Check the masthead of the newspapers. You may see a message saying it's
printed with soy-based ink. That's not monstrous stuff, and you're only
going to go through this process once.

On the other hand, you could invest in a REALLY nice spade and a
fine-grained flat file to sharpen it every few hours. The sharpening takes a
minute, and the spade will slip under grass like a hot knife through butter.
Well....not quite that easily....but easier than you might think. Hire a
local kid to use a hand cultivator and knock the excess soil off of the
resulting sod clumps. No reason to throw away excellent soil - it should
stay in the garden bed.

"mary" wrote in message
...
In her book "Earthly Delights" (which I would recommend) Margot Rochester
suggests that to create a new garden bed lay down eight layers of
newspaper
and then place compost on it, and then cover with leaves. She does not
suggest digging up the ground underneath. It sounds like a good process,
but
my wife wonders about the ink the newspaper. Will it cause any harm if you
grow vegtables. Any opinions?

Thanks

Tom