I have so many plans running around in my brain for landscaping the backyard. I would love to have pretty beds surrounding the property filled with lush plants...who wouldn't, right? But tilling, weeding, and bedding all take money, time, money, sweat, and did I mention money?
I found a cheap and easy way to get the flower beds you want with little of all the above mentioned!
We've been saving old news papers for quite some time. Using those papers, we layed them out pretty thick where we wanted our garden beds to be. Spray the paper with the water hose to make it adhere to the grass and dirt. You want the grass to be suffocated. You could also use cardboard from old boxes, really anything that will decompose.Cover your wet papers/cardboard with 6-8 inches of hay or straw and wet that down as well. Leave it to decompose and kill off grass over the winter. Come spring time you'll have a nice, soft, rich soil to work with!
Garden stores have most plants marked off half or more during this time of year. Stock up on what you can and winter them in your garage...just don't forget to water them every once in a while!
I've used this method several times on the most hardened soil and it never fails! For about 24 bucks we were able to make a bed the length of the back of our house!
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I've done this before, and it works so well. Also, consider those brown paper grocery sacks, animal feed sacks (esp corn, which from the feed store here, comes in plain brown paper sacks)...etc. Basically, anything unprinted, no colors/shiny papers.
And leaves. Don't forget to throw your leaves on there, too. We would scavenge them from the sides of the road, when people (without pets and with good, clean yards) would be bagging things up for their fall clean up.
And don't forget coffee grounds. I just tossed mine out right on top of the surface...we only have coffee once or twice a week now, so it isn't as much as it was before, but every little bit helps (especially with all of this clay).
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