They would be good additions to a compost pile or the beginnings of lasagna gardening. There certainly isn't any harm to leaving it all there and just adding on top next year.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lasagna Gardening

Myself, I would just leave it there. Turn it back into the soil in Spring. Both are great mulches and keep the weeds down really well.

Kat

I just add new mulch as needed. It seems that my soil "eats" it up as fast as I can replenish.

Thanks all for the advice - sounds like I should leave the mulch as is. I do have a question, though. I've been reading a book that suggested removing the newspaper and straw, adding organic mulch such as shredded leaves to the soil, and then putting the straw and newspaper back on the soil. This seems like a lot of work - is this necessary? Is the work worth the benefit? If not, I vote to leave it!!

As a side note, the lasagna gardening sounds interesting - something I may need to look into further.

T-ra,

Welcome to the GW & Wisconsin forums!

As far as removing all that old newspaper, I'd only do it if you have a strong back and unlimited energy! Let the earthworms and natural decomposition do it for you! You can add more organic material every time you dig a new hole to add a new plant.

A tip about adding newspapers: don't use the shiney ads, only use paper w/black print. (It decomposes faster).

Julie