Garden Goods . . . from the Office (?!)

Simple office 'throw-aways' can make for light work in your garden. Here are a few suggestions:

Cardboard
*Use for mulching pathways between raised beds or create new pathways in your garden a la Ruth Stout.
*Use as the bottom layer in a lasagna bed (more on that later . . . )

Newspaper
*Can also be used for bottom layer in a lasagna bed - but I only recommend this for flower beds.
*Use a shredder and make newspaper mulch to place around plants (again, just flowers).

There is concern that the inks used in the newspaper printing process leech harmful stuff (i.e. lead and cadmium) into the soil. I have heard that more and more newspapers are using soy-based ink for their b/w. Might be worth a call to your local newspaper if this mulch idea interests you.

Office Mates
*Create a small compost-makin' stock pile from others' trash. Mine includes coffee grounds (we have lots of in-house coffee drinkers), tea bags and fruit scraps.

I'm all ears for additional suggestions - post your ideas!