I use oak leaves that have been chopped up(or shredded) by the lawn mower.

No big trees (oak leaves would be great--don't they take a little longer than other leaves to decompose) and no mower to chop them up. But I do have a leaf vacuum/mulcher, and I've got a note on my calendar to savange some bagged leaves this fall.

Rick, do you think newspapers would be okay? I can shred or just tear them to fit around the plants, and I know the ink is made (all?) from soy...

Hey there Leaves-
The best weed control I have ever had in the vegi bed was with several layers of newspaper and grass clippings on top. The grass was to keep the newspaper moist and flat against the soil- and to keep it from flying away. You will have to improvise some- maybe nab some bagged grass clippings in the hood- or come take some of mine. There are no chemicals in my yard- although there are weeds. Most newspapers are made with soy based inks these days and are very safe to use in the garden- if you are still worried- stay away from the colored pages. comics and adds.
The best part was in spring- the worms were busy pulling the composted grass through the paper and all I had to do was plant right through it and add another layer on top. You dont disturb the soil's composition- which adds so much in the way of healthy micro-organisms- and let the worms do the work of bringing what needs to reach the roots.- Well- thats what Mother Earth News mag said- and it seemed to work for me for a few years till I stopped planting alot of vegis- and changed the nature of my beds.
I hope you find something that works for you!
Julie

That's cool Julie, and I sure can't see a significant down side. Sorry Rebecca, I forgot about you not having a lawn. A leaf vacuum works well for shredding. I have a friend who just puts up a sign in the fall asking for leaves, and he gets all he needs. Lots of times they are pre shredded. Somehow you have to try to be sure the previous leaf owners haven't used weed killer recently. My only suggestion is to put up a sign late in the fall after the time for lawn weed killing has past.

I use the layers of newspaper topped by shredded wood mulch or bark to make new beds (have done so with hostas and am working on a rosebed now).... it works great, just like Julie's variation in the garden with grass clippings. The grass clippings (or leaves) would be more suitable for use in a veggie garden. Mainly I just wanted to add that I found it worked as great for the hosta bed that I put in last fall as it did for Julie's veggie garden. I've added several plants to that bed this spring and the newspaper is mostly decomposed as is the grass that I put the newspaper right on top of. The ground is really nice under all that too, worked just great!

I don't think that the shredded newspaper that you mentioned originally would work as well. When it gets wet, it mats down and makes a soggy mess (I know 'cause I threw a bunch of shredded newspaper that I received as packing material into the compost bin and that's exactly what happened to it there - great for composting but I don't think I'd want a layer of just that on top of my garden. Seems it would be more soggy mess then good mulch).

I have used newpaper with compost over it. Works great. You could also consider the lasagne gardening approach and make the compost right on top of the garden. Newspaper and then composting materials in layers.

Pauline

The beds are already full; no room for lasagne style. I think seeds germinate too well in compost; I don't want that to be the top layer. I have a lot of compost in the beds now, and too many weeds. I want to suppress weeds, not just simply make them easier to pull, if you know what I mean.

I think shredded leaves would be good, but won't have access to them until the autumn.

Currently I'm thinking to try straw, but am a little leary of stories of lots of weed seeds in it. And I'm not sure how to find a source near Plymouth. Not many farmers left around here these days.

I use to use hay in my parents veg garden when I was growing up. Farmers sometimes have spoiled hay(or straw) at this time of year that livestock won't eat because it has absorbed water and begun to compost. It worked great, but brings in weed seed too. If you plan on doing it every year I wouldn't worry, because once the hay is down, there is now weeding for the rest of the season. But after a few years, in the spring, and until you get the hay down, you might have weeds germinating as thick as the hair on your head. Alternatively, and even more difficult to find is marsh hay. It is a sedge grass and has no weed seed. Also comparatively quite expensive.

Rick

The last couple of years I have used coffee grounds. They were free from a local coffee shop. I brought in a five gallon bucket and they put the grounds in it instead of the trash. It would fill up in a day or two. It would take a couple of five gallon buckets to get a 1/2"-1" layer on one of my 4'x8' raised beds. When I was researching this idea, I came across a study that said the coffee grounds were better than straw, but not quite is good at newspaper at controlling weeds.

In my experience most new weeds don't make it, but a few do. For me it was not too bad to take care of those few. The coffee grounds looked good in the garden and composted by late fall.

The only problem was I spent money during the trips to the coffee shop. (mmmm, mocha).

Karl

The worms LOVE coffe grounds- and I havn't noticed any harmful effects in the plants- no jitters or nervous twitches...

Yeah, I had wondered about coffee, but wondered if it would be detrimental to any of the veg. I'm growing. It does look just like dirt though, so it blends in well!

I like to use hay or straw (when I'm lucky, with no weed seeds) because you can move the clumps when planting new things, and lay it between rows.

Ah yes coffee grounds, between our local coffee shop, dh's work place and our own we get lots and lots. I love them. I do have to admit, I don't "do" vegetables any more. They don't seem to like my yard. The flowers do though so I just go to the farmer's market for my vegies.

As far as weeds and compost go, as long as you have a good layer of newspaper you really don't get many weeds at all. I tend to use the newpapers and farmpost method the most, then I'm not eating the flowers.

Pauline

The coffee grounds smell good too! Much better than grass clippings!