29 September 2005

A simple money saving idea

In recent years Alan, Charlie and Co. of the 'ground force' team have started a DIY landscaping epidemic. They make time consuming and expensive gardening techniques look very easy... Here is a money saving idea that a friend of ours in New Zealand told us about.

Newspaper, yes, our good old fashioned dailies can be put to good use in the garden when laying shingle, decorative stone, paving slabs or anything else come to that, when a weed proof layer is required. Instead of using costly proprietary weed control plastic sheeting, save up your newspapers and lay them instead!

Prepare the ground as per usual making sure you allow for at least a ten centimetre depth of fill. This will ensure that light can not get through to the ground below and will minimise the recurrence of weeds. Lay the newspaper (plain print only, no glossy paper mind) eight to ten pages thick and overlapping in your prepared area. Then fill over it with whatever decorative surface you have chosen. The paper will allow water to drain away through it but makes for a very effective barrier against weeds... Apparently it takes a few years for the paper to rot away, by which time the original weeds have given up the will to live.