I need several hundred feet of edging to create a mowing strip to keep weeds
and grass from growing up around the house and fencing.

Ten feet of the 12" x 11/2" material is almost $50.00. That's WAY more than
I can afford.

I have read about placing several sheets of newspaper covered with mulch
where you want to kill all the grass and weeds to make room for a new garden
bed.

My thought is to fold several sheets of newspaper, shove it up against the
house and fencing, wet it down than cover it neatly with a heavy layer of
mulch.

Have any of you tried this, if so how does it work? Is it worth the effort?

Thanks,

Hound Dog

Hound Dog wrote:
I need several hundred feet of edging to create a mowing strip to keep
weeds and grass from growing up around the house and fencing.

Ten feet of the 12" x 11/2" material is almost $50.00. That's WAY more
than I can afford.

I have read about placing several sheets of newspaper covered with mulch
where you want to kill all the grass and weeds to make room for a new
garden bed.

My thought is to fold several sheets of newspaper, shove it up against the
house and fencing, wet it down than cover it neatly with a heavy layer of
mulch.

Have any of you tried this, if so how does it work? Is it worth the
effort?


As long as the newspaper or mulch isn't coming in contact with wood it's a
workable idea. You can't just lay it on top of live grass or weeds, and
expect it to work. You'll have to kill as much of the growth as you can. Hit
it with RoundUp, let it die, and mow it down as best you can before putting
the newspaper and mulch on. (You only need to wet down the newspaper if the
wind is blowing it away before you can get the mulch on it to weight it
down.

Don't forget to use an edger to slice-off the roots of the running grass
below the surface, and regularly edge it. The problem with grass isn't so
much what's on top, but those runners. If you don't edge it regularly, all
your work this year will just need to be redone two years from now.

--
Warren H.

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"Hound Dog" wrote in message
...
I need several hundred feet of edging to create a mowing strip to keep
weeds and grass from growing up around the house and fencing.

Ten feet of the 12" x 11/2" material is almost $50.00. That's WAY more
than I can afford.

I have read about placing several sheets of newspaper covered with mulch
where you want to kill all the grass and weeds to make room for a new
garden bed.

My thought is to fold several sheets of newspaper, shove it up against the
house and fencing, wet it down than cover it neatly with a heavy layer of
mulch.

Have any of you tried this, if so how does it work? Is it worth the
effort?

Thanks,

Hound Dog

Never tried that, but I've found bricks or narrow pavers are a good way to
go. Place them right at the soil level, and the wheels of the mower will
ride on them & take care of the grass edge. Obviously, this costs, but it's
permanent. And, the stones don't cause any problems when you periodically
need to go around with a spade or edging tool to cut the grass runners.

On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 23:50:24 -0700, Warren wrote:
workable idea. You can't just lay it on top of live grass or weeds, and
expect it to work.

Yes you can.

Don't forget to use an edger to slice-off the roots of the running grass
below the surface, and regularly edge it. The problem with grass isn't so
much what's on top, but those runners. If you don't edge it regularly, all
your work this year will just need to be redone two years from now.

Yup. All edging does is slow down those runners. If you keep on top of
the runners, you don't need edging.

sdb

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