what type of cardboard

[Lowlander]

I see cardboard mentioned for weed barrier and worms. My question is,..is any cardboard good?? I have access to hundreds of boxes from a liquor store, but the majority have colored inks on their exterior. Does the cardboard need to be almost "naked" or can the colorful boxes be broken down and used safely?

[habitat_gardener]

I prefer cardboard that's not all painted. I don't mind a few words in one color of ink, or even some tape, but I avoid boxes that are all white, or printed in all over in multiple colors. (But I love those wine boxes for packing books! They're just the right size.)

Most inks used for newspapers are now soy-based rather than petroleum based. The only papers in the "do not use" category are glossy papers such as sunday magazines, which may use the same inks as the multicolored printed boxes.

I needed to mulch some paths recently, and I found lots of big boxes, already broken down (flat) and ready to use, in the dumpster at the local garden center. Other likely sources for plain brown boxes are appliance stores, bike shops, libraries, and bookstores. And newspaper (3-5 layers) is as effective as cardboard.

[Redbaron]

Your question "Does the cardboard need to be almost "naked" or can the colorful boxes be broken down and used safely?"

It does not need to be plain brown or grey cardboard. But it does need to be free of impermeable paints and waxes.

Just drop some water on the surface. Does it soak in or bead up? If it soaks in, use it. If it beads up, don't use it. Is it somewhere in the middle between soaking in and beading up? Use your best judgement.

[Redbaron]

double post

When I build a new bed, I use card board with the stickers and everything else still attached. It doesn't take long for the worms to consume the part they want and leave the parts they don't want. Usually within a year, the unusable parts work their way to the top of the soil and I pick it up and throw it away. No big deal! As Scott said, you can't use the impermeable cardboard because nothing can penetrate the coating.

I don't know how true it is, but I once read the part of cardboard most attractive to earth worms is the glue that holds the wood fibers together to form card board. In most cases, the glue is a resin extracted from the trees when they were processed into wood fiber and paper. It is organic.

Ted

[Tormato]

I've read that there "might" be a problem with using cardboard. The problem would be boron in the cardboard. I haven't found any reliable website that goes into any detail about boron being a problem, or not being a problem. I can use several other materials, so I use them instead.

Gary

[Lowlander]

so how is the cardboard used? Do I place it under an amount of soil? mulch? on the surface?

[habitat_gardener]

Originally Posted by Lowlander

so how is the cardboard used? Do I place it under an amount of soil? mulch? on the surface?

The cardboard is placed on the surface, with mulch (usually 3 inches, can be an inch to a foot thick) piled on top. The cardboard blocks light (preventing weed-seed germination), and the mulch holds down the cardboard and makes it easy to pull any weeds that make it through.

To smother lawn grasses such as fescues or bluegrass, people in my area pile on the cardboard and mulch, and can plant immediately.

[Master_Gardener]

Originally Posted by Lowlander

I see cardboard mentioned for weed barrier and worms. My question is,..is any cardboard good?? I have access to hundreds of boxes from a liquor store, but the majority have colored inks on their exterior. Does the cardboard need to be almost "naked" or can the colorful boxes be broken down and used safely?

I have used cardboard from furniture, etc. Not all cardboard is designed to be seen by the consumer. I got the cardboard free from a guy on Craigslist.

One additional thought is that small cardboard boxes are a pain. When you get around to overlapping the seams a large portion of the cardboard box is unusable. A single large piece is much easier to use. I think my cardboard totaled over 800 sq. ft. That's a lot of small boxes.

I built a new 400 sq. ft. bed this spring using cardboard, compost and wood chips. I also guilded 4 fruit trees at the same time.

Here is a link to the pictures. http://tomatoville.com/album.php?albumid=178

Hope this helps.

A few years back, I was building a new raised bed at the same time we had contractors remodeling an old barn on our property into a house. The folks installing the new wallboard used many, many cardboard boxes full of dry plaster powder. They would dump the powder out of the boxes and mix it with water. I used probably fifty of the boxes to line the bottom of my new bed. It worked well because the plaster boxes were heavy duty, thick cardboard and took many years to decompose. I probably had a one inch thick layer of cardboard on the bottom of the bed. Since the dry plaster powder was also in plastic bags in the boxes, the cardboard never came into contact with the powder.

Ted

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by Lowlander

so how is the cardboard used? Do I place it under an amount of soil? mulch? on the surface?

Here is one way. Lay the cardboard out and roll the hay mulch right over it.

In England, on the allotments; a common pest plant is called horsetail. It is supposedly much more invasive than Bermuda grass is in the states. When a gardener receives an allotment from the local council, it is usually full of weeds, and horsetail. They typically lay large tarps over the allotment for most of a year. Lack of sunlight usually kills the Horsetail and other invasive plants. I've often wondered if a thick layer of cardboard wouldn't accomplish the same thing and allow the allotment owner to grow some crops the first season by planting in holes in the cardboard. I know it works well in north America.

Ted