for compost, add it to MPC in tubs and buckets and planters and use it with spent hops and manure as a winter mulch.
Roger

[alldigging]

use it with spent hops and manure as a winter mulch.
Roger

Where do you get your spent hops from?

[arpoet]

Find a small micro brewery close to where you live and ask if you can have a few bags. At our Local Brewery, Abbeydale Brewery, they always have lots to spare in the winter when summer gardeners are in hibination, but in the summer months its pot luck.
Roger
ps... make sure you have a waterproof liner in your car as they are often wet.

[arpoet]

PPS.... I use spent hops round the bean plants as it helps keep the slugs away and the soil moist

[donnakebab]

I compost my shredded paper too.

[Bren In Pots]

I put shredded paper in the bottom of my kitchen caddy it helps soak up the tea leaves and makes tipping the caddy easier.

[kathyd]

Hi
I have a big bag of shredded paper that I was thinking of using a s a mulch around my fruit bushes. Does anyone have experience of using this type of material as a mulch? Is it any good?
Thanks
Normans mum

I don't have shredded paper, just lots of junk mail I'm planning on using! I think if I want to use it 'neat' ie without composting first, I'm going to have to top it off with something wet like grass clippings to smush it down and make sure it doesn't blow away. I imagine it'd be the same with shredded paper? Throw some soil or grass or something on top of it and keep it damp?

[alldigging]

PPS.... I use spent hops round the bean plants as it helps keep the slugs away and the soil moist

and beer cans to keep the birds away?