Many are like me and doing their part to recycle large bulky items like cardboard. We don’t have recycling centers where I’m from but we can use the cardboard with garden plants. Anyone else growing vegetables using similar methods? It’s not the best looking garden but it works. So why do it? It’s very lightweight and easy to work with and by the next year it’s broke down. The money savings is good and it’s good for the environment.
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I use cardboard as well but I either put mulch over it or grass clippings.
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Never thought to do it until this year but I put down some cardboard and wood chips to try and cut down on the weeds growing around the haskap plants. So far so good. Will probably keep doing it more around the garden.
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My cheat is to use cardboard and then cover it with woodchips…way faster then weeding…doesn’t last long though…maybe a season.
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I’ve been using a paper shredder on my cardboard and using it as mulch. Sometimes by itself (picture) sometimes with wood chips over it. It can blow around in windy weather so it isn’t great everywhere in my yard, but in protected areas it works great.
It’s labor intensive to peel off stickers and tape and use a box cutter to get into strips, but, I’ve been happy with the results.
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Yea. I love putting down cardboard on my walkways then throwing some mulch on top. Really helps weed control
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I bag all my leaves throughout the fall and than use cardboard and chopped leaves. My wife still says it looks ugly.
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A friend once mentioned they had way to much paper like cardboard to recycle I mentioned how I recycled mine. I’m not sure if it went to their tomato patch after that. Who knows I think most people don’t have a tomato patch at this time. I’m not sure if you all get this much but it’s almost like a handful of us actually grow things. It always pops in my head that these people not using cardboard and their other resources one day may wish they did. It’s possible ofcourse things go on in their lifetime unchanged. It might not be a problem until their children are adults. Serious question is if we use cardboard do you feel there is a downside in the way we use it? Personally I feel the glues and things in the cardboard are minimal but the carboard with lots of ink on it I burn or throw away.
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Unfortunately, your question doesn’t have a straightforward answer, as far as I’ve read.
The paper, adhesives, inks, retardants, etc. should all be considered when evaluating how safe using cardboard is because there are a number of petrochemical and heavy metals used in the previously mentioned components.
In our hyper-connected, globalized world, it’s very difficult to know if/which flame retardants, rodent repellents, fungicides, water repellent coatings, dyes, etc. may have been used to treat each cardboard box that lands on our doorsteps. Recycled cardboard, thought great for shipping, is especially a concern due to the diverse inputs processed to produce it. For instance, BPA has been documented in plain brown recycled cardboard.
Due to the opacity of cardboard in 2022, I do not use cardboard in my garden for any purpose. This post isn’t meant to fear-monger or point fingers, but rather to share my perspective and decision. To each their own. Happy gardening!
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Thank you for saying it like you I want everyone to know what they are dealing with. The heavily painted boxes eg. Snacks and cereal boxes I typically don’t use but I do burn.
As far as I know most (if not all) cardboard is printed using a soy based ink these days. That said I don’t worry about it.
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Those ones, who knows what’s on them… I was referring to the standard packing type of box like those used by Amazon.
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My one bad experience with cardboard is on one mulberry tree, it was moved by a rodent or racoon and came in contact with the back of the tree. When I noticed it, the chronic moisture from the cardboard had rotted half of the trunk. The tree never recovered. Make sure cardboard is nowhere near a tree trunk
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this is how I switched from the crappy dying lawn to garden space. cardboard in layers, soaked, then mulch on top. then waited a year, weeded, did it again and planted through it. hoping to get the other grassy area we have done this year.
we get cheatgrass and the dog occasionally suffers from attacks, so it’s got to go
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I sheet mulch often with cardboard but never right next to the plant in question. Leave a few inches of breathing room and weed that. I’m a manager at a grocery store so I get all I want. Now if only I could aquire as many free wood chips I’d be set.
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The base of those inks may be soy, but the pigments in color inks may be from some nasty metals.
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This past weekend i cardboarded and mulched my garden because of this thread. So much nicer now. Weeds were taking over. Should be good now for the rest of the summer.
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