Newsprint paper for weed barrier

[Bruinwar]

The parent corporation of the company I work for has a "community garden" we started 2 seasons ago. The produce gets donated to a local shelter.

This year nothings been started do to Covid. I went ahead & volunteered to put it in, alone. This is fine, one day to prep, one day to put it the plants. Hybrid tomatoes, zucchini, & winter squash is all I am going to put in. Good for sturdiness & shelf life, great for donating.

This needs a weed barrier & straw. We've used newspapers for this in the past. That's with an dozen volunteers & someone had some newspapers. I use cheap costco fabric with straw in my gardens. I do not have any newspapers.

Why not get a big roll of newsprint from the local office supply? I just thought of this today & wonder, is there is anything wrong with that idea? It's around 30 bucks, easy to handle & should work better than newspaper. Is this stuff differnt somehow to newspaper newsprint?

Thoughts?

Regards,
Joe S.

[habitat_gardener]

It should work. Big pieces are easier to handle than small pieces.

I use 5 layers of newsprint in paths to deter weeds, and have used 1-2 layers in garden beds (with minimal weed pressure). If weeds are bad, I'd go with 5 layers. That'd really be the only problem with the roll of newsprint: having to cut it into manageable sizes and layer it.

[brownrexx]

Many people use cardboard and you can get that free in many places.

[slugworth]

I used cardboard last year

[PaulF]

I use newspaper and straw as weed barrier and mulch. Our local newspaper has lots of what is called end rolls. The paper rolls are 32 inches wide and an end roll can have 50 or more feet of paper left on them. I got mine free just to get rid of them but some may want to charge a dollar or two. It is clean newspaper and rolls out really nicely. I got a couple of rolls that had about 150 feet. Newspaper works well even if it does have the printed pages since all ink is now soy based and will not harm plants.

[slugworth]

I line the bigger pots with newspaper to keep the soil in when I transplant.
I had a topsy turvy strawberry planter I lined with newspaper to make it a
top loading cuke planter.

[Bruinwar]

Thanks everyone for your responses. As it turns out they left me a huge stack of The Wall Street Journals. So I was messing with it all day, lay it down toss straw on it so it doesn't blow away, repeat, all. day. long. But it's all in.

I came across 5 zucchini plants for free & they went in. Tomorrow I will try & locate a buncha hybrid tomato plants! Celebrity! Better Bush! Actually I don't care that much. Tomatoes & some squash plants & I'm done. Others have volunteered to do the watering & weeding. And if we're lucky, the harvesting. The cause is good, the produce goes to a shelter.

Thanks again!
Joe S.

[asaump]

I work in a papermill and have access to butt rolls of wrapper. Wrapper is used to protect rolls of paper during shipping/storage. Wrapper is a laminate. Two layers of linerboard with a layer of poly between them. This stuff is 'bullet proof'. Does not allow water to penetrate so I cut a few slits in it to allow some water to go through. I use this under my RGGS to prevent grass/weeds from coming up. Lots of other uses for it around the house. Good to protect workbench when painting or polying also.