I also like the look it creates, but it's not a cheap option

Perfect nitrogen source and enough can certainly suppress weeds

Ruth Stout described the method in a book called "How to Have a Green Thumb Witout an Aching Back." Newspaper in the planting area... [show more]

Ruth Stout described the method in a book called "How to Have a Green Thumb Witout an Aching Back." Newspaper in the planting areas and cardboard in the pathways with free rotten straw mulch seems to be the cheapest, most environmentally sound choice for weed suppression, fertilizer and pest control. Table scraps can be hidden under the mulch eliminating the nuicance work of a compost bin. If you have to pull or cut weeds, placing the weeds in a covered barrel full of water with a spigot at the bottom for draining, drowns and suffocates the weeds, thereby eliminating the chance their seed or roots will spread and creates a blackwater that is nutrient rich and weed suppresive. [show less]

the horrible way to do it